Pima County, Tucson Rat Control Situation:
David, Can you please help me with some advise and maybe a referral for a local professional in Tucson AZ? I live in a mobile home and hear rats in the walls and ceiling at different time including during the night. I had a professional general contractor put very fine metal chicken wire called "hardware cloth" all around the bottom of my mobile from the edge to the ground attached to the stackered white bricks with screw drilled into them. There might be some very small gaps in different places, but no sign of rats getting in like black marks from their fur, rat droppings or urine stains any where outside. I even put screening around the the very small roof vents. I also previously had a friend come by who is in the pest control business and he looked all around the outside and just could not find where the rats are coming in at. I was using Decon for about 7 or 8 months, but now switched to a very strong blocks of rat poison from a local Do-it-Yourself Pest Control store. I always put the poison out under a small hole under the very fine metal hardware cloth in two different places and then block the hole off with a brick. I bought a 9 pound bucket for $39 and they already ate about 2 1/2 to nearly 3 pounds of it and I am still hearing them. *** Why is the strong blocks of poison not working, do they get amunity to it? Last year I even brought Rid-Ex Plus that turns your whole house wiring into a sound they do not like. It worked for a while, but not does not seem to affect them at all. It comes on for 3 minutes and then shuts of for 3 minutes (so they do not get use to the sound waves) and keeps repeating the cycle 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
How in the rats world are they still getting in my walls and ceilings voids? Can the rats be possibly tunneling or travleing through the underground the sewer pipes? *** Why is the strong poison not working? Do the rats get amunity to it after eating it for awhile? *** If there are dozens of them, would I not at least see one outside once in awhile or some signs of them? Where is there food supply? A few doors down are a few fruit trees, but would they not move closer to them? A tree right next to my place has these really small berries, could that be what they are eating? Should I move out for a while and not use any air conditioning, so the walls will get to hot for them to live in? I am at wits end and really need your advise and/or a professional to probably come out and help me get rid of these rats.
Tucson Rat Control Tip of The Week
Reasons Why Relocated Rats Don't Survive Out Of Their Usual Territory
After trapping a rat in your home, you will have to decide either to kill it or relocate it. If killing a rat doesn't go down well with you because it makes you feel inhumane, you will be left with no other option but to relocate it.
If you have decided to relocate a trapped rat into a new territory, you need to understand the fact that it might not survive. Despite being a very smart household pest, rats find it very difficult to cope in a new environment for several reasons. The following are the reasons why a relocated rat won't survive out of their usual territory.
The first reason why rats won't survive in a new environment is that they are accustomed to their old environment. They have spent their entire life studying where they stay, knowing the exact place to find water and food in order to survive daily. Transferring this survival instinct to a new environment is a quite difficult thing to do for rats. As a result of these differences, they will find it difficult to locate food and water which they need to survive in any environment they are relocated to.
The presence of predators in the new environment is another reason why rats will find it difficult to survive. Animals like cats, snakes, and birds hunt for rats and will take advantage of the fact that the newly introduced rat doesn't know its way around to capture it.
When you introduce a rat into a new environment, it is going to meet other street rats that are already accustomed to that specific environment. Rats being animals that exhibit dominance in the form of hierarchy, where the submissive group is traumatized by the dominant rats, your rat will face multiple brutal battles and might end up in bad shape in the process. Over time, they will either get killed or too weak to look for food and shelter.
All these clearly show why any rat you decide to relocate might never survive the effects of leaving your home and being transferred into a new environment.
