Knox County, Knoxville Rat Control Situation:
I own a 2 story w basement corner row house in Knoxville. Last night while asleep on the couch in my first floor living room, noise in my ceiling by the front wall woke me up. Sounded like the scurrying of 1or 2 mice. Joists run the width of my house, from the outer wall to my neighbors house, so that space leads to nowhere. No food, water, or other openings are available. Should I be concerned, should any (?) action be taken?
One story concrete slab house with rats in attic. I have sealed up every hole to the attic I can find. The last thing I did was put the 1/2" wire mesh on all the vent pipes on the roof. The wire mesh on all the stacks, seemed to fix my problem, but about 2 months later they are back. I put up some security cameras in the attic and at bottom of a double wall space for plumbing, and can see the rat coming down and going up at bottom of a 2" pvc vent pipe obscured by a wall between two bathrooms with a tub on one side and shower on the other. The vent pipe is for the tub and shower. From the top of wall in the attic, I was able to cut out around the pipe and see down the wall about halfway down the 2" pvc vent was split (offset) maybe broke during construction where 2 pipes were joined together. Could not see actual chewed off part, but is probably there. I can see that the rat could get in there, but my question is where or how is he going outside besides into the sewer? The top is sealed with the wire mesh. I can fix the split pipe easily by tearing out the shower wall, but do you think that would fix the entry problem? How long can rats stay in attic without going outside for food? Do attic rats tunnel under a concrete slab house for entry?
Knoxville Rat Control Tip of The Week
What Can I Do About A Trap-Shy Rat?
There are instances where rats tend to be trap-shy by trying as much as possible not to get too close to the trap to avoid getting caught. This particular situation can be a result of several reasons. The first and most common reason is that the rats have witnessed other rats getting trapped. Another reason is that the rats might be scared of the newly introduced object along their route.
Whatever the reason might be, getting the rats to put aside their fears and go for the bait requires a whole lot of planning and patience. Right here, we will be taking you through what you can do to stop the rats in your home from being trap-shy.
Aside from being a very common household pest, rats are habitual and will study their environment as much as they can in other to easily detect when something goes wrong or differs from the way it used to be. This naturally prompts them into being trap-shy when they notice the unusual new trap in their environment.
To stop this and make the rats in your home attracted to baits, you are going to have to take your time and repeat the following process continuously. The first thing you have to do is to make the rats in your home feel comfortable around the traps. To achieve this, all you have to do is place unset traps along their route and let them move around it without getting trapped. Naturally, rats like to move around on sawdust. You can also place sawdust on and around the traps to make it more appealing to them and make them feel comfortable and safe around the trap.
After doing that for a while, you can then go ahead and set the traps with bait. To increase your chances of trapping them, you can choose to place sawdust on and around the traps.
