PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic GROSSLY off topic - rats - and I REALLY need helpful advice.

Josie,

I recently retired from a 33 year career in Public Health which included work in all major areas of disease control including control of Disease Vectors such as rats. I think I can share a few things with you that won't scare you more and can help you get a handle on your problem.

1. It is unlikely that the rats are nesting inside of your house. Rats typically dig dens in the ground (exception would be roof rats) and they take excursions out for food usually not more than 100 feet from the den. Mice usually nest inside the house. Mice of course are much smaller than rats.

2. Before you do anything else, the trick to controlling rats is to identify the food source because that is what caused them to come live with you. Don't even think about poisoning them before you do this because as long as their primary food source is available, they won't usually take any kind of bait. They also are not going to have any incentive to leave until their food source dries up.

3. The usual suspects for food sources in and around a residence are unsecured household garbage, pet food, pet droppings, fruit and nut trees, and seeds in bird feeders. Pet food should be taken up if not eaten immediately. Rats get lots of good nutrition from dog dishes and dog droppings in the yard. If you must have bird feeders there are devices to keep rats from climbing up to the seeds. If you have fruit trees, get the fallen fruit picked up. It is important to remove ALL potential food sources and keep them cleaned up. Don't neglect cooperating with your neighbors because if the food source is there, and you don't get the source removed, you will never, NEVER, get rid of your rats.

4. Rats are mostly nocturnal, so if you are seeing them during the day it usually means that the population has gotten so large that some are getting forced out of the nests. A large population indicates that there is A LOT OF FOOD somewhere for them.

5. Rats usually try to keep their whiskers in contact with a wall, so you can generally find run marks on the wall from the grease deposited from the body hair. These runs when identified are where you need to place your heavy duty rat glue traps and your bait.

6. Look outside for the dens. They are just going to be holes in the ground, often near the house. If you can identify the dens, then you can place some rat poison in them, but only do this after you have completely deprived them of their food source for at least 3 days. Be careful with poison placement. You don't want to poison the pets and the kids. As the bait gets eaten that you have placed on the runs and at the dens, replace it. It usually takes about 3 doses to kill a large rat. There are bait boxes that you can place the poison in that allows the rats access but limits access to larger animals.

7. Your local Health Department may have people who will come to your home for free and help you identify food sources and dens. After you get the food sources secured they will place poison near the den for you. These services are usually free. Look for VECTOR CONTROL under your local Health Department listings or call the Health Department's information desk and ask if they have a rat control division. Professional exterminators usually cost a lot and seldom do as good of a job. Also getting the Health Department involved means that if the food source is identified and found to be on your neighbor's property, they have the authority to go next door and tell them to get it cleaned up.

8. It usually takes a regimen of both trapping and poisoning along with food source removal to get a rat problem under control in a relatively short time.

This is getting a bit long so if you have specific questions ask here or shoot me an email: smithkf51@comcast.net

Hope this helps.