Suffolk County, Boston Rat Control Situation:
Halo David, I`ve checked your website. Thanks for sounding very sensible! I`m desperate here - I moved near Boston MA nearly a year ago and i`m sharing with a friend, an old cottage = mice, and sheds = rats. At the moment there is a bit of scratching in the house, now and again, but no chewing marks or droppings in the kitchen, although I leave a packet of biscuits available deliberately - to find out if we have a visitor ( and we caught 6mice last winter.) And the mouse traps are set and empty. Having said so there are in-between the walls cavities where the mice are not accessible.. The HUGE problem, though, are the sheds and the messy yard - just perfect for rats. I`m desperate, I`ve just spent most of the day de-cluttering one of them, which made me sick - the mess, the stench and the rat droppings... I`ve no clue how to deal with the problem. I have two dogs, so any kind of poison is out of the question. I am going to tidy this place, but I`m on a low budget so I must rely on myself which will take time. Nevertheless, the main issue is: IF i get rid of the rats, what to do NOT to get them back?! there are fields (cultivated for crops), hedges, walls, nooks and corners everywhere.. One of the sheds is new, wooden and on the concrete floor but i must rat-proof it and I don`t know how. The other one should be demolished but it belongs to my mate, and he needs it so all I can do is to help keep it neat. David, drop me a line, please, any kind of support will be a bonus after my today`s "adventures"... Kind regards, maya
My response: You've already done a good job by starting to clear out the clutter. But to keep them out of the cottage, you've got to find and seal the entry holes shut. Don't worry about how many rats and mice are outside. Inspect the house and find out how the rodents are getting inside. Seal up every single last entry/exit hole and gap with steel. Trap, properly trap on rat runways, ALL the rats, and remove them from the house. Clean up the attic space or home once they are all gone for good.
Boston Rat Control Tip of The Week
Can Rats In An Attic Destroy The Insulation?
If you have rats in your attic, one of the things you need to be concerned about the most is your insulation because these rodents are capable of destroying the insulation of your home. Being the major part of your roof that helps to absorb the heat coming from outside and prevent it from escaping into your home, you can't afford to keep having those rats nesting in your attic.
Maybe you are wondering what the rats in your attic have to do with your insulation to the point of destroying it? Right here, we will be enlightening you on how the activities of rats in your attic can destroy the insulation of your roof.
The first reason why rats will seek out to destroy the insulation in the roof is that the soft material of the insulation is good nesting material. As a result of this, they will continuously tear the insulation, remove the materials, and then use it to build their nest in the attic.
If the rats are not removed from your attic quickly, they will multiply in number and that will increase the rate at which they tear and remove material from the insulation in your roof, leaving the insulation void.
Apart from the physical damages that rats cause to insulation, these rodents use the materials of the insulation as latrines, which usually causes stains on the surface of the insulation. When this accumulates over time, the dusty particles of the feces on the surface of the insulation will begin to escape into your house and begin to cause several airborne diseases.
Having shared this, you need not waste any more time to get rid of the rats in your attic. If you don't swing into action quickly, the damage they can cause will cost you more than you ever expected.
