Effective rat control measures are essential to keeping your home rat-free, and these measures can be split into two groups – prevention and removal. Let’s take a look at these two groups and the measures that compose them.
Prevention
Prevention is an essential part of the control process, and it can be implemented either before you have an infestation or after an infestation is cleared. When it comes to rats, prevention is all about removing the incentives they have to enter the home, and blocking off all their access points.
The incentives consist mainly of food, water and shelter. To remove food as an incentive, make sure that you keep it all sealed, so that the rats can’t reach it or smell it. This applies to pet food and food that you’ve thrown away as well. When it comes to water, you will have to fix any leaky pipes in your home, because they can be a draw for rodents and many other pests. Finally, in terms of shelter, you will have to remove all the clutter from the home or at the very least keep it at a minimum. Clutter can often serve as a rat nest, and it can also draw in many other pests.
With the incentives out of the way, you will have to check the exterior of the home for any crack that is large enough for a rat to fit through and then seal it. Usually, these will be found near doors, windows, piping and joints in the walls.
Removal
The removal part of the process revolves around the use of traps and poisons. It should be mentioned that traps and poisons are also effective at preventing infestations especially outdoors, but they are mainly used for removing an existing infestation. Traps are generally used when dealing with a smaller infestation of a handful of rats, and poisons are reserved for large infestations. There are several reasons for this, but it’s mainly because traps become ineffective once rats figure them out, and poisons require a more extensive cleanup process afterwards, so using them can take more effort. In any situation, when you are at the removal stage of the process it’s best to work with a pest control professional.
For more information about the rat control procedure, or if you have an infestation that needs to be removed, contact us today.