Have you ever considered that you might not be the only ones living in your home? Rats can come into your house and hide within the crevices and walls to go unnoticed for some time. House mice, pack rats, and even raccoons can find the contents of your pantry very appetizing. Nearing the time of colder weather, sometimes these rodents build rat nests in your attics, pool heaters, air conditioners, and more!
Once they move in, they are quick to make a big family and will colonize your home without permission. We will help you identify pack rat infestations, what pack rat issues you are already dealing with, and what you can do for pest control.
How to Identify the Problem
The first step at elimination is identification. Here are some effects that mice and pack rats have on your property, so you know what you are dealing with.
- Odor: Whatever enclosed space they decided to infest themselves into will exude a musky smell.
- Destroyed bedding and fabrics: Pack rats will shred whatever they can find to build nests in the crawl space, so don’t be too quick to blame a torn blanket on the dog.
- Scratching noises and squeaks: This is where having a cat or dog may come in handy. If you have a dog that generally does not scratch or chew at the walls, there may be squeak or scratching noises that tell them that prey lurks beneath and behind. You may be able to hear it from the ceiling or walls, but they will likely listen to it first.
- Poop: Pack rat elimination looks like small elongated brown pellets (they will be larger than a grain of sand, though). They will be under and beneath furniture or appliances.
- Chew marks: Resolving pack rat issues may take some time, as they can leave their gnaw marks on the baseboards, furniture, electrical wiring, and other areas of the home.
- Trail: Since pack rats can be dirty rodents, they may leave a grease trail of prints where they go.
- Rats: You can find the actual rat, whether they are living or dead.
Rats are also known for their ability to spread diseases. They can harbor such ailments as the plague but more commonly will have hantavirus or leptospirosis. Some of these diseases are zoonotic – able to be spread from an animal to a person – and can infect you and your loved ones.
Remember that if you see one, there are indeed more of them. So please do not eliminate one pack rat and expect your pest control to be complete. Next, we will go into effective methods at eliminating rat nests and the rodents that call that home.
Preventing Pack Rats
One significant part of pest control is prevention. We want to make your home as unappealing to the pack rats as possible. To do this, we can’t just put a ‘No Vacancy’ sign on the front porch –
we eliminate the attraction to the home. A practical method of getting these rodents to stay away from your property is regular cleaning, especially in the kitchen and pantry. In addition, our service agents will come out to your home to assess what access points they have and what treatment is best suited for your case.
Make sure any cat or dog food is in an ‘ant seal’ container, clean the bowl frequently, and do not leave it outside. Another thing that we don’t consider is the plants and trees in the yard. For example, if you have a citrus or fruit tree on your property, you need to clean the fallen fruit regularly. When you leave them to rot, you leave them to the rats.
What To Do If You Already Have Rats
If you have identified that you have pack rats and need pest control, our experienced technicians at University Pest Control will come and do an excellent job at removing the problem and rid you of your unwanted rodents. In addition, we will help with effective removal, sealing the house, and preventing reinfestation.
While we work on coming out to you, we want you to eliminate their food sources, access points and cleaning up the areas where you see the most evidence of pack rats.
What we do not recommend is starting to take extreme measures on your own. Don’t go to the local shelter and get a cat thinking that they will take care of the problem. You also don’t want to go setting rat poison everywhere since they are tasty and toxic to your pets and children.
Call University Termite & Pest Control at 520-886-4146 to schedule one of our excellent service technicians to come to your property and let you know how we can be of help!
