Bucks County, Quakertown Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, First of all, thank you for your beautiful website, absolutely great! My wife and I are looking into renting an older single family house in a rural area near Quakertown PA, actually closer to Pennsburg. However, the house has been empty for 3 years, and the attic, crawl space, and older wooden garage show a lot of rat poop and urine traces, particularly visible in the garage. The previous renters also confirmed that they had a rat problem. The house interior walls and ceilings will be re-painted and it well get new floor coverings. Pending painting and new floor coverings, the landlord had the garage power washed and, although we have not seen it yet after the power wash, this seems to have washed away (washed to where?) the rat poop, etc. The landlord is also willing to hire a professional to help get rid of the rats and seal the access holes; since the house may need to be tented for termites, the thought is that this may also kill most of the rats. My questions are: 1.Will the termite tenting in deed also kill the rats? 2.Even if most rats are caught, and/or killed during tenting, and the access holes are sealed, what are the health dangers of rat cadavers that may be under the attic insulation, or inside the walls? 3.What is the health danger of remaining rat urine and poop traces in the attic (insulation), crawl space (dirt), walls, garage wood work, yard, etc.? 4.Aside from health danger issues, how long will the smell of rat urine and poop be around, and can this smell still penetrate through newly painted walls, ceiling, and new tile/wood floor coverings into the living spaces? 5.Last, but not least, do you know anyone in the Ventura County area who has experience with the humanly removal of rats? (Catch alive and release somewhere else?). 6.Alternatively, is there anyone you could recommend in the Ventura County area to help us with this?
So last December had Taurus fuel pump replaced and yes, a nice nest to sleep when not chewing wires discovered upon dropping fuel tank. As 2001 older car and with USAA for 36 years, talked them into homeboy rewire with junk yard wire harness vs. salvage car. With rat feeders ten feet from outside condo parking,they really love my car's wires! (actually worse as 4-5 years ago spent a small fortune on recurring shorts and wires-mechanic loved me but of course would not bust the rats- $1200 later) Heck only have 100k miles on the 2001 Ford and about to retire and need some help to keep the vermints elsewhere-maybe another older Taurus 2 chew on-trained cats-stuffed giant rats nearby!!! Attice boys we have-no prob-they come in sometimes in winter-car is prob 1.
Quakertown Rat Control Tip of The Week
Are rats hibernating creatures?
Rats are nocturnal:
Rats sleep a lot even without cold conditions. The average rat will sleep between 12 to 15 hours a day and in colder conditions they will often seek warmth so that they can sleep safely for this amount of time. Because rats often walk around at night, detecting them can be somewhat difficult. Making sure that you can detect them often means checking into areas where they could nest or remaining somewhat attuned to what is going on in the night time when they are most active.
Rats breed throughout the year:
Even in the wintertime rats are continuing to breed, make their nests, and live without any issues. They don't hibernate during winter. Instead, rats will continue to breed. Most rats are able to wean a litter in about one month and leave the babies to fend for themselves after that period of time.
Rats will seek spaces to live:
Even though they don't hibernate, rats will seek warm and safe conditions. This means that in the wintertime it's likely that they will be looking for space inside your home where they can spend time sheltering throughout the winter. Spotting areas were rats can get into your home can be important to preventing an infestation.
Food gets scarce in winter:
If you are in an area where the climate gets cold this can lead many rats to find an area where they can access food much easier. Rather than getting stuck with very little food supply over several months, they can detect food that's in your home and then stay close to it.
