If you live in the Los Angeles area you may have noticed rats in your home or backyard, rats are running rampant right now, I have never seen rodent infestations like this before, I believe it’s because of the current covid-19 pandemic situation we are experiencing.
People are spending more time at home and creating more garbage and more garbage means more food for rats, this is turning into a rodent epidemic that can easily get out of control, rat populations around the outside of your home becomes so large that they begin to find ways in to your home.
Here are 5 things you can do today to slow rodent populations.
Inspect Your Attic for Evidence of Rats
- Pop your head up in there with a flashlight and look around
- Look for rat droppings and or loafing spots, rat urine or piles of droppings
- Look for rat footprints on pipes and flat surfaces in the dust
- Inspect the A/C ducting for chew holes or damage to the insulation around the ducting
- Turn your flashlight off and look for light coming through your roof
It’s not necessary in most cases to climb into the attic to perform this inspection, you can see all of the above standing on your ladder right at the attic entrance. But if your attic space is large enough to walk around in by all means walk through there and inspect the edges, corners and mechanical platforms.
Inspect the Exterior of your Home for Rodent Entry Points
- Grab a clipboard, paper and a pen to take notes
- Begin at the front door, start examining the foundation, look for burrows
- Inspect the sub-vents, these all should have mesh on them and no holes larger than a nickel
- Then look for pipe holes, cracks or siding separating
- Look under the eves at the attic vents, and ensure they are all intact
- Lastly if you can get on to the roof and inspect pipes and vents
Common Repairs on Most Los Angeles Homes
- Foundation-Vents and Attic Vents
- Foundation sub-crawl space door (most Home Depot’s sell them, measure yours first)
- Old pipe holes on the exterior walls
- Roof junctions, these are location at the roof were two roof meets to create a gap
- Vent pipes on the roof, roof vents and pipe shrouds
Best Rodent Proofing Materials and Tools Needed to Stop Rats
- You are going to need a couple of tools, tin snips, caulking gun and staple gun
- You will need ¼” x 3’ x 10’ of galvanized hardware cloth
- Depending on the number of foundation-vents you will need 1 or 2 tubes of liquid nails
- Include all attic vents when determining the amount of hardware cloth needed
Trapping the Rats
After all rat holes have been completely sealed up the next and most important step is to make sure you place rat traps in the attic space and in the sub-crawl space. Failing to do this will lock rats in and they will not be able to get out.
Rats need food and water, if they can’t get back outside of your home, they will have no choice but to head for the living space of your home looking for food and water. Make sure you immediately place traps upon completion of the rat proofing.
Use the wooden Victor rat traps and place a piece of beef jerky as the bait, all you need is enough bait to fit on the traps trigger so they can smell it. I would suggest about the size of a dime, make sure it’s wedged firmly on the spike of the trigger.
Place the traps in the attic space and sub-area, then check daily, but do not disturb the traps, rats won’t go near the traps if they are being messed with.
If you need help, give us a call, we will come out to perform a free no obligation inspection.
