Albemarle County, Charlottesville Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, My name is Nancy my family and I live in Charlottesville Va. and we have had a rat problem in our house. We hired a company for rat removal and got rid of the rat problem for now. However the rat(s) were living in the ceiling in the basement laundry room. There is feces in the ceiling and the removal control recommended we pull down the ceiling which is just thin wood paneling, in order to remove the feces, and take away a place for them to hide in the future. After reading your website we are concerned about having my husband do this work. I'm pregnant an we have a small child in the house as well and don't want to be stirring up potential illness or problems. Also there are a lot of electrical conduits attached to the ceiling which we are concerned about. Do you think we can do this ourselves, or do you think we should hire a professional if you recommend a pro, how do we find someone to do this work? Everyone we've found just seem to be about removal of the rats, not clean up.
Dear David- Help! Need man. However, I am a single gal of retired age -semi rural. I am about to use a cylindrical attachment for drill to cut a 2 " drywall plug out of bathroom wall. This bath was added on. The noise does not always come from the same "section" so I am about to guess and go along the wall avoiding studs and taking plugs out (under counters) until I get to him/her. Then I will put a live rodent trap up to the hole and hopefully remove it that way before it dies. Question: Does this approach make sense? If I wait for a man to come help I fear it will die in the wall.
Dear David, We had heavy rain this past spring in the Charlottesville Virginia area ( so much for the drought) and there was a huge exodus of rats and mice into all of our homes. It was so widespread that traps were sold out in a 50 mile radius. Recently I pulled the bottom cushions of a sleeper coach up to turn them and discovered large clay colored dropping ( it was almost the size of rabbit food pellets) all over the back part of the seat area. Then a mouse or rat ran out a few days later. I believe it was in the mattress for some time. They also came up from a heating vent in a little used room. I am concerned about using the heat since they are under my house in the crawl space. What kind of company could I call to remove and dispose of the mattress safely? Would I be able to use a fabric safe disinfectant to save the couch and then replace the mattress? It is a very expensive couch that I wish to keep. I had my ducts cleaned a few years ago and I wonder if that loosened them and made it easy for the rats to get in.Thank you
Charlottesville Rat Control Tip of The Week
What Are Some Symptoms Of Rat Diseases In Humans?
Although rat-transmitted infections can have different causes, they usually have common symptoms. The difference in each infected person will depend on the type of condition, mode of transmission, and the urgency with which treatment has been sought.
From the moment we confirm the presence of rats in our home, it is essential to get rid of these rodents before they start filling the house with unpleasant smells and dangerous secretions full of bacteria and infections that are harmful to our health.
Common Symptoms
Some of these common symptoms can be general malaise, fever, dizziness, nausea, headache, chills, and muscle pain, among others. However, depending on the type of infection or disease, bacteria, or virus, the symptoms can be even more severe and need more drastic treatment.
Among the most common diseases caused by rats, we have:- Tularemia: an infection that can cause excessive sweating, eye irritation, joint stiffness, skin rash, and weight loss.
- Leptospirosis: an illness whose symptoms include nausea, fever, body pain, and irritation. This infection can become complicated, causing Weil's disease, meningitis, and pulmonary hemorrhage.
- Hantavirus: an infection whose most common symptoms vary from fever, chills, dizziness, pain throughout the body, and digestive problems.
- Bubonic Plague: known as the Black Death, it is a high-risk bacterial disease that can cause death. It has symptoms such as coughing up blood, diarrhea, vomiting, and delirium.
- Salmonellosis: an infectious disease whose symptoms include vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, dehydration, and blood in the stool.
- Typhus: a high-risk infectious disease that includes body pain, rash, cough, and vomiting amongst its symptoms.
Each of these infectious diseases can be contracted in different ways, either through direct contact with some contaminated element, through an open cut that has come into contact with rat secretions, or through a rodent bite. The latter could be one of the most worrisome, since this way it is much easier for the infection to enter the body.
