PCT Poll: Rodent Activity Spiked During Frigid Winter of 2025-26

CLEVELAND — For many of PCT's readers, this past winter was one for the ages. In many parts of the country, frigid temperatures drove not only people but rodents to warm refuges. PCT asked its readers if they noticed an increased rodent activity on their service routes this past winter.

According to a recent PCT reader poll, 33% of respondents said they noticed significantly more rodent activity in accounts they service, while 33% said rodent activity slightly increased. Of respondents 22% said they observed no noticeable change in rodent activity this winter and 11% experienced decreased rodent activity.

Melisa Arnold, owner of Horizon Pest Solutions shared on PCT's LinkedIn page that rodents are confused by rapid changes in temperatures.

“Our weather and temperatures have been all over the place, 70s, 30s, 60s, to sub-zero,” she wrote. “Rodent activity in our grain accounts are reflecting that.

Jonathan Richardson, a Central Virginia-based biologist with a focus on urban systems, rodent biology, zoonotic disease risks and control and management strategies, also shared on PCT's LinkedIn page that “based on opportunistic evening observations, not a formal scientific survey and low samples size, of just Norway rats, we’re seeing less activity during the really cold stretches, and then a pulse of activity during the warmer nights.”

On the flip side, Kurt Treftz, director of Cascade Pest Control in the Seattle, Wash., area said the Pacific Northwest had an unusually warm winter with little or no snow

“In the greater Seattle/Puget Sound basin area we barely had any snow that stuck for the night this year,” he said. “In December the temperatures in Boise, Idaho were hitting well over 50 degrees Fahrenheit when freezing temperatures and icy streets would normally be present for weeks at a time.  The ski resorts struggled.  As for rodents, they hardly took a break.  We continue to get calls for mice and rats in both the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellingham region and in Boise as well.  We suspect breeding slowed only some and that if warming trends continue, they will hit hard this year.”