East Baton Rouge County, Baton Rouge Rat Control Situation:
Good morning,I was just looking at your web site and I hope you can help. We have a wooden shed in our garden, and have found rat droppings inside. We put some poison down and they took it, happy days you say? Next day more fresh droppings so we put traps down with rasher in them, come back the next day bait is gone, they took bait without setting off the traps. So I set about adjusting the traps to make them more sensative and reset them I go out this morning and they have done it again bait gone and NO rat . Please help as this is causing no end of problems for us, many thanks Brian
David, Thanks for putting this awesome resource together. We've been fighting rats in our attic since we purchased our house a year ago. We've had three companies out - right now we have Terminix but they are just setting traps, glue boards, and bait around the house outside. We've done the fox urine thing as well. I've sealed every opening I can find, but they seem to still find a way in. Oddly, they seem to stay around the master bedroom/bath - we even hear them now under the bathtub, which is a recent development. Last year I put wire mesh screens clamped down on all vents leading up to the roof. I'm going to try calling Pest Tech as I need a complete solution. Thanks again for the informative resource.
Baton Rouge Rat Control Tip of The Week
Rats And Black Pepper
Rats eat almost anything. In their search for food, they can gnaw on plastic, wood, and even electrical wiring. A rat presence in your home can cause a lot of economic damage.
When this expense is added to the health problems rats' body fluids can cause, the best thing a person can do is getting them out of the house as soon as possible. The most common extermination way is using traps or rodenticides. However, there are more natural methods such as the use of peppers that cause unpleasant odors and tastes for the rodent and quickly drive them away.
Odors That Repel
Using repellents with unpleasant odors for rats is a way to keep them away from you in a friendly way. The advantage of not having to deal with the rodent's carcass can be worth the effort of constantly using these temporary methods. Rodents use their sense of smell to socialize as well as to survive. An odor such as ammonia often drives them away because it is very similar to the urine of large animals that could devour them. Spicy odors are perceived as dangerous chemicals that are also often avoided at all costs.
Black Pepper
Spicy food odors are unbearable for rats, thanks to their high capsaicin content. These natural compounds give the food its spicy effect, but they are also often very irritating to the mucous membranes and lungs of rodents. If ingested, they can cause a burning sensation in the taste buds and olfactory glands. Pepper is known to be able to scare away rats temporarily although this is not scientifically proven.
For all those people who are afraid of having to deal with poisons or homemade traps, finding new and less harmful options is a headache; however, homemade repellents like black pepper avoid harming other animals and humans, being a perfect choice. In any case, even if they are harmless odors, it is advisable to seek the advice and follow the instructions of a professional in the field.
