Rats and mice are horrible pests! Not only do they cause harm to your property, but they can also cause severe infections. And recognizing rodent activity and getting rid of them is the first step to a safer house and healthy family.
You may not know, rats and mice are different creatures! But either way, they pose the same catastrophic threats. Suppose you are having a rodent infestation and are looking at your options for getting rid of rats and mice. In that case, we have remedies below you may attempt yourself if you want to do this before calling in professional pest control services. These solutions are straightforward to execute and are likely to be more successful than chasing these vermin around your home and growing progressively frustrated!
Rodenticides (rat poison)
Rodenticides are food products that are usually dubbed rat bait or rat poison. Most rodenticides feature an anticoagulant that inhibits blood from clotting. After a rat has taken enough rodenticide, it will bleed inside and die. This effect can take anywhere from 3 -10 days, depending on whether it is a single-feed or multi-dose rodenticide and the rodent’s size that has ingested the bait.
Rodenticides are regarded as a more efficient and long-lasting control strategy. It’s also more likely that a rodent infestation may be eradicated using baits. It’s vital to initially determine the extent of mouse activity at your home by completing a comprehensive investigation looking for evidence of rodent activity. This will be rat droppings, burrows, gnaw marks at access locations and rub or smear traces on well-used paths. Rodents will almost probably be active inside your roof (yes, that scratching sound may be rats!), walls, and under the building if your home is on a suspended floor. Once you have an estimate of the level of the rodent infestation, then you can place baits where you have identified the activity. It’s vital to place an appropriate amount of bait according to the intensity of rodent activity. If you do not place baits where rodents are active or do not use sufficient bait, you will not eradicate the infestation. Even worse, rodents may breed more extensively to replace the members of their colony that you murdered.
What are the hazards of using Rodenticides?
There are various concerns when utilizing a poisoned food product around your home. The most evident is poisoning your children, dogs, neighbors’ pets, or other non-target animals like possums or birds. There are two types of poisoning, direct poisoning when the baits are taken directly and secondary poisoning where an animal consumes another poisoned animal. It is vital that when baits are used around your home, they are always secured correctly and out of reach of children and pets. We strongly urge that you employ a competent pest operator to exterminate rodents and ensure that all dangers are handled safely. Baits can be secured in lockable tamper-resistant rodent bait stations, which are outside the reach of youngsters and pets. Rodenticides that have a very low risk of secondary poisoning can be used to limit the risk to your pets further. These may be multi-dose baits or an active ingredient with minimal danger of secondary poisoning. Treatments done around your house are just as safe as the skill and knowledge of the individual providing the treatment.
Rodent control using traps
Using traps to capture rats and mice may assist reduce rodent numbers around your home. Still, in most circumstances, you’re not going to be effective in eradicating a colony of rodents that are infesting your property. The challenge stems from the very cautious nature of rats. The precise word for this instinctual behavior is called neophobic, suggesting that rats are particularly apprehensive about anything new introduced into their specific area. For example, you’re much more likely to have luck trapping a few mice that have lately found their way into your kitchen. As this is a new setting for them, they will be more susceptible to being captured by a trap. On the other hand, deploying traps to catch rodents in the voids of your building, like inside the roof, walls, and beneath the building, is far less effective.
Rodent exclusion
Carrying out mouse exclusion work is an excellent approach to make your property less prone to rodent infestation. Unfortunately, it’s quite doubtful that the absolute exclusion of rodents from the building voids in most homes will be practicable. Anything is conceivable, and it will come down to how much time and price you can expend to prepare your property against rodent entrance. When you consider the entry hole size that rodents require to enter your home, 6mm diameter, approximately the width of a pencil for mice and 12mm diameter, about the width of your little finger for rats, you can realize how difficult this process is. If rodents can climb onto your roof, then it’s going to be quite pricey to proof the entire roof of your home. The way utilized to do this is placing fixed metal gutter mesh across the gutters, and all openings, the cost for this service will depend on the kind and size of the roof structure. You should expect to pay from $2000 – $4000 to prove your property against rodent infiltration.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are ways available for rat eradication, lowering rodent numbers, or exclusion of rodents. Often it’s essential to combine strategies to get the best results in reducing rodents around your home. An example would be executing a safe rat bait treatment paired with rodent proofing. Even barring a few known entry sites can make a difference in influencing mouse behavior and making life more unpleasant. The more that can be done to make your home less welcoming, the more probable they won’t make your home theirs. We can all agree that this is a good thing!
If you are still unclear about exterminating rodents, you may always ask for professional aid. Our rodent control specialists in Sydney have the knowledge and correct procedures to effectively eradicate rats and mice in your house and keep your family safe. Contact us immediately!
