Tag Archives: rat infestation

Rats!!

rats1We get a lot of questions about rats.  What do rats like to eat?  Why are rats in my home?  What do rat droppings look like?  How do I get rid of rats?

 

Roof rats, Norway rats, black rats, pack rats, kangaroo rats, naked mole rats, cotton rats.  Not all creatures called “rats” are actually of the rat family, but when you’re dealing with a rat infestation, you probably don’t care what type of rat you have, you just want them gone.  Unfortunately, different types of rats behave differently, which means that you need to know what kind of rats are breeding around you so that you can most effectively get rid of them.  That’s one real advantage to having a rat catcher / wildlife removal expert.  With a little investigation, they can tell what kind of rats are infesting your house or building, and they have the expertise and tools to get rid of that particular type of rat.

 

Rat teeth are constantly growing, so a rat must continually gnaw on things to keep them a manageable size.  Combine that need with strong teeth and powerful jaw muscles, and rats can chew through pretty much anything, including concrete and lead pipes.  A rat can bite with the force of 12 tons per square inch (a great white shark bites with 20 tons per square inch.)  Ouch!!  So, once rats are in a building or a home, anything is fair game for gnawing.  Wood joists, wires, boxes, soffit, pretty much any building material and personal property.

 

Rats will eat pretty much anything and gnaw on everything. They are opportunistic feeders, which means if they can get at it, they’ll eat it.  Grains, meat, fish, seeds, fruit, snails, insects, pet food, leather, fur and other rodents.  Keeping lids tight on garbage cans, getting rid of bird feeders, and cutting off access to gardens and food storage will all help limit a rat’s access, but they’re quite capable of climbing, jumping and chewing their way in if they’re determined.  Allstate Animal Control has a slick rodent barrier that prevents rodents from digging under a fence and climbing up fences, trees or telephone posts to gain access to a food source.

 

Rat droppings are compact black pellets that look very much like a bean or raisin.  Their droppings usually measure about ¼ to ¾ of an inch long, and are usually found in their traffic areas, outside the structure, by window wells, window ledges, or access holes.

 

Rats can get into a home through a tiny opening.  Holes left by woodpeckers, openings around pipes, a weak soffit or other roofing material are excellent access points for rats, and you may notice the entryway is black and greasy from a rat’s body oils.  Finding and sealing one opening, though, may not be enough.  They will likely have more than one entrance point.  Again, a professional rat trapper can inspect your building or home, locate and seal up these little holes.

 

Picking up a few traps at a hardware store and setting them around heavily trafficked areas is definitely an option for homeowners, but since rats are such prolific breeders, it’s likely you have more rats in the walls or attic or under the floor than you can see or catch.  Rat poison is another option, but introduces possible harm or even death to children or animals who get overly curious. Also, rats are smart and learn to quickly avoid most poisons set out for them.  Keep in mind that rats pack a painful bite, carry diseases (sometimes fatal diseases), and get very feisty and ornery when cornered.  The absolute best way of getting rid of rats is to have a professional trapper come out to your building.  They have the expertise, the tools and the experience to find out which kind of rat you’re dealing with, use the most effective methods of exterminating rats or trapping rats or killing rats, and do what is needed to keep rats from coming back.

Rat Infestation In Car

Rat (1)           Recently, one young Irish mother was buckling her toddler into his car seat when she noticed rat droppings all over the back seat and noticed gnaw-marks on the back seats and head rests.  Her car was infested with rats!  Of course, she immediately took her child out of the car, locked it, and called a friend for help.  She and her friend have tried to lure the rats out and poison them, but so far, they’re still a problem.

Anyone with little ones knows the car that the kids ride in the most is covered in toys, shed jackets, a few crayons or markers, and lots and lots of dropped food.  It’s a mecca for rats, mice or anything that can get inside.  There’s plenty to eat and lots of things to gnaw on.

This woman already had a phobia of rats, and now she’s terrified she’ll be driving down the road just to have one scamper over her foot.  I would be equally afraid that a rat would gnaw through a crucial wire or hose.

Ireland isn’t alone in its rat problems.  Plenty of U.S. cities are struggling right now to eradicate their rats.  New York City and Baltimore, for example, are making a concerted effort to take care of their rat infestations.  But, smaller, more rural towns which are overrun with the rodents may not have the resources yet to fully manage the problem.

Additionally, there is a great deal of controversy over cities laying out rat poison, which may cause secondary poisoning.  Secondary poisoning is when a rat has consumed rat poison and is then, in turn, consumed by a predator such as a cat, hawk, coyote or snake.  Recently, two bobcats were found dead on the East coast, after consuming rats who had not died yet from poisoning.  Bird lovers are dismayed by the deaths of hawks who had eaten poisoned rats.

But, a rat infestation is a serious danger.  We were already aware of numerous diseases that can be transmitted to humans from rats, but a recent study of New York City rats just revealed 18 additional previously unknown diseases harbored by the rodents.  That doesn’t even begin to address the structural or electrical damage rats can cause to buildings, and apparently also cars.

So, where do we draw the line between guarding against secondary poisoning to other animals and guarding the health and safety of human beings?

