Did you know that even though you're spending hundreds of dollars a year in homeowners insurance premiums your insurance coverage might not even protect you from Mother Nature's smallest threats? Every year over 10% of homeowners have to pay for home repairs courtesy of mice, rats and other uninvited guests, and their homeowners insurance companies aren't paying a penny to help them do it.

It doesn't quite seem fair, does it? Realistically speaking you have a greater chance of termites destroying your foundation or mice chewing holes in your floor joists than you do of your house coming crashing down in a fire, but your homeowners insurance protects you from that! So why won't they step in when these tiny natural disasters come in and start wrecking havoc.

Simple. Pest damage is seen as an "avoidable peril," and as a result most home insurance providers assume that if your home has been the victim of their snack attacks it's your own fault. "They" have obviously never had a nest of termites in their walls, but that's neither here nor there. Since your insurance provider isn't going to help you protect your home against these tiny invaders it's up to you to make sure they don't leave you holding the bill for thousands of dollars in damages that you're never going to see again.

The first rule of pest prevention is to make sure they can't get in in the first place. The minute they start setting up roost you're immediately going to find yourself fighting a losing battle-it's much easier to play offense than defense! Go through and make sure any openings in your walls, no matter how tiny, are plugged with a material that mice, rats and birds aren't going to be able to chew through-steel wool is a great choice.

(Just for the record, your insurer is going to be thrilled to hear your walls are inaccessible to tiny intruders-this may help you earn brownie points on your home insurance quotes!)

Secondly, take a look around your house. Mice can live for a very, very long time on a very small amount of food, which is why they often take up residence in the back of the pantry and chew through half of your cereal box before you even know they're there! If mice are going to set up residence in your house they're going to find a way to survive, but you can discourage them from setting up permanent housekeeping by keeping your sinks empty of dishes, your floors clean and your dry goods safely stored in mouse-proof containers they can't nibble their way through.

If you've done everything you can to take care of your mouse problem and they're still hanging about you may have to bite the bullet and call in a professional exterminator. This can be extremely costly, but it provides a much better alternative to stopping these tiny invaders than simply waiting until your house comes crashing down around your ears to bulldoze it and start again.

You can guarantee your homeowners insurance won't be helping you rebuild.