Rodent Activity in Past 12 Months 'Slightly Higher,' PMPs Report

CLEVELAND – With COVID largely in the rearview mirror, pest management professionals are finding pest populations closer to normal and that seems to be the case with rodent control. Forty-five percent of those recently surveyed by PCT said rodent activity in their area was “slightly higher than normal” this past year, while another 27 percent said it was “close to normal.”

"I’d say that rodent pressure across our regions has been close to normal," said Mark Goodman, director of pest operations and development, Plunketts Pest Control, which is headquartered in Fridley, Minn., and operates throughout the Midwest.

Also operating in the Midwest is Advance Termite & Pest Control, Hutchinson, Kan., an agriculture setting with wheatfields and grain elevators that leads to a “good rodent population,” according to Advance VP Jeff Wells.

Wells said he doesn’t believe that the rodent population has changed much, but rodent control business has been up. "People here have just started to recognize professional rodent control services,” Wells said. “I think it is a generational shift, from Boomers, who were almost exclusively do-it-yourselfers to the millennial generation that will pay you to do it.”

Wells said Advance is taking more of a commercial approach to residential rodent control. “We did a lot of AIB accounts in 90s that required us to place exterior bait stations around facilities,” Wells said. Advance has taken a similar approach to residential rodent control. For example, on a 200-foot linear home, Wells aid the company would place four exterior rodent bait stations and monitor them quarterly.

Other areas of the country have seen a spike in rodent activity. Sixteen percent of respondents said rodent activity has been “much higher than normal.”  In many cases these spikes were attributed to extreme weather conditions. 

Dominic White, service manager, Preventive Pest Control, Albuquerque, N.M., said rodent pressure has increased during the last 12 months, although less significantly than expected. “The increased activity in our area can easily be attributed to natural factors such as increased rainfall and the additional harborage and food sources it brings,” he said.

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