Many Florida homes sit empty for part of the year. Owners head north and the house stays shut. Nobody walks the rooms, nobody hears a scratch and food remains in the pantry. For a mouse or rat, that is an ideal window. This checklist is written for seasonal residents and anyone leaving a house for weeks.
Four to six weeks before you leave.
- Schedule an inspection to find gaps while you can still fix them.
- Replace cracked garage door seals and loose vent covers.
- Trim limbs, fronds and vines that touch the roof.
- Move firewood and lumber away from the house.
- Choose someone who will check the property while you are away.
An early inspection leaves time for sealing and trapping, and you can leave without wondering.
The week you leave.
| Room. | What to do. | Why. |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen and pantry. | Empty open food, store the rest in sealed tubs. | No reward, no reason to stay. |
| Garage. | Lidded tubs, no cardboard on the floor, pet food gone. | Garage is a common doorway. |
| Attic and closets. | Check the hatch and vents, close any gap. | Quiet spaces invite nesting. |
| Trash. | Empty all bins, wash, close tightly. | Smell draws animals. |
| Vehicles. | Park in a closed space if possible, lift the hood a little for a look. | Engine bays make nests. |
Run a final walk-through with a flashlight. Check the base of each wall and the garage door corners.
While you are away.
Ask your helper to visit every week or two. They can walk the yard, check the garage and look for droppings, chewed items or smells. Photos by text are enough to catch trouble early.
- Look at the garage door and corners.
- Open a few cabinets and closets.
- Check the base of the walls outside.
- Smell for musty or sharp odors.
- Pick up fruit and clear debris.
The day you return.
Do not rush in and open everything. Air the house out first. Open doors and windows and wait about half an hour. Then look around with gloves on.
- Search the pantry, cabinets and garage for pellets or gnaw marks.
- Look at the attic hatch and any vents.
- Check the vehicle, lifting the hood before you start it.
- Smell near the air handler.
- Photograph anything unusual.
On finding droppings, skip the broom and the vacuum. Soak them with disinfectant, wipe with towels and bag the waste, as the safety box below explains.
Sound like your place? Describe the signs by phone and a person tells you what they likely mean.
Dial (888) 686-4821If you do find signs.
Fresh droppings, chewing or noises mean activity. Stop and call. The technician identifies the animal, traps along its routes and closes the entries afterward, a sequence explained on the entry point sealing page and the one for trapping and removal. If a smell appears, the odor page applies.
Humidity and the closed house.
A closed Florida house can get humid, and mildew follows. Damp cardboard and fabrics also make good nesting material. Keep the AC on a safe setting, use a dehumidifier if needed and store items in tubs. Ask a local expert about the best setting for your situation.
What to leave for the person checking in.
Write a one-page note for your helper. List where the attic hatch and garage door opener are, which rooms to open and what signs to look for. Add the phone number of a technician and permission to call if something looks wrong.
A clear note turns a nervous neighbor into a reliable lookout and shortens the time between a problem appearing and someone noticing it.
Make it a yearly routine.
Keep this checklist with your travel plans. A few hours of preparation each year costs far less than a summer of surprises, and a return visit by a technician confirms that the seals held.
Before you call, protect your breathing first
Follow these steps to keep dust low until the technician shows up.
- Put the vacuum away too, because even a filtered one can push the finest particles back into the room.
- Before you start, open every door and window you can and give the room around half an hour to air through.
- Skin contact with droppings, urine or nesting material is avoidable, and gloves make it so.
- Contact time counts, so use plenty of disinfectant and let it sit on the waste before you wipe.
- Used towels go into a plastic bag, and so does any dead rodent, handled with gloves or a tool and never bare fingers.
- If fever, body aches or labored breathing show up within the next few weeks, tell your doctor about the exposure. A pest company cannot give medical advice.
Check the agencies yourself
This short guide cannot hold an entire agency page, and where the two differ the agency page wins.
- Centers for Disease Control, rodent cleanup guide: How long disinfectant must sit, what to wear and where bagged waste should go.
- US EPA, rodenticide product restrictions: Why the strongest rodenticides are reserved for licensed applicators while household versions ship in tamper-resistant bait stations.