Leaving a House or Car Empty for Weeks: A Rodent Checklist.

• Take out food, including pet food, dry goods and anything in open packaging.
• Store what remains in sealed containers.
• Empty trash and take it out.
• Check door seals, vents and garage corners for gaps.
• Clear stacked boxes away from walls and lift items off the floor.
• Ask someone to check the property every week or two.

These steps do not guarantee anything, but they remove most of the reward for a rodent.

• Pick up fallen fruit and clear debris against walls.
• Trim branches and fronds that touch the roof.
• Move woodpiles and stored material away from the house.
• Make sure the garage is closed and the door seals tightly.

See our seasonal rodent-proofing walk-around for a longer checklist.

A vehicle that sits is a candidate for a nest. Park it in a sealed garage if you can. Remove food and wrappers from the cabin. Check under the hood before you leave and when you return, and do not start the engine if you see nest material or smell burning.

Our guide on packrat nests in car engines has more detail. For the removal work, see vehicle and car rodent removal.

Air out the house for about thirty minutes before you go from room to room if it has been closed up. Do not run the vacuum on droppings.

Follow safe cleanup: ventilate, wear gloves, wet with disinfectant, wipe, bag and wash up. The CDC steps are in the checklist on this page. Then close the gaps, or the problem will return.

For help with that, see rodent inspection and estimates, which names the animal and maps the entry points.

If you manage a property that changes hands, build the checks into the turnover routine. Walk the garage, the kitchen and the attic hatch, and write down what you see. If you find signs, call before the next guest or tenant arrives, because discovering a problem with someone in the home is harder.

If you are away for a long time, tell a trusted person where the garage door opener, attic hatch and electrical panel are. Ask them to call you if they notice droppings, a smell or noise.

Some evidence is easy to miss in a quick return. Look at the floor along the walls for fresh droppings. Look at the pantry and the garage for torn packaging or shredded paper. Listen for scratching during the first night back.

• A musty or ammonia-like smell in a closed room.
• Pet food or birdseed that has been chewed through.
• Droppings in drawers, on shelves or behind appliances.
• Insulation or fabric pulled into a pile in a corner.

If you notice more than one of these, treat the property as having active rodents. Photograph the signs, follow safe cleanup steps and call before you settle back in.

If you leave a property regularly, make the checks part of the routine. Take food out, seal what stays, ask someone to look in, and check on return. A routine like that does most of the work, and a call at the first sign does the rest.