If you’re asking the question, “do rats cause damage?” Yes, they do! In fact, dead or alive, rats are tragic in your home. They can cause disease, infections, contaminate food, and cause widespread damage. How do you get rid of rats in your home?
Before they send you to the hospital to seek remedy or send you back to the workshop to get repairs for the household furniture they damaged, it’s better to eliminate them as soon as you can.
Here’s A Starters’ Advice On HOW TO GET RID OF THE RATS’ Mess In Your Home
1. Keep Your Home Clean
The first thing to do so rats or other rodents wouldn’t be in your home in the first place is to ensure that your home is clean.
Start from your bedroom and keep everything organized to the extent that it would be easier to trace down a rat’s whereabouts in case it shows up. Make good use of your suitcases and wardrobes to arrange your clothes. You can keep dirty clothes in an open and central place and ensure they’re cleaned and organized regularly.
Move on to your living room and other rooms in the home and arrange them well. If you have books, utilize a closable bookshelf with a glass cover to prevent rats from accessing them.
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2. Close Gaps And Seal Holes
It might be challenging to keep rats out of your home entirely, but you can implement necessary mechanisms to prevent them from entering the structures of your home.
Start by sealing any visible holes and other entry points by using hard materials, like copper mesh that’s immune to rat interference. You can also minimize their entry via the roof lines by clearing your home of any tree branches in contact with buildings.
3. Proper Food Storage And Disposal Of Trash In Your Home
Food, food remains, and other forms of trash are leading attractors of rats and many other pest control problems we see in your home or business.
Starting from your food storage in your kitchen, and trash bins, ensure everything is in good shape. For food storage, ensure that your food is safely in lockable shelves or in fridges. For the food that requires aeration, utilize shelves with copper mesh. You can also use rat-proof containers to store some kinds of food.
Now, move to your kitchen and ensure it’s tidy. Clean eating utensils as soon as you use them. Dispose of all leftovers in trash bins or containers with closing lids. Lastly, get rid of the trash as soon as the garbage truck comes by.
4. Regular Home Inspection
It can be hard to detect the presence of rats until they have done significant damage. Waiting for significant damage to address rats’ issues can cost you more to recover from the damage.
By inspecting your home regularly, you can find out whether you have rat infestations and take timely measures that’ll save you from suffering more damage and undergoing more recovery expenses.
Below Are Some Of The Signs To Watch Out For When Inspecting Your Home:
- Damage Assessment: As you inspect your home, find out whether there’s rat-related damage. If you notice chewed electricity cables, storage containers, books, clothes, or even roof lining, then you should get ready to fight them off.
- Rat And Mice Movement And Presence: Watch out for shiny black droppings since that could be an indicator of rats’ infestation. If you hear chattering, hissing, and squeaking sounds, that’s also a very good indicator of rats.
Additionally, be careful if you smell a pungent and musky odor as you inspect your home since that’s a common sign of rats or mice.
Lastly, carefully observe dusty places in your home. Four-toed and five-toed front and back footprints indicate the presence of rats and mice as well. You can use those signs to trace their path and tame them. You can also spot chewed substances along the path of rats.
The Best Ways To Exterminate Rats, Mice, Or Other Rodents In Your Home
Since you’ve already checked and confirmed that there are indeed rats or other rodents in your home, what should you do next? You can try getting rid of them by yourself, or you can get quick, safe, and professional assistance from expert providers of rat removal services.
Here Are The Recommended Ways To Get Rid Of Them From Home Using Either Traps, Baits, Or Both.
1. Trap The Rats, Mice, Or Other Rodents
Rat traps are easy, and you can use them for a long period. The only precaution is to do a regular inspection on where you’ve placed the traps, change the bait if it’s rotting, and remove and dispose of the captured rodent.
The best place to set rat or mice traps is the path that rats use to access your home, which can be known through regular home inspection (as mentioned above). For instance, if you spot rodent droppings in an area of your home, then that’ll be an ideal place to place the trap.
The most common traps are snap traps, live traps, and glue boards. It’s important to place the traps carefully to prevent interference from pets and children.
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2. Use Baits For Rodents
Baits are designed to attract rodents so that they’re captured or consume the bait and die. You have two types of baits to consider. You can use baits that you can attach to traps or those that will poison the rats to death.
If you choose the baits that poison rats, you should be careful to make a closer follow-up as soon as you notice a bite on the bait. In most cases, the rodent will die as it escapes, and if you don’t check it out in time, it might rot and disturb the home’s atmosphere.
Industry rodenticides serve as the best baits, in which you can get a supply from a pest control company.
For baits attached to traps, you’re likely to find the rodent captured by the trap. However, if you find a bite on the trap, the rodent might’ve gotten away, and you should inspect a prospective rodent path to find out whether the rodent died on the way.
If the bait was not poisonous, then you don’t need to follow up the rodent and should instead reposition your trap in watch for another chance to capture the rodent.
The most common types of baits include bait stations, baiting traps, and rodenticides.
Conclusion
To get rid of rats, mice, or other rodents from your home, start by keeping your home clean, sealing the gaps and holes, storing food properly, and inspecting your home regularly for rodent infestation. As you inspect your home, watch out for rodent damages and signs of their presence and movement.
To get rid of rats and eliminate other rodents, call Gunter Pest & Lawn to assist you today.
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