How to Eliminate Rats
Rats are coming in from the outside. So, the first thing you want to do is discourage them from being there in the first place. If you have pets, do not feed them outside and do not leave food or water bowls outside. If you have any bird feeders, then it's a good idea to remove them. While the rats may not make their way up to the bird feeders, the birds can be quite messy and some of that bird feed may find its way to the ground, where the rats may eat it. Make sure that all your trash cans are covered, and they have no holes in them. In other words, make sure there are no food or water sources that they can get into.
Next, walk around the outside of your house and seal any openings that you find. You can use a commonly available caulk for small holes and Stuf-Fit for larger openings. I will give you a link where you can buy Stuf-Fit. If you have any trees or large plants that are touching the house, then trim them back and make sure that you have no trees that are overhanging the house.
Now that you've discouraged them from coming into the house, it's time to eliminate the population outside. To do this, you need to use a bait and bait stations. I will provide you with links to these products. For the best results, place the bait stations directly against the foundation of the house and space them about every 15 to 20 feet apart, where you are seeing the activity. You need to check the bait stations every day and replenish the bait as needed, until you are no longer seeing the bait being eaten.
If you have rats that are inside the house, then the approach is pretty similar to outside the house. You want to start by removing all the food sources. Take your trash out every day, before you go to bed, so that there is no trash left for them to get into during the night. Also, make sure that you don't leave any dishes lying around either. Pet food and water dishes should not be left out overnight. I do not recommend that you use a poison inside the house, because you don't want dead rats smelling up the house. Therefore, I recommend using traps. I think that snap traps work the best, and they're very affordable. However, if you wish to be kind to the rats, then you can also use traps that will catch the rats alive and you can release them someplace outside. You can find a good selection of these on Amazon. You want to place the snap traps next to the walls, with the bait facing the wall. If you're using the traps that catch them alive, then you want the opening to the trap to be near the wall. The traps I am recommending can be reused. Always wear rubber gloves when handling traps because the rats may avoid a trap that has a human smell on it. After you catch a rat, you can dispose of it in the trash and then rinse off the trap with a garden hose for reuse. Do not over clean the traps because you want to leave a little of the rat smell on the trap. That will make the other rats more likely to approach the trap. Be sure to check the traps at least daily or more often because dead rats in the trap will cause other rats to avoid the trap. I do not recommend feeding rats and mice to the cats because they may have a disease or parasites that can be passed along. Place the traps at 10-foot intervals along the wall and focus on areas where you think there's activity. Since you will be reusing the traps, I recommend that you use peanut butter as a bait because it is easily cleaned off when you wash the traps. If you find that the rats are licking off the peanut butter without setting off the trap, then you can try a little bit of marshmallow. It is much harder to clean it off the traps, but it is practically impossible for the rats to get it off without setting off the traps. If you have children, I'm kind of guessing that you would prefer that they not get their fingers stuck in a trap. I'm also guessing that you would prefer that the traps not snap down on the noses of any pets. To avoid this problem, you can place the traps inside of a bait station. These stations lock so that the kids cannot get into them. They also make the traps more effective because rats like confined spaces. Just use one trap for each bait station.
Stuf-Fit: Stuf-Fit Copper Mesh | Copper Mesh Exclusion Tool | Solutions Pest & Lawn (solutionsstores.com)
Bait stations: Solutions Rodent Bait Station | Solutions Pest & Lawn (solutionsstores.com)
Snap traps: Solutions Easy Set Rat Trap | Solutions Pest & Lawn (solutionsstores.com)
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