Hampden County, Springfield Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Saw your site on the internet. Most informative. My concern is as follows: My wife regularly puts out a tray of bread crums on the outside (rear of house) path for the wildbirds. To day at 2.30pm while at the kitchen window she saw a 'rat' about 8-11 inches long (and as fat as was big) feeding off the breadtray then running into a cavity in an adjoining wall & repeated this a number of times. The rat after its last feed then ran down towards the rear of the garden which adjoins some other gardens and disappeared. I purchased rat poison from our local store and placed it in a covered runway at where the rat disappeared. I would appreciate your views / advice on any of this.
Hello my name is Linda and I have a problem, you are so kind to offer advice through email. I am a single middle aged woman and have just purchased my first very small home in Springfield MA. I live just barely from paycheck to paycheck or I would call a pest control so I am looking for a way to do it myself....uugh! If that is possible. Anyway the problem is I am hearing scratching in one place above my infrared heater that apparently used to be a fireplace but has been closed off under the mantle and the gas heater was hung. It has been going on for a few weeks and I hit the wall to make it stop. However, today I began to hear the scratching and then after hitting the wall I heard scratching on the wall across the room, when I hit that place I heard the running through the wall. It has calmed down now but I know this is not good. Do you have any suggestions that will not be to expensive or something that I myself may can do. Thank you for any advice you may have!!
Springfield 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.
