Green Guard's rodent program combines non-toxic trapping with a full structural exclusion around Minnesota foundations, garages, and lake-cabin soffits. The fix is on the building, not on a recurring service contract.
A different approach from the Minnesota norm
Most MN rodent services default to anticoagulant bait stations and a monthly check schedule — the program keeps paying as long as the mice keep coming. Green Guard trades that loop for non-toxic trapping, a one-time exclusion, and a guarantee on the structure that follows.
Mechanical snap traps and multi-catch stations only — no anticoagulant bait placed in or around the home. The catch is remove-and-dispose, not poison-and-wait.
The work is find, trap, and seal — done once. Most MN rodent services run on monthly checks because their contract depends on it; ours ends when the structure is closed.
Snap traps are mechanical, so there is no toxicant exposure for kids, dogs, cats, or the raptors and foxes that pick up a poisoned mouse downstream. The risk profile is the trap and the seal.
If a mouse or rat gets back inside within twelve months of a completed exclusion, the return visit is on us. The guarantee is on the structure, not on a service contract.
What bait stations leave behind
The typical Minnesota rodent service installs tamper-resistant bait stations around the foundation, charges a monthly fee to check them, and treats the monthly check as the solution. The bait sits in the station, the mouse eats it over two or three days, and the mouse goes back to the wall void or the attic to die. Sometimes you smell it. Sometimes the family dog finds it first.
The contract is what keeps the work alive. Every month someone comes back, refills the station, and the invoice follows. The work does not get finished — it gets maintained. And the guarantee, if there is one, sits on the service contract rather than on the structure.
Green Guard trades that loop for a one-time exclusion. The structure gets sealed, active catches are removed with mechanical traps, and the invoice does not recur. The one-year guarantee is on the building — if a mouse or rat gets back inside within twelve months of a completed exclusion, the return visit is on us.
Where we seal
Standard exclusion walks these points in the order a mouse would find them — outside first, then the garage-to-house path, then the interior entries.
Frost-line gaps, brick weep holes, and where the sill plate meets the top of the foundation — the usual MN paths for mice in late fall.
Where the garage meets conditioned space — utility sleeves, the door frame, and the gap under the interior door. A common MN path because the garage runs cold in winter.
Soffit returns, ridge vents, and roof-to-wall joins on seasonal cabins that sat empty through the shoulder months. Mice move in once the heat is off and stay through spring.
Hose bibs, dryer vents, gas-line sleeves, and electrical conduit entries — every pipe that passes through the wall is a candidate. Sealed with the right material, not just stuffed with steel wool.
Refrigerant line penetrations, the AC condensate drain, and the gap around the air handler sleeve. Often missed because they sit low and behind landscaping.
Where the deck ledger meets the rim joist and where the skirt boards leave a gap at grade — a path that holds up for years because nobody looks under the deck.
How the non-toxic trapping works
The trapping cycle is the field-craft version of what most MN rodent services are doing behind a service agreement. Every step is mechanical, observed, and reversible — no toxicant is introduced to the home or the property.
Walk the interior perimeter, check the attic and the lowest basement point, and look for rub marks, droppings, and gnaw points. The point is to identify what is coming in and from where before anything is set.
Snap traps or multi-catch stations along the wall, behind the stove, beside the entry point. Placed tight to the baseboard where mice actually run — not in the middle of the floor.
Daily check, removed catch, fresh set. We do not leave a trap out indefinitely and we do not call the work done until catches have dropped off.
Once activity stops, the structural points close out — copper mesh, backer rod, and the right sealant for the substrate. The traps come up before the work is closed out.
Lake-cabin and seasonal homes
Minnesota lake cabins and seasonal homes are a separate audience for the rodent program. The heat is off through the shoulder months, the soffits sit unmonitored, and the property is empty through the window when mice and rats move in.
By spring, the soffit and the roof-to-wall joins can be holding an active family. The visit is a single coordinated exclusion — seal points, set traps overnight, remove catches the next day, and finish with the structural work. The cabin is closed before peak fall re-entry, and the visit comes back under the one-year guarantee if anything sneaks past it.
For owners who close the cabin in late September, the work is best timed to mid-to-late fall, so the exclusion is finished before freeze and the seal has a full winter to settle before the next thaw.
The 1-year guarantee, plain
1.
If a mouse or rat crosses the sealed line and shows up inside within twelve months of a completed exclusion, the return visit is on us — no invoice, no renewal pitch.
2.
Green Guard's exclusion closes the building. No anticoagulant is placed in or around the home, so there is nothing to fail except the seal.
3.
The promise follows the work that was done, not an invoice stream. If the exclusion is holding, no one shows up to refill anything.
Kids, pets, and the wildlife you don't want to poison
Snap traps and multi-catch stations are mechanical. There is no toxicant inside the home, no residue on the basement floor, and no risk for a toddler who finds a station behind the water heater. The way a trap removes a mouse is direct: the catch is removed the same day and the station is reset or pulled.
For families with dogs and cats, the case is the same. Anticoagulant rodenticides are not petsafe — a dog that finds a poisoned mouse downstream of the bait station is a same-day vet call. Minnesota restricts several second-generation anticoagulants for exactly this reason, and the restrictions tighten every year.
The Minnesota wildlife angle is harder to ignore. An eagle, a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl, or a fox that picks up a sub-lethally poisoned mouse carries the toxicant back up the food web. Bioaccumulation is the reason anticoagulant rodenticides carry use restrictions in the state. Green Guard's rodent program does not introduce that pathway to the property — and that is the choice the exclusion makes for the wildlife you would rather not poison.
Get a rodent exclusion quote
Send a short note with the address and what you are seeing — droppings in the garage, a smell in the attic, a cabin you closed in October. A quote comes back the same day, scoped to the structure and not a recurring service plan.