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
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.