Take your home back from Rats quickly!
Where Do Rats Come From and How to Get Rid of Rats FAST!
If you are reading this article right now you are probably either winding down for the evening, or just waking up getting ready to enjoy a nice cup of coffee when all of the sudden you hear some light, or in some cases some heavy shuffling around either in your walls, or in your attic space in your ceiling. Don’t worry you aren’t going crazy, you are probably hearing one of these few critters; Mice, Rats, Squirrels and if you live close to a nature preserve area maybe even some larger forms of wildlife such as; Raccoons, Opossums, etc. Which leads you to your next question, where did they even come from to begin with?
Well as we touched on briefly, wildlife such as Rats tend to thrive the most in nature preserve areas such as parks, fields, lakes, ponds, etc. And while this is still the case here in the North and East Dallas, Texas areas there are a lot of new neighborhood developments being thrown up all over the place as well, and we forget these were once empty fields just filled with all forms of wildlife including Rats, before the construction began. So naturally these Rats are going to look for shelter specifically in the fall-late winter months when temperatures are much cooler than in the summertime, and where do you think the first warm area they find happens to be? Your home!
Now you may be thinking to yourself that yes that obviously makes sense but how did they even get here in the first place? Well we could type an entire book on this topic, but to keep it short to the point; Rats come from all over the globe. One of the main reasons we see so many and why this problem is worsening rapidly is because we import so much from all over the globe. So not only do Rats become an invasive species to our homes, but also in our ecosystem as a whole. Oftentimes they often come over on shipments with bananas, and other types of food that we import from other countries all over the globe, gross right? Anyways, from there they are able to breed very quickly (as much as 2000 per-year!) as neither the cold or hot temps kill them off, thus the Rat population in the US will continue to rise over years and years to come.
So now that we know this, how do you get rid of Rats as quickly as possible, if they have begun to breach your home? While this isn’t a straightforward answer that is guaranteed to just solve the problem in 24 hours we will explain what has worked best for us at Preferred Pest Management. First you have to identify where the Rat was able to get into your home, we will link below an article we posted recently regarding all of the different entry points to be on the lookout for when rodents decide to try and make your home their home. Once you have identified that we suggest sealing not just that entry point, but every other potential entry point to your home to ensure no new rodent activity is able to enter your home.
After you have sealed up all of the entry points to your home, you will then need to set a handful of traps, we suggest at least 3 Rat traps to start in your attic space. What should you bait with? We have had best results using old fashioned peanut butter on our Rat traps when trying to catch Rats in an attic space. This leads us to the next important point, make sure you are using RAT traps and not small Mouse traps as they will do nothing but make a Rat mad. This is simply because rats are just much bigger than mice, and the trap will do nothing but maybe give the rat a broken bone at worst.
Once you have set your traps up, sealed your home up we would also suggest setting some bait stations around your property, towards your back yard if possible, this is just to give yourself a good gage on the overall rodent activity around you, plus it should help prevent any mice/rats from potentially chewing up wiring if you have one of your vehicles parked outside.
Then it’s time to wait and see if you got all of the entry points sealed off or not! We suggest sealing between the hours of 10am-4pm as that is when most rodents including Rats are the most active and have probably left your home to go look for more food, water, etc. So your chance of trapping a Rat in your home is minimal. After about a week we suggest checking your traps and seeing if you caught anything, and if you haven’t, and also haven’t been hearing activity then congratulations! You more than likely have sealed up every entry point on your home, and are now Rat and rodent proofed!
We will also be the first ones to admit that it isn’t always this simple, especially if you are going to try and DIY this project. So if you try this and after about 2 weeks are still hearing activity, we would suggest calling a professional if nothing else to get a professional’s eyes on the situation because they could very well find a few entry points that just didn’t cross your mind.
If you live in North/East Dallas suburbs such as Plano, TX, Sachse, TX, Garland, TX, Rowlett/Rockwall, TX etc. give us a call at Preferred Pest Management if you are dealing with a Rat problem you just can’t seem to get a grip on. Our rodent exclusion seal up jobs come with a one year warranty (with a renewable option available) and we guarantee that we will be able to take your home back from all forms of wildlife.
Author: Griffin Thomas, Owner, Preferred Pest Management