Have you ever woken up to damaged attics, torn clothes or broken electrical wiring? If your answer is yes, your house is probably rat infested. These crawling creatures chew almost everything in your home including plastic, textiles, food and electrical appliances. You need rat extermination services to end this menace.
Besides destroying almost every item on your property, rats spread diseases such as Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and Lassa fever. On top of this, detecting their presence in your house may take time because they get out of their hiding places at night or when you are away.
Explore how to identify rat invasion in your property and why you should exterminate them immediately from this post.
What Are the Dangers of Rat Infestation?
Rat infestation is dangerous to your health and well-being. Here are some of the dangers they cause to you and your loved ones.
Food contamination and wastage
Rats feed on foodstuffs that you consume. If they find a way to your food store or cabinet, they chew any product available. From grains, vegetables, fruits and snacks.
Worse still, they will leave their droppings and urine on your food making it unfit for consumption. If you unknowingly consume the contaminated food, you will soon complain of bacterial infections.
Property Damage and Fire Hazards
Rats gnaw on electric wires, wooden furniture, plastic containers and clothes. This destroys your property and may lead to short-circuiting when naked electric wires come to contact with one another.
Damaged electric wires expose your family and property to fire hazards. Therefore, rat control is crucial for your family’s safety.
Spread of Diseases and Allergies
Rat bites, scratches, food contamination and body waste spread many diseases. For example, rat bites cause rat-bite fever while rat urine spreads leptospirosis.
High rat populations lead to allergies from their droppings, danders and hair. You should therefore control the rat population or engage professionals to remove rats from your home.
Secondary Pests
Rats carry secondary pests such as fleas, mites and ticks in their fur. This adds to their damage and spread of diseases making your home uncomfortable.
With the fast rat population growth rate, these secondary pests can attack your pets and poultry causing more damage.
Signs of Rat Infestation in Your Home
It is difficult to spot rats in your home especially when their population is low. They hide in hard-to-reach areas such as behind furniture, on the ceiling or in hidden holes in the wall.
The following are signs of rat infestation.
- Rat droppings in the food store and on containers.
- Nesting material such as shredded pieces of clothing, paper and dry grass. Roof rats love creating nests in fences and thick vegetation near your home. Therefore, inspect the vegetation in your yard frequently.
- Damaged food packaging. If you store food in plastic, polyethylene or wooden containers, rats gnaw on them before reaching the food inside. A hole in your bread wrap or plastic bowl should alert you of a rat problem in your home.
- Stale smell from hidden areas such as beneath furniture and contested corners. If you detect a strong ammonia-like smell in your house, check out for mice and rat infestations.
- Holes chewed through walls, cabinets and floors. Rats create entry points to your yard or house away from the door. If you spot small holes through your wall, there is a rat problem in your home.
Most of the above signs become visible under severe infestations. If your schedule is always tight, you can seek assistance from the rat and pest control company near you.
Importance of Rat Extermination
Rats are small cunning creatures, but they can make life miserable. For example, your favorite wear can turn to rags overnight, important documents get shredded or electric wiring destruction.
To protect your property and family against health risks, rat control is crucial. Different rat extermination methods including rat traps and using pets to kill rats can control the rodent population in your home remarkably.
Rat extermination is important because:
- They expose your family to health risks such as diseases and allergies.
- The high rodent population makes your home uncomfortable. Rats have a high birth rate where one female can give both to over 50 pups in a year. If you fail to seek rat removal services in time, reducing rat populations afterwards is difficult.
- Property and food destruction. Rats gnaw on almost everything. Therefore, finding their way to your food storage and other expensive items is simple. You don’t want to incur expenses trying to eliminate rats and replace damaged items.
- Protect your family against secondary infestations. The crawling rodents pose a threat to other infestations. For example, sewer rats carry pathogens which they can transfer to your food while rodent droppings expose your family to allergies. Besides, these rodents carry fleas, ticks and mites in their fur which is harmful.
It is crucial to know how to get rid of rats to avoid more damage and wastage. Therefore, let a rat and pest control professional train you before adopting common rat removal methods.
Rat Extermination Methods
Simple practices such as clearing bushes in your compound, mending cracked walls and rearing pets are helpful in keeping rats at bay. However, you need a rat exterminator if the infestation is severe.
Rodent control professionals use varying methods to get rid of rats. They include the following.
Rat Traps
Setting rat traps is a common rat control method. The common ones include rat snap traps, mechanical traps, glue traps, and electronic traps.
Apart from the electronic trap, others work in a similar way. Setting them up involves putting food on the trap to lure them.
You should identify different bait stations where the rodent populations are high. For example, Norway rats, for example, like hiding in good stores while you will find roof rats in bushy areas of your home.
Once you identify the bait stations, ensure pets, birds and children do not frequent the place because snap traps can injure them.
If you find a dead rat in your rat bait, dispose of it immediately to avoid contamination.
Poison Baits
Another rodent control method is the use of poison baits. With a busy schedule, you may lack time to monitor traps. A poison bait attracts rats because of its pleasant smell but kills them after consumption.
Ensure you dispose of dead rats and rodents from poison baits safely to avoid poisoning pets and birds.
Natural Repellents
Use of natural repellent is the safest rat control method. Rats dislike strong odors such as peppermint oil, and ammonia.
Spray these repellents in spots where you see signs of infestation to control rats.
Predatory Animals
Pets such as ducks, cats and chicken prey on rats. They offer you the best way to scare rats from home and kill rodents while roaming.
You can build the Presley animals shelter near spots where roof rats live to exterminate them. This will save you any rat exterminator cost.
Seek Professional Pest Control Services
The best rat control measure under severe infestation is securing professional pest control services. Experts apply different measures such as rat baits on tamper-resistant bait stations to reduce rat populations.
Your rat exterminators from pest control companies adopt environmentally friendly methods to prevent rats invasion. For example, they can lay live traps near exterior walls to prevent rodents from getting into the house.
Tips to Keep Your Home Safe and Rat-Free
You can control rats’ entrance to your home and minimize future infestations through the following tips.
- Grow scented crops such as peppermint in your compound to repel rats
- use glue traps and rodent baits for DIY rat removal on tamper-resistant bait stations
- destroy roof rat hiding places such as shrubs in the compound to reduce rat population
- Use bait traps near food and water sources to get rid of rats and prevent contamination
Exterminate Rats and Keep Your Home Environment Safe
Rat extermination is crucial for maintaining a safe and healthy living environment. By promptly addressing infestations using humane and effective methods, we can safeguard our health, protect our property, and ensure peace of mind for ourselves and our communities.
Next time you spot a sewer rat, brown rats or black rats in your compound, adopt a suitable method to keep them at bay.
FAQs
- How can I detect rats in my home?You can detect rat infestation through damaged items, nesting and stale odor in your house.
- How can I exterminate rats from my home?You can use baits to kill rats and repellents to exterminate rats. Under severe infestations, seek professional help from pest control companies near you.
- Do rats cause infections?Yes. Rats spread diseases such as leptospirosis and rat-bite fever. They also cause allergies.
