Can you do the rat job yourself?

You may be able to solve a rat problem by yourself if you're willing to put in a lot of hard work. But be warned - I myself did over 100 rat jobs before I started to get really good at it. There are many variables. The formula is simple - find the holes, block them out, trap and remove, clean up. But it's easier said than done! Read this website for instructions, and work hard, and you can do it! If not, best to call out a pro with experience. But NEVER EVER hire a worthless pest control company or any company that uses poison! They want to NEVER solve the problem, so that they can keep charging you.



How to get rid of rodent in attic - Let’s assume that the rodent in your attic is a rat, but be warned that an assumption is not what you should go on. To get rid of the animal properly you will need to know what rodent you are dealing with. Squirrels are different than rats and mice and require different trapping methods. Anyway, so you have a rat in the attic. The first step to proper removal happens through home maintenance. There are tiny holes and openings in the exterior of your building that let the rat inside. All of these areas need to be repaired, plugged, sealed, or capped off. If you ignore this first step, you will have rats again. Sealing the nuisance animals inside the home is also a way to make trapping easier. Any rats inside will eventually grow hungry, making baited traps more appealing. The traps you use should be humane traps. Snap traps, the wooden traps with a spring-loaded bar, are the most common traps and the most reliable. Many professionals still swear by their design. To ensure the traps will catch your rats in a timely manner, make sure you set the devices in places where the rat likes to go. These areas are easily discovered by finding droppings, chew marks, bedding, and grease stains. A rat marks its territory in this fashion. Setting up traps near rat marks will increase your rate of capture.


Find out how the rats are getting inside first.

How trap a rat - Learning how to trap a rat is not as simple as going to the general store and buying a bag of snap traps. You will eventually need snap traps—just not yet. If you want to get rid of rats for good, you need to find the places in your home that are letting rats inside. Rat holes will be surrounded by a stain of body grease and will have chew marks, fur, or droppings nearby. When a hole is located, it needs to be closed immediately. Do not worry about the rats that are still inside of the building. These animals will be trapped and removed in due course. The important thing is ensuring that no new rats are going to invade the home while you try to handle the original infestation. Now that the home is repaired, you can move on to the trapping process. Trapping of rats can be done with many different devices, but the most effective trap is the snap traps. The style of snap trap is up to you; modern designs are no more or less effective than the wooden models. Take your snap traps and bait them with peanut butter or another similar, sticky food. You do not want the rats to be able to steal the bait. Traps should be placed in areas where rat markings are discovered. Rats return to the same areas, so placing traps where they have been before will be advantageous. If you do everything perfectly, you'll get rid of the rats for free, by yourself! But if you continue to have a problem and can't solve it, best to call in an expert.

Inspect the attic for signs of rats.


Humanely keeping rats out of fruit trees - Rats love fruit trees, and keeping them out of the branches can be a very difficult task. First, do not put any faith in the chemical repellents on the market. Predator urine, mothballs, citrus spray, and peppermint oil are all wastes of time and money. Not only do rats pay no heed to any of these odorants, anything that is put outside will eventually lose potency the longer it is exposed to the weather and atmosphere. To keep rats out of fruit trees, the best methods are physical barriers. Rats can climb over wires and metal fencing. If you are going to barricade the bottom part of your tree, you can either use a smooth, metal plate that extends a few feet up the trunk, or you can use a smooth disk that wraps around the tree, creating a barrier that extends outward and prevents climbing over. Not only do you need to protect the tree, you need to look at the items around the home. Rats can climb poles, run across clotheslines, and scale siding. If you have other tall items near the fruit trees, you will have to find a way to keep rats from climbing those items as well.

Go back to the How to Get Rid of Rats home page.

More Rat Articles I've Written:
How to Get Rid of Dead Rats
How to Kill Rats
Rat Repellent
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your House
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Walls
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Kitchen
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Garage
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Attic
How to Get Rid of Rats in a Barn
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Basement
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Ceiling
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Garden
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Insulation
How to Get Rid of Rats in the Crawlspace
How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Yard
How to Get Rid of Rats in a Restaurant
How to Clean Rat Feces and Urine

© 2003-2018     Website content & photos by Trapper David     Email questions: david@wildlife-removal.com