Lehigh County, Allentown Rat Control Situation:
Hey! Found your website and I'm hoping you can help with something! I work in the Downtown Eastside of Bethlehem PA for an outreach organization that operates single old hotels (single room occupancy) to help severely mentally ill and addicted persons get services and get off the street. I often work nightshift in different hotels, and some of them have worse rat problems than others... Sometimes I am working alone and cannot leave the office area, and a few places have so many rats that they crawl across the floor while you're working in there. I'm not able to leave, I have nobody to help me, and I just want the rats to stay away from me while I'm working! I know they get Bethlehem PA Pest Control in these buildings all the time, but unfortunately they cannot get into all of the rooms without the resident's permission! So sealing up all the entry points is sometimes impossible. This is also a frustration with bedbugs and roaches... Anyway, I am hoping there's something I can get that would keep them away from me on nightshift when there is nothing I can do about getting an exterminator in Allentown or Bethlehem or Easton. I'm also working alone with no safety equipment, so I don't want to be disposing of dead rats in traps :( Do strobe lights help for this kind of thing or is it a waste of money? I was thinking one may help keep them out of the space I'm occupying just for the time I'm there? Your help is SUPER appreciated! Thank you so much!!
Allentown Rat Control Tip of The Week
New York City's Rat Problem
The Norway Rat:
The majority of rats in New York City are Norway rats, otherwise known as brown rats. Brown rats typically weigh 1 pound and they can grow up to 16 inches long. A brown rat needs just 1 ounce of food and water every day to survive.
Agile Creatures:
Brown rats are known for their ability to climb through pipes and get through small spaces. Even though some of the largest brown rats can be up to 20 inches long and weigh more than 2 pounds, it's easy for them to fit through a hole that's the size of a quarter. Rats have some serious superpowers and are capable of falling up to five stories without any injury and leaping up to 4 feet for climbing.
Going Through Any Material:
Rats also have extremely strong jaw muscles and quality teeth. There are rats in New York that are capable of chewing through cinderblocks and sewer pipes.
Where Rats Live:
Most rats will rarely travel more than 600 feet away from the area that they were born. Most rats like to nest and burrow in soft ground as well as below ground to live in colonies. A rat colony is usually between 30 to 50 rats and the number of rats in a burrow or family is usually between 8 to 12. Rats stay close to their food source and they can often be found just a few hundred feet from where they go every day to be fed. Public garbage areas, alleyways, and more can be a hotbed for rats and NYC produces its own information portal on areas where rats are heavily concentrated.
Massive Population:
It's estimated that there are roughly 2,000,000 rats in New York City and this means that the rat population in New York City sits around 25% of the total number of humans.