When most people have a rat infestation they balk at the idea of paying a professional to deal with it and assume a few traps from home hardware will help. This is a mistake. In many different ways. Using weaker traps that won’t kill the rat but will simply injure it is deeply inhumane. The rat will suffer and starve to death, or worse, still, be alive when you come to collect the trap. This is the stuff of nightmares so make sure you buy the premium plastic snap traps, that being said be very careful setting the trap and when you place the bait do it with a spoon, not your fingers. The trap is strong enough to take off fingers. If this sounds difficult and dangerous then you are right, it is. This is why professional exterminators exist, with very good life insurance and benefit plans and complex training that will keep them and their families safe. Unless you have a similar plan it would not be a good idea to try to handle a rat infestation on your own, these are not mice we are talking about. Rats are dangerous, conniving and intelligent, they are aggressive and coated in disease. If they get into your food and you do not realize you could suffer a staph infection. So if you have a rat infestation you should seriously think about calling a professional.
There are two major mouse species in North America that prey on human homes and businesses. Both rats are dangerous foreign invaders in our Canadian ecosystem. This means they came from a distant country where they had specific predators that controlled the population now suddenly don’t have those same predators. There are predators of rats like birds of prey but they do not recognize this rodent and may not want to eat it out of fear of being poisoned. They would rather eat their normal fair of wild Canadian mice like the deer and field mouse. So these two rat species, the Ship rat and the Norway rat, also known as roof rats and sewer rats respectively, are foreign invaders who have multiplied and grown to become a massive pandemic on our culture, especially in major cities. Norway rats live in the sewers and prefer underground than high up. The roof rats as are the opposite often going for the attic using their amazing climbing ability. Norway rats are incredible swimmers and can enter your home from inside the sewer. This makes it very difficult to deal with their infestations. It would be much smarter to call a professional and have them deal with the issue permanently.
