Signs of Rat Infestation
Rat infestations are more common during winter and autumn as the weather gets cooler. Initially you may see signs or rats in your garden. Signs of rats in the garden are rodent holes or chewed wood, rat droppings, rodent pathways and ultimately you will start seeing live rats.
If left unchecked, rats will often move from your garden and into your house when the weather gets particularly cold or wet, as they start looking for shelter. Rats can get into your house using any hole available, typically rats will use open brickwork around pipes and cables, or will chew holes in places such as plastic air vents. Once rats can get into your house, they will generally move up to the roof or attic via the wall cavities. Hearing noises in the walls at night is a sign of rat infestation.
Rat Infestation Removal
Once rats are living in your attic, this is a rat infestation. It is extremely rare to have one rat living alone, rats tend to live in family groups, so if you think you have a rat in your house, realistically this is already a rat infestation. If you want to get rid of rats yourself, then using off the shelf rat bait is the obvious solution. Unfortunately, there can be a level of resistance to some rat or rodent baits available over the counter.
Pest control companies with a licence, will use a licenced rat bait, which is highly effective. A rat pest control or rodent extermination program delivered by a professional pest control company will be quicker to complete and highly effective. It is common for pest control companies to offer a 2-visit pest control program initially, with additional visits only if necessary.
Rat pest control programs start with a rodent survey to establish the full situation, with rat pest control using bait started straight away. This is then left in situ for approximately 7 days, to do it’s job. Your rat pest control company should then return to ensure the rat infestation is finished and no additional visits are required. If additional visits are needed, which can happen in the case of severe rat infestations, then these would be discussed with you beforehand. Usually 3 – 4 visits is the maximum needed, and this is only in rarer cases when the rat infestation is particularly serious.
