Rat Damage Photos
The parts of your home that begin to be damaged by rats aren't immediately noticeable. Usually, rats reveal their presence and cause enough damage to warrant costly repairs some time after they have infiltrated your home and begun breeding. With the large front incisors of a rodent, rats begin hacking away at drywall, electrical wires, pipes, siding, roof trusses, and much more. They do this to keep their teeth razor sharp so that they are ready to shred the next part of your home.
Damage to Electrical Wires
Rats like to chew at the thin rubber insulation surrounding electrical wires and get down to the copper inside the wires. Once they do this they are likely to experience a heavy electrical shock, and can die immediately if the wire is live. If the wire is severed and it is still live, there is also a great risk of fire if this wire disharges electricity into a flammable material. Once the damage is done to electrical wires in your home, expect to be opening up walls and/or hiring an electrician to find out where the outages and damaged lines are inside of your home. These services are most often very costly and are extremely frustrating. It's important that at the first sign of rats, you contact a wildlife removal specialist in order to handle this infestation long before they do lasting damage to your home.
Plumbing and Pipe Damage
Rats are also know to target pipe insulation and PVC pipes with their razor-sharp teeth. Damaged pipes and pipe insulation can mean risk of flooding inside the house, and higher energy costs due to lack of insulation. While the former is a much more dangerous risk, neither should happen on your watch. Do an inspection as best you can to see where rats are entering your home, and begin setting and baiting traps to eliminate your rat problem. If this problem is too large for a few traps to handle, you will want to call a wildlife management professional to not only bat and trap your rats, but completely exclude them from your home, and repair any damage left behind.
Damage from Rat Feces
The prospect of feces anywhere in your home besides down the toilet is probably enough of a concern, without it looming over your head in the attic or behind appliances where it can attract insects and other pests. Once rat poop was thoroughly soaked into insulation, along with rat urine that is most likely left at the same time, the insulation in your attic will be too saturated to sanitize, and must be replaced. If this insulation becomes heavy with liquid and solid waste from these creatures, it can also make its way into ceiling panels and cause unsightly and odorous stains that are visible from the inside of the home.