Find the right help for your rodent problem.

Look at the droppings. Mouse droppings are the size of a grain of rice with pointed ends. Rat droppings are half an inch or longer and thicker. Mice are usually in the kitchen and walls; rats tend to be in the attic, crawl space or garage, and Norway rats leave burrows outside.

Traps remove the rodents already inside, but new ones follow the same scent trails to the same openings. Trapping first, then sealing every gap with metal, is what ends the cycle. Without the sealing, you'll be trapping again next fall.

Indoors, it's a bad idea. A rodent that eats bait usually dies inside a wall, where the smell lasts for weeks, and loose bait is a risk for kids and pets. Pros use snap traps indoors and keep any bait in locked stations outside.

Published ranges run from a few hundred dollars for a trapping program to several thousand when sealing work and attic cleanup are included. The biggest variable is how many openings need sealing, which is why a good quote follows an inspection.

A small amount, yes, with precautions. Open windows for half an hour, wear gloves and a fitted mask, wet the droppings with disinfectant and let it sit before wiping them up, and bag everything. Never sweep or vacuum dry droppings. Heavy contamination in an attic is a job for a crew with HEPA equipment.

Separate lines for the inspection, the trapping program and how many visits it covers, each opening to be sealed and the material for it, any bait stations and how often they're serviced, and cleanup if it's needed. Also ask what happens if rodents come back and for how long that applies.