Jackson County, Kansas City Rat Control Situation:
My mother has a medium size varment running around and we have put snap traps out only for it to get away with the peanut butter. waste of good peanut butter! The strange thing is it's eating the philadrium plant taking leaves off. not touching lucky bamboo in water ot the amarilys bad spelling. can you tell me why? Anyway, I've got a dozen traps baited with peanut butter on the obvious trails up there. My question is: should I put traps on top of the insulation (I've got loose blown insulation), on the joists (which aren't quite wide enough), move the insulation out of the way between the joists and put the trap on the ceiling drywall, or something else? I kind of did a mix for this first run, and I guess I'll figure it out eventually through trial and error, but I'd welcome any advice and any other tips would be greatly appericated. gail
I read the articles on your web site. Back in August, I had a new roof, soffit, eavesthrough done. Everything appears fine, the company did a great job, no complaints. About 2 weeks ago, we stated to hear scratching noises in the attic between 2 - 4 am. The noises are in the light to medium range, it does not seems to be a large animal such as a racoon. So, I have no idea what is up there, but I obviously have to deal with it. I walked around the house and up on the roof to see if I could find any entrances. I could not find any. Would you have any idea on what animal would be up there at this time of year. I live in Ontario Canada, about 30 miles west of Toronto. I'm going to start with setting mouse traps. Any advice/suggestions would be helpful.
Kansas City Rat Control Tip of The Week
Can A Rat Have Rabies?
Rats have powerful bites:
Rats can have very powerful bites and are capable of damaging the skin quickly. A rat can bite through cinderblocks to get into an area if it needs to. Rats could bite through clothing or manage to break the skin even unintentionally with a very quick bite. Handling rats with care or using heavy gloves is recommended if you have to remove one or relocate it. It is ultimately best if you avoid handling rats whenever possible.
Many people are bitten each year with low rates of infection:
Rats bite over 50,000 people in the USA each year. Rabies vaccine shots are very rarely delivered in these cases and the risk for other types of diseases that rats carry can be far greater. Going to see a doctor about a rat bite can be wise if you are starting to feel some of the secondary symptoms or it looks infected.
Rats do spread disease:
Rats do spread a series of diseases including rat-bite fever. It can be transmitted through a bite or through pets. Rabies can be a deadly disease but most of the diseases that rats pass on are only able to cause the chance for fever and infection which carry lower rates of mortality.
Other animals can be much riskier to receive bites from:
If you are bitten by other animals like raccoons, coyotes, woodchucks, or skunks, this will give you a much riskier chance of receiving something like rabies. When bitten by a rat, you should be concerned but you may not have to run to get the bite checked out with the same urgency.
The main theory of low rabies cases:
A rat would have to survive a bite from a predator in order to become a carrier of rabies. As coyotes and larger animals will be likely to kill a rat in an attack, this leads to the chance of rats not being able to spread rabies at all.
