Electrical Fire
Recently, I had a couple tell me that their home tragically burned down. They had lived in this home for over 30 years and accumulated a lot of possessions and memories throughout their marriage. In an instant, it was gone. As they dealt with the aftermath of trying to put their lives back together, they found the culprit was faulty wiring that emitted a spark and started a fire that burnt the entire house down. Although the fire inspector did not call out rodents specifically, something damaged those wires to make them faulty enough to start a fire, and that same thing might be happening to your home.
Why Do Rodents Start Fires?
No, rats and mice are not diabolical animals looking to destroy your life; they have a few problems. One of those problems is the fact that their teeth never stop growing. Rodents would die if they didn’t find a way to grind their teeth to a manageable size. This is where their problem becomes your problem. As they are looking around for something to chew on, they will find one of many wires that go through your house. Usually, this is in the crawl space or the attic. Wires work great for rodents because they can get their mouth around them, and the plastic insulation around the wires provides for a comfortable surface to gnaw on. Not every wire they chew on is going to start a fire. Sometimes it will just electrocute them and leave you with a halfway chewed fire hazard later on.
I have been into lots of homes with wiring that is left in a dangerous place and has alerted the homeowners to call an electrician to fix it. You might say, “well, I’m okay because I don’t have rodents in my house,” but most of the time, people are never aware of the fact that they do have rodents until there is a problem. When you start to see feces, hear them scurrying, or hear them gnawing on something, then it is obvious. But, the vast majority of the time, it is not apparent, and you never even know it is happening.
How Do You Stop The Little Pyros?
The good news is that rodents are not too hard to get rid of for a pest control company. In the Portland Metro area, we can take care of a rodent infestation pretty quickly with the products that are available to us. Homeowners may have a hard time getting rodents under control because they don’t have the tools available to get the job done. However, there are several things that you can do to stop a rodent infestation from getting out of hand.
Maybe the most important thing that you can do is to have a pest control company come and inspect your attic and crawl space to check for wires that might have been chewed. Many pest control companies in the Portland and Vancouver area will offer this service for free (including us!). So, if you think that you might be dealing with a pest infestation, it is essential to act quickly. Give us a call if we can help you with anything.