Big City, Bright Lights, Lots of Rats

If you live in an urban area, some of your neighbors are inevitably rate. The Norway and roof rats are the most common city dwellers, but other species may be present as well. The best remedy for a rat problem is prevention. A professional pest control specialist can help you exclude rats from your property and keep them at bay before they cause damage. Here are some of the damages you’ll be avoiding with a proactive approach.

Foundation Issues

More commonly a problem with the burrowing Norway rat, rodents looking for a nesting site may chew through and burrow around a home’s foundation. While one rat alone may do only minor damage, it is possible for multiple rats to degrade a building’s foundation enough to cause settling and other problems.

Chewing

There is nothing a rat won’t chew on. Nothing. A rat in your home may chew through insulation, electrical wires, roof shingles, drywall, attic trusses and anything else he finds. This can damage household appliances, cause unsafe electrical conditions in the home, allow water to seep into basements and even release asbestos fibers from older vermiculite insulation.

Ruined Food

A hungry rat who finds his way into your kitchen will be able to access and enjoy any food stuffs not stored in a plastic or metal container. Cereal boxes, rice bags, loaves of bread and anything else on your pantry shelves is fair game. Food must be be thrown away if a rat has been dining in or on it to avoid contamination. Unfortunately, damaged food can be expensive to replace.

Contamination

Rats are known to carry a wide variety of dangerous diseases, including rabies, so encountering one in your home poses a risk to you, your children and your pets. The dander from rats can cause allergies, and it is estimated that 20% of children living in urban areas have rodent allergies that could lead to asthma. If that’s not bad enough, a single rat can defecate up to 60 times a day and rats often live in large groups. That’s a lot of poop.

If you know you’re sharing your living space with rats, call a pest control specialist who can remove them for you without resorting to dangerous poisons. If you don’t have rats in your home but live in an urban area, have your property checked both for hidden rodents and potential entry points that need attention.