Rat Infestation in Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods

Rat (4)Rat Urine Kills Pet in D.C Neighborhood

A 13-week-old dog in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. recently died from a disease transmitted by rodent urine.  Residents have long been frustrated by the rodent problem, but this has tipped the scales for Foggy Bottom Association President Marina Streznewski.  The dog was her pet, and now the rat problem is personal.  The association has been working to get the rat problem under control for a while, but now she is reaching out to other local groups with proposals they work together.  She’s also pushing for new compactor trash cans that block rodents from getting into the garbage.  Rats can easily climb the current typical trash can models and access waste just lying at the top.  Efforts are being made to put a grant program into place for businesses so they can more easily purchase the new trash cans.  But, the rodent problem won’t be solved by new trash cans alone.  Bushes must be cleared, rat burrows must be treated, and neighborhoods must work together if they hope to get the rodent infestation under control.

Dead Rat In Wall

get rid of rats

 

My apartment smells like sewage, and the maintenance guys for the apartment complex told me it’s probably a dead rat in the wall.  We’ve been having a rat problem outside in our area, which is bad enough, but when the rats get inside the building and then die in the walls, it’s awful.

When I was in high school, a rat died in the wall of my Mom’s house.  It smelled like urine and decay and it was just awful.  It had died inside one of the walls of the downstairs bathroom, and we had to have someone come in and tear up the walls of the bathroom until they found the dead rat and removed it.  So, I know what you’re supposed to do if you have a dead rat inside the wall.

But, the maintenance guys for my apartment complex figured they’d just do something else, something simple.  They came in and re-caulked the top and bottom of the walls and then  left, saying I’d have to just deal with the smell until the rat had decayed enough that it stopped smelling.  Uh, yeah, great idea.  Or not.  Who wants to live with an apartment that smells like sewage and dead rat??  I would think they’d have to check the pipes to see if somehow rats have damaged them, and then go inside the wall to remove the dead rat.  Because, a decomposing rat means that, not only are there nasty smells, but probably lots and lots of bugs, too.

I had a party planned for this weekend, but I’m going to have to cancel it or maybe convince one of my friends to have it at their place.  I can’t even stand to hang out in my front room, which is where the smell is worst, so how can I expect my friends to come over and sit around in that room?

The smell is so bad in that front room that I don’t even relax in there anymore.  I walk inside, holding my breath, go straight to the kitchen to drop my stuff off and get dinner, and then go straight to my bedroom, where I work on the computer and watch TV until it’s time to sleep.  I’m furious the maintenance people won’t do anything about the dead rat in my wall, other than just add a little caulk to “seal out the smell.”  But, I called the property manager, and convinced him to reduce my rent for next month by what it would cost me to get the dead rat removed out of the wall.  That doesn’t help me if there’s a problem with the pipes, but at least it gets the dead rat out of the wall.  One step at a time, I guess.

Rodent Removal Service

Working for a rodent removal service, I’ve heard it all.  I say I’ve heard it all, because my job is not removing rodents.  I work in the office as support staff.  I handle the incoming calls from people desperate for rodent removal service, I make appointments, I cut paychecks.  I’m essentially a one-woman show keeping the operation running smoothly so my guys can focus on their jobs, getting rid of rats, trapping mice, and removing all kinds of other rodents from people’s properties.

I get all the great and awful stories, though.  People who need rodent removal service tell me what’s been going on at their home, office or property.  The technicians tell me horror stories of rat swarms, mice nests, and all kinds of other critters.

One day, though, I got to see it all for myself, and really learned just how valuable rodent removal service is to our community.

A call came in from a woman who runs a small farm with her husband.  She told me, like most farmers in the area, rat problems come with the territory.  They’ve trapped rats, killed rats, poisoned rats and gotten rid of rats for as long as they’ve operated the farm.  But, this year the rat population just seemed to be exploding and they were overrun with rats.  They were desperate for our rodent removal services so they could spend more time on farm production and less on rodent removal.

The only technician we had available at the time couldn’t drive.  It was silly, really, because he’d forgotten to renew his license and let it expire, but until he got it renewed, he couldn’t drive out to the property.  It was at the end of the day, and I volunteered to drive him out there.

We pulled up, and the woman came out to show us where the biggest rat infestation was.  I was curious, because I’d never actually seen our technicians at work, so I hopped out of the truck and joined the two of them as they approached the large barn.  She led us to a back door, where they usually stored extra bags of feed and some tools.  She told us that’s where they needed rodent removal service the most, and then she high-tailed it back to the house, leaving us to open the door ourselves.  I was starting to get a little nervous, and my friend instructed me to stand off to the side of the door as he opened it.

When that door opened, it was like a scene from a nightmare.  Have you ever seen a cloud of gnats or an anthill that’s been disturbed?  Try multiplying that a hundred times and making it rats, and then you’ll have an idea of what I saw.  They literally poured out of the barn, running over each other, leaping, biting, scattering like roaches.  I couldn’t breathe as they swarmed over my boots before they ran off into the farmyard, seeking out any hole, door or ditch they could find.  No sound came out of my mouth, but inside I was screaming.  Eventually the rat flow slowed and I looked up at my friend, wondering how on earth he was going to get rid of these rats.  Even he looked shocked, and he admitted he’d never seen anything like this before.

