Rats are a dangerous creature and when they infest you home they become even more of a threat. Rats are large rodents and they come in many species. Norway rats, large grey or brown rats that tend to live outside and enter the home through burrowing and chewing away new holes in the house. If your house is very old it is especially in danger of a rat infestation. Ship rats are very good climbers and tend to enter the house like field mice and deer mice, through the attic. They will nest in the attic and then leave to hunt for food and then come home at night. Field mice are skilled jumpers that can leap twenty times their body length and as mentioned live often in the attic which is easy for them to access. There are more breeds of rats and mice and many of them can affect southern Ontario.
Some of the dangers related to having an interior rat infestation are the presence of dander in the air that could be infected with rat feces and this can cause asthma and respiratory issues to worsen or even cause them in healthy people. They can also spread their feces on food causing a host of illnesses that can all be a threat to your family and pets’ safety. If you are smelling a musty old smell, like dampness in the air and a slight difficulty breathing then you may be smelling rats. This is one way to find them, also look for holes in and outside the house and bits of fur, and of course, feces. Rat feces small but much larger than mouse feces and far too dangerous to clean on your own. If you try to sweep or vacuum it up you risk making it airborne.
If you have a rat issue there is not much that can be done domestically aside from laying traps on the inside and outside of the house and pouring rat poison into rat burrows. There is very little that will repel rats, some home remedies are clove oil, poured into the burrow or human hair which rats avoid. This could result in success with a small infestation but the reality of domestic products is they have limited effectiveness and far lower doses than commercial products.
The best way to handle rats is to use commercial grade bait and traps. Which one works better? Neither. They are both solutions that will only truly work if you have the technician inspect for exclusion on the outside of the house. The rats live outside and use the house to find food. If you stop this transference the rats in the house will try to leave, this is where a rat one-way door comes in, leaving one or more exits open with a one-way door allows the rats to leave but prevents them from getting back in. This will eventually expel all the rats from your home and in combination with traps can be very effective for dealing with internal rats. External rats are not going anywhere, the best thing to take care of them are bait stations with commercial-grade rodenticide.
