How To Get Rid Of Rats And Prevent Their Return
Rats are among the worst pests to invade your home. They are so destructive that they can do a lot of damage to your home and your valuable possessions, especially if you have several rats. Not only that, they make your home smell bad and they can transmit diseases. You definitely want rats out of your house. Rat pest control involves two aspects. The first step is to get rid of all the rats in your house currently, and the second step is to seal up your house so more rats won't move in. Here are some ways to accomplish these tasks.
Set Traps Inside
Although you may hate the thought, traps are the best way to deal with rats. However, you need rat traps because a mouse trap is too weak and small to kill a rat. Snap traps can be dangerous if you have kids or pets in the house, so you may want to bring in a pest control company to help you get rid of the rats safely. Options to consider are electric traps, live traps, and enclosed traps.
Rats are very smart and they're suspicious of new things, so you may need to leave the traps out for several nights with food on them to lure the rats into thinking the traps are safe. Then, set all the traps at once to kill as many rats as possible. Once traps start killing the rats, the surviving rats may start avoiding them. You should plan your initial attack carefully if you're dealing with a large number of rats.
Plug All The Gaps On The Outside
Rats have no trouble finding a way inside your home if there is a small gap anywhere. Rats can easily get on your roof and they can even burrow into your crawlspace. A rat picks up on temperature differences, airflow, and odors coming through gaps and once a rat squeezes inside, other rats will follow. That's one reason you often have repeat infestations after you've had an initial battle with rats. If their odor is left behind, other rats think it's safe to come inside too.
Rats can chew through most home building materials. The best way to stop them is to stuff steel wool inside of gaps and cover the gap with a steel plate. You should also inspect your home occasionally for signs of gnaw marks and new holes that rats can get through. Your pest control company may offer a perimeter sealing service, but if they don't and you can't climb on the roof yourself, consider hiring a handyman to do the job or you'll never keep the rats out for good.
In addition to the above steps for rodent control, you can also make your property inhospitable for them so they will be less likely to try to move in. Remove nesting areas such as junk cars and wood piles. Don't leave easy food sources around such as dog food or fruit on the ground from your trees. Getting rid of rats that have comfortably settled in may take some work and a few visits from your pest control company, but the effort is worth it when you reclaim your home and are free from rat odors, nightly squeaks, and scratching in the walls.
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