I retreated to the truck and called some of our other technicians, making them promise to come out to the farm to help out just as soon as they were finished with their current appointments.  More than ever, I was proud I worked for a rodent removal service, proud of what we did for our community, proud that we were the ones people could call for help.

Rodent Infestation


I clean and repair foreclosed homes for a living, so I’ve seen my share of rodent infestations, but this home was so horrific I had to shower at least four times after I got home from work.

Cleaning foreclosed homes is not the dream job, I’ll admit, but at least it’s a job.  Like many people, I worked in the construction business for a long time until the housing market dropped.  When I’m not repairing foreclosed homes and cleaning them, I’m a flooring guy.  I lay carpet, hardwood floors, tile and vinyl.  I’m used to the muck and guck of ripping out old floors and finding everything from pet urine to bugs underneath.  So, you’d think I wouldn’t be as disgusted by the remnants of a rodent infestation as other guys.  Usually, that’s true, until I got to this house.

When I arrived, it was obvious from the exterior that the home had been abandoned for a while.  The lawn was seriously overgrown with weeds, the tree out front was dead, and untrimmed bushes practically hid the front door.  Abandoned homes don’t usually stay abandoned for long.  Wild animals nearly always move in, attracted by a warm, protected shelter and any food source they can find within.  Trash, old food, and bugs are plentiful inside some of these abandoned places, so I often have to deal with getting rid of a rodent infestation.

I think I actually gasped when I walked into this place, though.  The place was covered with hard little black pellets.  It looked like a raisin processing plant had exploded in there.

Rat eating a baby bird
Rat walking around with it’s prey.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

Most times, you can tell when a home is infested with rodents, because rat droppings or mouse droppings will follow a trail.  Rats like to stay up against walls, feeling their way along the wall with their whiskers, so they’ll leave rat droppings in a little trail.  The kitchen counters in this home had the tell-tale rat trail up against the wall, but that was just a small portion of what I saw.  The entire floor, all counter surfaces, the stove, the oven, the refrigerator and every cabinet was covered in rat droppings.

I moved through the home, investigating the living room area, the bedrooms and the bathrooms.  I could actually see little clouds of dust rise up as the nastiness crunched under my feet.  Fortunately, my training had kicked in before I had even walked into the home, and I’d put on my respirator and protective clothing and gloves.  I carried my camera with me and snapped pictures to send off to the bank that handled the foreclosure and their property management division.  I suspected this property would probably be condemned, and had to document everything carefully for insurance and everyone else who would have to get involved.

I have to admit, I was extremely relieved I didn’t actually see the rats.  I had no idea where they were hiding, but there had to be hoards of them.  Only a serious rodent infestation would do that to a house.  I ripped off my respirator as soon as I got back to the safety of my truck, and carefully removed the protective gloves and clothing, disposing of them safely in a plastic bag.  Then, I made the call to the property management company so they could decide what to do next.

No matter how many showers I took and how often I washed my hands, though, it was days before I felt clean again.

Rat Problems

Dear Health Inspector:

I am writing in to file a formal complaint about rat problems in a commercial building on Main Street.  I have leased space in this building for the past 6 months, and I have a three-year contract with the owners, but over the last few months we have had increasing problems with rats.  I run a gym, and we don’t serve or sell any food on the premises, so I don’t know what attracted the rats in the first place.  I am starting to lose business and revenue.  The owners say there wasn’t a rat problem when I moved into the space, so it is up to me as the tenant to take care of the problem.  I don’t have any way of proving their claim one way or another, but I don’t know where to even start with getting rid of the rats and getting my business cleaned up.

The building across the street had a rats nest underneath their stairs, so they knocked the stairs down and got rid of the nest, and I suspect that’s what started the problem in my building.  I started noticing holes near the front door and at the corner of the building right by a ground-floor window, but the noises coming from the ceiling indicate there may be rats living up there, too.  I set out a few traps and caught some rats in my office.  I thought I was fortunate that no rats were out among the customers or in the locker room.

Since then, though, I’ve been getting complaints from people working out at my gym.  There’s a horrible smell of rat urine in the men’s bathroom, and I found out that each rat defecates about 60 times a day.  If that gets into the air vents, then that’s what I’m breathing, that’s what my employees and clients are breathing.  A couple of days ago, one of the trainers that works at the gym told me he saw a rat run across the main floor.  I felt I had to temporarily close the gym.  I’m afraid someone will get really sick, or bitten.

Now, I’m fighting with the owners of the building to come in and at least partially pay to get rid of the rat problem.  Sometimes they tell me that there was just one rat and I’m making a big deal out of nothing, and sometimes they tell me that I’m responsible for paying for the whole thing.  I’m losing revenue quickly and I’m afraid my clients will go to another gym.  Will you please come out to inspect the building so I can prove to the owners that there really is a rat problem?  I’m also getting bids from professional wildlife removal companies to take care of the problem so I can reopen my doors as soon as possible.  Thank you for your help.