How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
Few things evoke more fear and panic than does the sight of a rat running across your kitchen floor. People also get about the same reaction when you tell them the noises they have been hearing in their attic are rats chewing on their electrical wiring and air conditioning drain lines.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
After the fear subsides people usually get mad, then the questions start.
WHY ARE THEY IN MY HOUSE? This one is easy. They are looking for a place to live. They occasionally come in because it is cold outside but usually it is because they want to live near their food supply. Which is usually a bird feeders (yours or your neighbor yards) or someone feeding their pets outside.
HOW DO THEY GET IN? This one is a little tougher. A rodent can squeeze through an opening as large asit's head. For a mouse, this is a hole about the size of a dime and for a rat it is a hole about the size of a quarter. So, how do you "rodent proof ' building.
* seal around plumbing & air conditioning pipes
* replace torn roof overhangs vents
* install rodent covers over dryer, bath and kitchen wall vents
* screen brick weep holes
* repair holes in tile ceiling and eaves
A successful exclusion service closes up any opening that is a half inch or larger in size.
How do you get rid of them? You have to poison them, kill them with traps or you can catch mice in live traps.
Is there going to be a smell? This question is usually asked with a little panic in the voice and the answer is somewhere between "maybe to probably" if poisons are used.Most baits are anticoagulants and start dying when the rodents they want to go home, and home to them if often in your walls or under your attic insulation.
How do you get the smell out? To eliminate the smell you have to remove the carcass, kill the bacteria causing the smell or mask the odor. If the carcass is visible and accessible remove it. If you can see the carcass but can not get to it, use the Enzymes to kill the odor-causing bacteria. If you can't do either of these, you can try masking the smell but, this is a little like using perfume to cover up bad B.O. It helps but you know the stink is still there.
How do you get rid of rats without a smell problem? Use kill traps and/or live catch traps (for mice). A good thing about using traps is theykill and holds the animal for disposal. But, if they are trap shy you have to use baits.
Other than being a little scary can rats hurt people? Yes, directly and indirectly through the fleas and ticks they carry.
Allergy reaction to rodent hair is now recognized as a significant problem in schools. A single pair of rats will shed upwards of 25 million hairs per year.
Lymphocytic Chroniomeningitis Virus is carried in the urine and feces of mice and can cause birth defects in newborn infants.
Hantavirus, mouse related disease, is frequently lethal and transmitted to people when the feces or urine is inhaled or ingested.
Lyme Disease is transmitted to people and pest from ticks.
In Denmark, 100% study of mice showed evidence of the infection byLyme Disease organisms. Lyme Disease was once thought of as a disease found only in the upper regions of the U.S. but has now been shown to be in epidemic numbers in Texas.
Anyway you look at it, rodents are an emotional and dangerous problem. Most commercial accounts and many residential customers have taken pro-active steps to eliminate the problem before they get rats. They get regular inspections, rodent exclusion have done and install bait stations when and where activity is found or suspected.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Attic
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