Rodent Trapping & Removal

Rat and Rodent Inspection

Rodents are nimble little creatures characterized by a large set of incisors (teeth) on the upper jaw, which are made for gnawing and shredding their food and other materials. Not only do they use these teetch for practical purposes, but they also must gnaw and bite to keep these teeth sharp. Damage caused by rats is often costly and time consuming to repair. This is bad news for home owners because electrical wires, drywall, and other building materials that make up their home are a prime target for these little creatures. With a thorough rat inspection by a professional wildlife managment technician, you'll be able to figure out just how rats are getting inside.

Rat and Rodent Urine & Droppings

Where there is wildlife inside your home, there is sure to be droppings. Unfortunately, Rats and other rodents like mice leave behind their poop just about everywhere they go. There is little difference between rat and mice droppings, but a wildlife professional can teach you about rat poop vs. mouse poop They aren't domesticated animals when they enter your attic and will likely ruin insulation and air ducts with their excrement. Wildlife professionals across the country use state of the art techniques and tools to clean up rat and rodent waste, but sometimes you must replace parts of your home entirely after a rat infestation is removed from your living and storage spaces. Bottom line–if you are removing rats from a building, you're going to have to sterilize any areas where the rats left liquid or solid waste.

Rat and Rodent Damage

There is no limit to what rats will chew or defecate on. Once inside the walls of your home, they won't leave, and will continue to use wall studs, electrical cabling, and even the copper tubing of your plumbing to make their teeth sharp. Given the opportunity, a colony of rats could destroy a mobile home or trailer entirely, and leave the glass behind. If you have rats in the plumbing of your home, be prepared to open up walls and replace expensive copper fixtures and fittings as they will have made their home alongside them, and sometimes even inside them. Rats like a little bit of moisture in their environment, so don't be surprised if you find rats in the the toilet or near washing machines once they are inside your home.

Once you've had a serious rat infestation, you'll likely need to replace wall or attic insulation to entirely eliminate rat and rodent poop from your living space. Much like any other nuisance wildlife creatures, they leave behind an enormous amount of waste and are not ashamed to be living alongside it. If you find urine and excrement soaked insulation in your attic, call a professional immediately. They will walk you through how to remove rats in the attic and take care of this problem for you immediately.

Rats and Rodents & Pest Control

A few years ago a popular magazine published an article about rat mites that raised serious questions for homeowners with rats in their attic or garage. Rat mites and other rat bugs are much like raccoon mites, bat mites, and other intrusive wildlife species' bugs. They live on the animal in their fur, and like to explore their feces. Bugs that live on mammals and exist in the feces they leave behind can become serious health hazards for you an your family as they spread diseases carried by the host animal aroudn your home. We offer sanitation services after removal for this reason, so that we can be a full-service wildlife removal company and ensure the safety of your family and guests of your home. If you have a need for rat removal in any capacity, your local specialist should be able to recommend a reputable pest control company for rat bug remvoal if they linger after the rats are removed.

Trapping Rats and Rodents

Trapping rodents is legal in the United States, and kill traps are very commonly used to kill rats. Because rats exist in large numbers, sometimes many traps will be placed around the affected area. It's important to keep household pets like dogs and cats away from these traps, as well as small children, in order to ensure safety. We have a guide specifically for how to trap rats, and how to do it effectively to make this experience as painless as possible for homeowners and the rats themselves.

When dealing with household rodent pests, it's always best to contact a professional. If you are willing to give it a try yourself, know that rat and mouse control takes a lot of work and will require that you get your hands dirty. The msot effective way to remove these unwanted guests is with kill traps. Unfortunately, we are unable to use live trapping or live exclusion to remove them because they usually appear in high numbers and are extremely resilient.

DIY Rat and Rodent Removal

If you're a new homeowner or a long time homeowner and you want to make sure you keep rats out of your house, read our article on rat prevention. We use these same techniques after a rat removal and exclusion to assure you that the problem is resolved, and that rats will not invade your home again.

We are contacted frequently by homeowners who have realized their rat infestation is much more than what home supply store rat poison or rat repellent can remedy. It's our job to make sure that you and your family are safe, and that these rats are removed quickly. In all honesty, these products are not effective and end up wasting valuable time and money for our customers.

Rats and Rodents in Your Home

For consumers with only a few rats in your home, we can give you some advice on how to get rid of rats. If the colony of rats is very large, you'll need to contract a specialist or a team of specialists. When you have rats or other rodents in your home, you will probably know it within a few weeks. While they try to stay stealthy, they can be heard inside the walls and crawling along the ceiling inside of the attic, gnawing, scratching, and squeaking along the way. Once they start breeding, there is no limit to how much space they will take over. They need a warm, dark place to sleep and breed, and walls and attics are great homes for these destructive mammals. In states where cellars and basements are common, they will make their homes there in the winter. We have a guide regarding how to remove rats in the basement that you might find useful.

Further Reading