Rats In The Attic
Do you suspect you have an infestation of rats or mice in your attic? If so, you’ll want to understand what you’re dealing with and plan your next moves carefully to avoid making the problem worse. DIY efforts rarely completely solve the problem, and they can often create unwanted results and expose you to unnecessary health and safety risks. It’s always best to call a professional exterminator for your pest control needs.
Do You Have Rats In Your Attic?
In the U.S., the two main species of rats are the Norway and Roof Rat. Norway rats prefer dwelling in sewers and ground nests, making them more commonly found infesting basements. Roof rats, however, prefer warmer places like your attic.
All rodents are commensal creatures, meaning they gain benefit from living near humans without actually interacting with us. In other words, we make it easier for them to eat, but they don’t want to sit down and break the bread with us. Your attic offers this ideal proximity.
There’s a reason that animated mice and rats are depicted as stealthy and smart. Research shows both are highly intelligent and capable of sophisticated tasks. They’re certainly adept at the art of breaking into your attic.
Roof rats are excellent climbers, and they can use vines, trees, and other structures hanging overhead and near your roof to easily gain access to the attic. Once they find an entry point, their nimble bodies can squeeze through a hole just a fraction of their size. If it’s too little, they’ll simply use sharp claws and teeth to gnaw the entry into your attic a little bigger.
Look For Signs Of Rodents In Your Attic
Look for signs of rat-life like these if you suspect an attic infestation:
• Do you hear clawing, gnawing, or scrambling noises in your attic?
• Do you see droppings in your attic?
• Do you see claw marks in your attic?
• Do you see a possible entry point along vents, eaves gaps, roof lines, walls, and so forth?
Call us immediately if you suspect something has invaded your attic. Our trained professional will be able to quickly identify what type of intruder you’re dealing with and put together the best exclusion and removal plan for your home. Don’t forget that you can minimize damage, repair, and cleanup to your attic the faster you call for an inspection.
Rats In The Attic Equals Chaos
Rats are one of the most common nuisance critters to trespass in your attic space. Once there, they set up home and begin a path of danger and destruction. If removal and exclusion isn’t prompt, they can:
• Gnaw and chew on the structural elements.
• Gnaw and chew electrical wires and cables.
• Burrow in and destroy installation.
• Scratch and claw at walls, surfaces, and possessions.
• Spread rat urine and feces throughout the attic and home.
Structural damage and harm to personal possessions can be a costly loss to repair, but one of the biggest concerns here is the health and safety risks that living with rodents presents to your family.
Rodents gnawing on electrical wires and cords means that your home and family are at risk from potential house fires. Their teeth and claws continually grow, which means they gnaw incessantly out of both physical need and environmental desire throughout their life.
Many people assume that diseases only spread from rodents to humans after one bites you. This isn’t true. Rat droppings carry a plethora of zoonotic diseases that can be easily transferred to humans via the chain of contamination. For example, you can contract salmonellosis, rat-bite fever, leptospirosis, and many others from drinking water or eating food contaminated with rat and mouse feces. Rodents aren’t selective where they use the bathroom, either.
The reason that you commonly hear rats moving around at night in the attic is because they typically sleep during the day. At night, they become highly active and begin to forage for food and water, which will most likely bring them out of your attic and into the main living areas of your home to contaminate your surfaces and food supply with droppings.
Rats breed several times throughout the year, and they can have anywhere from six to 20 babies in a single litter. Since rats can reach sexual maturity at just five to six weeks old, those babies can quickly begin to have their own litters. As you can see, it doesn’t take long for a couple of rats to turn into a huge infestation. That equals a lot of destructive chewing and a huge amount of rat urine and feces if you delay contacting a professional for pest control.
Pest Control For Your Attic
Once your professional exterminator confirms you have a rat problem in your attic, the next logical question is what you’ll do about solving the problem, right?
Professional pest control involves identification, exclusion, and removal. Your exterminator will identify and seal up all entry points so that the rodents can no longer enter and leave your home as they please. This also lessens the likelihood of future infestations. The technician’s next step is to remove all the rats living in your home, which can be done via lethal trapping or catch and release. After all the rats have been removed, the damage they’ve left behind is safely cleaned up using the appropriate removal techniques for droppings and contaminated materials.
While there are a plethora of DIY options strategically marketed to consumers, the FTC has deemed many of these fraudulent. In other words, they don’t do what they claim they do for rat control and extermination. From inadvertently poisoning pets and children to creating pungent odors that make you flee your home, DIY options have a track record of creating more problems and dangers than they solve.
The above is why pest control is often most effective, efficient, and comprehensive when left to a professional exterminator. Plus, taking professional help in exclusion and removal means you don’t unnecessarily expose yourself to contact with the rodents and their droppings during the pest control process.
Don’t let attic rats wreck havoc on your home, safety, and health. Call today for your pest control inspection and quote for removal and exclusion.