As the cool weather approaches, so does the likelihood that rodents will be seeking warm nesting sites in the attics, garages and foundations of our homes and commercial buildings. In fact, some of our customers who live near wildfire areas have experienced an unseasonably early influx of these critters, driven from woods and fields by the smoke and flames. The two most common rodent invaders are mice and rats. In our region of Central-Northern California, the two most common species of pest rats are the roof rat (Rattus rattus) and the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), neither of which are native to California but originated in the Far East and spread across the globe centuries ago. The r

According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, over 600,000 elderly Americans are seen each year in hospital emergency rooms from accidents in their homes. You can help make your home or your parent’s much safer and often it doesn’t take a lot of cash to do so. Since falls are the number one cause of fatal injury for seniors, pulling up those throw rugs and removing any clutter from the floors will do a lot to keep your parents safe. Not all improvements are this easy but many are. Experts have studied home safety and handy checklists are available on many websites. On the California Department of Aging website you can use the search words “home safety” to find a good list. Bu

Next week is California’s Carbon Monoxide (CO) Awareness Week, an opportunity to help educate families about this deadly threat before the weather turns colder. In the past two years, nearly 100 Californians, many whom were children, have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in more than 20 incidents across the state. Public health experts agree that someone involved in just one CO incident may develop long-term health effects that could last a lifetime. Evidence indicates that overexposure to carbon monoxide can inflict lingering or even permanent bodily harm, such as memory loss, speech and mobility problems, or psychiatric issues, like depression. All of these incidents may have been p