Should Rodent Proofing Be Done Before or After Rodent Treatment?

What Happens If You Proof First

You trap them inside. Rodents already in the cavity, the floor void or the loft cannot get out to the food and water they were using outside, so they push further into the living space, gnaw at internal materials, and become considerably more visible.

And then they die where you cannot reach them. A rat dead in a cavity wall or under a floor produces a smell that lasts weeks and cannot be dealt with without opening something up. That is the single most common consequence, and we get calls about it every year from people who sealed the air brick first.

Why the Survey Needs the Animals Present

Live activity is what tells us which openings are actually in use. Smear marks, droppings along a run, gnawing, disturbed insulation and tracks all mark the live routes.

Proof an empty-looking property and you are guessing. You will seal a dozen gaps, several of which were never used, and quite possibly miss the one that mattered because there was no evidence pointing at it.

The Right Order

Treat first, with the survey identifying the routes as it goes. Confirm at the follow-up that activity has stopped. Then proof, using what the survey found, closing the live openings properly and the obvious candidates alongside them.

Doing the two close together is what makes proofing efficient. Rodent proofing is £180 for up to an hour, and an hour goes a long way when someone already knows exactly where to spend it.

The Exception: Proofing With Nothing Inside

Where there is no activity in the building — a property that has never had a problem, or one where a treatment finished some time ago — proofing on its own is exactly the right thing to do, and it is the cheapest pest control there is.

Late summer is the sensible time. Doing it before the autumn influx is what stops the annual October treatment becoming a habit. Properties that proof once generally stop having the problem; properties that treat every autumn keep paying every autumn.

What You Can Safely Do Meanwhile

Remove the food: dry goods into hard containers, pet bowls lifted overnight, bird feeders down for a few weeks, compost secured, bins closed. None of that traps anything and all of it helps.

Cut back vegetation against the building and lift stored items off the ground outside. What you should not do is seal, foam or block anything until the animals have been dealt with.