Berks County, Reading Rat Control Situation:
David, Thanks for having such an informative website. We've recently gotten over our second round of rats in the basement. We have had a pest control group helping us, pretty much with bait throughout the basement. It's certainly worked, but boy is it not fun to follow the smell to the dead guy. It seems we have been free from seeing any droppings for a few weeks or any signs of activity. The strange thing is that in the past week we have had hundreds of house flies that we are dealing with in the basement. I'm assuming the problems are related. We've been going down to vacuum all visible flies (every 4-6 hours). Each time we easily find another 20 to suck down. We aren't smelling the familiar smell of a dead rat, is it possible it's there but beyond the stench phase? Any suggestions? The flies aren't congregating in one spott, they tend to hover around the windows. Any chance you service Reading PA? Could really use someone as yourself to complete the inspection of the basement for possible other entry points and removal of any additional insulation that may be harboring feces. Ok, I appreciate any input you could provide.
We have 5 cats, three are usually indoors all the time. Sometimes they bring in a mouse or rat and it gets away. And then the rodents can live in the house for a long time and the cats don't care one little bit unless the rodent just happens to make a dash across the room in broad daylight - and gets spotted. Otherwise, it's home sweet home for the rodents until I snap-trap them into oblivion. I would add that if you know you have mice or rats, deal with it as soon as you can. We had a mouse get up inside our washer and chew through 7 of the little control wires to the control panel, killing the washer and necessitating a $50.00 replacement part, and later causing a flood from a leaky hose that cost me $200.00 to fix. Had we taken care of him earlier this could have all been avoided. I agree with you about glue boards. Seems needlessly inhumane. Just put yourself in the position of the rat: you want to go out quickly or be stuck on a glue board until you starve to death?
Reading Rat Control Tip of The Week
Are Dogs Good at Keeping Rats Away?
Having rat problems automatically comes with the need to get rid of them. If you have a similar challenge in your home, chances are that you are already thinking about getting the natural enemy of rats to help keep them away. While cats seem to be the most commonly used animal when it comes to keeping rats away, dogs can also play a similar role and even do it better.
There is no denying the fact that cats are great at keeping rats away, but these animals are opportunistic hunters, which simply means that they only kill rats when they see one. Also, as they become older, they begin to develop a lackadaisical attitude towards the hunting and catching of rats.
But in the case of dogs, their hunting spirit becomes fiercer each passing day, and they can be quite aggressive hunters. Also, when dogs become familiar with you, they become territorial and will do everything possible to satisfy you. The moment the dog figures out that you want it to help keep rats away, it will work tirelessly to get this done and will always be on the lookout to catch a passing rat.
To take advantage of the supreme hunting skills of dogs, all you need to do is to get a breed of dog that is very active and train it to follow your commands. Once you can do that, the dog will help keep rats away from your home.
