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Rodents

What Alberta Homeowners Should Know About Skunks

Skunks are fascinating creatures that are known for their unique and distinctive odour. While many people may find them to be a nuisance, skunks play an important role in their ecosystems as they help control the populations of insects and small rodents. In this blog post, we will explore the habits and reproductive cycle of […]

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Rodents

What Pests Will Alberta Home Owners See This Spring?

  As the snow melts away and the weather warms up, homeowners in Alberta often find themselves dealing with an influx of pests in their homes. These unwelcome visitors can cause damage to your property, spread disease, and generally make your living situation uncomfortable. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the common […]

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Rodents

Why Every Home Needs Regular Pest Control

After working in the pest control industry for numerous years and seeing a wide array of pest issues, we came to an undeniable conclusion: every homeowner should have regular pest control at their home. Plain and simple, that is our mission at Standard Pest Control: to provide simple, affordable, and effective pest control maintenance plans […]

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Rodents

7 Species of Mice in Alberta

Alberta is home to seven unique species of mice: the meadow jumping mouse, the western jumping mouse, western deer mouse, western harvest mouse, northern grasshopper mouse, house mouse, and white-footed mouse. This article will provide you with a brief overview of each of the seven species of mice.   1. Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus Hudsonius) […]

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Rodents

6 Reasons You Don’t Want Mice in your Home

Mice pose a variety of risks to homeowners and should be taken seriously. Despite their tiny size, mice can cause substantial damage to home, property and health. In this article I will explore the six most important risks around mice that all homeowners should be aware of.  Contamination of food When rodents nest inside of […]

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Rodents

Northern Pocket Gopher

The northern pocket gopher is a small gopher species native to the western United States and Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba.[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_pocket_gopher Capable of surviving extremely harsh conditions, pocket gopher populations can expand rapidly when conditions are good. They live underground in burrow systems that are often extensive and elaborate. Their name refers to the […]

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Rodents

Western Deer Mouse

Of the seven unique species of mice in Alberta, the western deer mouse is one of the most economically important.[1]https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex594/$file/683.pdf?OpenElement Formerly confused with the eastern deer mouse, both species were grouped under P. Maniculatus as the North American deer mouse. However, a 2019 study found significant genetic divergence within the species and split it into two, […]

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Blog Rodents

5 Common Diseases Spread by Rodents in Alberta

Mice and voles will spread diseases to people through direct contact (breathing in contaminated air, touching contaminated materials, being bitten or scratched by an infected rodent, or eating food contaminated by a rodent). They will also spread diseases through indirect contact when people are bitten by ticks, mites, fleas and mosquitos that have fed on […]

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Rodents

Western Meadow Vole

Of the 12 unique species of voles we have in Alberta[1]https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex594/$file/683.pdf?OpenElement, the meadow vole is the most common type of vole. Voles are a large nuisance to many homeowners in Alberta, as they will burrow underneath the snow in the winter time and destroy lawns, they will girdle (eat) the base of small trees, saplings […]

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Rodents

House Mouse

In Alberta, we have seven unique species of mice and 12 species of voles.[1]https://www.alberta.ca/other-mammalian-nuisances.aspx The most troublesome and economically important of the species found in Alberta are the house mouse, the white-footed mouse (deer mouse) and the meadow vole (field mouse).[2]https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex594/$file/683.pdf?OpenElement Mice can often be fixed and prevented quite inexpensively, however more often than not […]