How Your Homeowners Insurance Is Leaving You Unprotected When It Comes To Stopping Mice Mid-chew

How Your Homeowners Insurance Is Leaving You Unprotected When It Comes To Stopping Mice Mid-chew

By:


What would you say the biggest threat to your home is? Fire? Flood? Crazy neighbors with a crane, a pickup truck and no common sense? (You laugh, but it's happened!) All of these things are real situations that have led to real homeowners insurance claims, but the biggest problem you're going to face may actually be something completely different-something so tiny you don't even realize it's there until it's already cone through and wrecked mass havoc in your home.

Statistics show that in the next year alone 10% of homeowners will have to repair damages to their homes caused by invasions of snacking vermin. Mice have been known on some occasions to successfully chew through your floor joists, leaving you holding the bill on thousands of dollars in repairs, and we're not even going to talk about the damages that termites have been known to do. You are statistically more likely to watch your home crumble as a result of uninvited guests helping themselves to your home's foundation than you are to watch your walls burn up in a kitchen fire, but most standard home insurance policies don't provide any protection whatsoever for these damages.

Why? They think they're preventable.

Yes, everyone who's ever had the dubious honor of having to deal with these uninvited guests knows that stopping them from doing as much damage as they feel like doling out to your home is about as preventable as the tides, but homeowners insurance companies just don't see it that way. Since they're not going to help you if your walls come tumbling down it's up to you to launch a strong offense designed to keep these little critters from setting up shop in the first place.

If you've already got an infestation problem these easy prevention tips probably aren't going to do you a lot of good-it's time to pick up the phone and call in a professional exterminator. Delaying calling in the professionals is just going to cost you more in the long run, so don't hesitate. If your guests haven't set up shop, however, you might be able to stop them in their tracks and bring their snacking habits to a halt mid-chew.

The first step to keeping mice out (and keeping the hot air in) is to plug the holes in your walls. A mouse can squeeze through a hole that's less than a quarter of an inch wide, so it pays to slip some steel wool or other non-edible substance into the holes so mice don't chew their way through. Lay traps around high traffic areas of your house if you think you've had mice running around (there are plenty of more humane and organic options if you don't like the idea of snap traps or poison), and keep your sinks and counters clean. Mice are attracted to food left readily available.

Remember, as much of a hassle as it may be to try and keep your "guests" out of your house it's going to be a bigger hassle to try and rebuild your house without the help of your homeowners insurance. In this case an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure.

About the Author:
Anthony M. Peck is the Senior Developer, Software Project Manager, and Director of Business Development for QuoteScout.com, specializing in matching consumers with the best rate on their homeowners insurance. For more information, please visit them on the web at http://www.QuoteScout.com.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: , , , , ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent UnCategorized Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.