Rats are very disturbing, especially when they live in your house attic. So learning how to get rid of rats in the attic is crucial if you have this problem.
Rats may bring many problems to your house, including spreading diseases through items contaminated with urine, droppings, or maybe through direct contact with rats feces and urine. Rats can also chew on many of objects available to them which in turn will cause great damage around and in your house.
Therefore, knowing the best way to get rid of rats in the attic becoming a major job you need to do to keep your house safe from pest infestation. And Pinnacle Pest can help you with that.
There are many ways you can choose to get rid of rats in the attic, you can either remove the rats in the attic or kill the rats. There are also some natural remedies you can opt if you like simple and low-cost method.
Steps to Getting Rats Out Of the Attic
Before planning on how to get rid of rats in the attic, the first step is learning about rats’ facts. You must know that the rats are very noisy at night while very calm during the day. It doesn’t mean that the rats are leaving the attic during the day. In fact, they actually sleep all day in your attic!
- You hear scratching – The fact that you only hear the scratching voice from the rodents at night doesn’t mean that the rats only enter your attic at night. Actually, they sleep all day and wake up at dusk. When they wake up, they immediately moving around and forage for food and water.
- Find the holes – The second step after you learn about rats’ habitually is doing inspection in your entire house. You have to find an open gap or holes that possible for the rats to get in. For additional information, the rats are very good at climbing any surface.
- The holes can be very small – The rats even can squeeze through small gaps and holes. So you might better don’t underestimate amazingly small holes at any part of the building. The holes may be the entrance for the rats even if you think they don’t fit in.
- Check pipes on the roof – The rats also can enter the sewer pipes to the tip of the roof. The key is, the rats will get in through any amazingly small gaps if they detect small breeze from inside.
- You can’t wait for them to leave – One thing you have to know about rats is they will leave the attic for a short period of time. It is because they don’t want to be exposed to danger for very long. Therefore, thinking you can just wait for them to leave and then seal the holes is wrong.
- Plug the holes – The next step is to seal up all the small holes and gap using steel. The idea is not to search for a time when the rats are outside. Otherwise, the steel seal is to discourage the other rats trying to get inside by blocking the airflow.
- Place traps – The fourth step after you make sure that every hole is sealed is set snap traps to remove the rats. This snap trap is the best method to apply for the rats in the attic.
- Check the traps – Once you don’t hear any more sounds in the attic, you can check and remove the snap traps if the rats have been caught. The final step is to clean up all the attic space to the clean condition. It is because the rats inhabited in the attic will cause several problems like odor problems, nesting material, the growth of parasites and pathogens, and food debris.
Natural Remedies to get rid of rats, Why Not?
There are also some simple ways of how to get rid of rats in the attic naturally you can try in your home.
Human Hair
This is an amazingly very low-cost method to kill the rats. You only need to place a clump of human hair in the rats’ hole. The hair will choke the rats and make them killed in no time.
Cats
Having a cat as a pet will give you benefit as it will hunt down the rats in the attic. This will not be an issue since the rat is a natural enemy and natural prey for the cat.
Onions
Don’t need to use poison to make the rats killed. You can use some cut onion near the rats’ hole. The cut onion will spread pungent smell which is hated by the rats. Soon after, the rats will die.
Pepper
Not only cut onion that will spread pungent smell, but pepper will work in the nearly same way to the rats. The pepper will inflate the rat’s lungs and eventually will make them die. You only need to sprinkle pepper near the holes
Potato Flake
Try to place some potato flakes near the holes. When the rat swallows the potato flakes, they will swell up in the rat’s intestines. When the flakes swell up, it will kill the rat eventually.
Lethal Traps May Be Use As Well
Many different methods of killing rats using lethal traps. There are snap traps, glue traps, poisoning, and cage traps.
Poisoning
Poisoning might be the simplest way than any other lethal traps. But poison is not effective enough since the rats maybe keep living even after they eat the poison. Not only that, the rats which die after eating the poison die in a hidden location. This will cause a terrible odor in your home.
One more fact about a rat is actually a cannibal creature. In fact, the dead rat which dies in your house will attract more rats to come into your house. However, there are several Best Rat Poison Available on the Market. You need to find the right one.
Cage Traps
This method is least effective since the rats are a very cautious animal. They rarely want to go near a new thing. To make it work, you have to set the cage trap properly. The cage door will close immediately when the rat steps on the sensor pad.
Snap Traps
Snap traps are efficient and one of the effective ways to eliminate attic rats. To make this trap works, you have to place the traps in the route which the rats will travel.
You can choose any method you like. The most important is you have to seal up all the entry holes in your house.