Muscogee County, Columbus Rat Control Situation:
Hello David. We live in Georgia in a double-wide mobile home, & are having a problem with rats underneath in our insulation. A few years ago, my daughter lived in our mobile, & when we moved back in, we discovered that, because of her habits of leaving food & garbage around, our house was terribly infested with roaches, & that we also had rats in the house. After trying lots of roach traps & sprays, we still had roaches, & finally got rid of them with boric acid. Now we turned our attention to the rats. My husband came home with poison & snap traps, but because of fear for my pets, & also not wanting to kill them because I keep pet rats, I bought a humane trap. Well, we caught a couple of babies, but because I tried to transfer them to another container so I could catch more before trying to release them, they escaped, & then they became too leary of the trap, so we caught no more. Then I bought an electronic zapper, which does kill them quickly, but only one at a time, but it seemed to have gotten them out of the house, that & cleaning up food messes. Now we are having a problem again. I have them in a small travel trailer, & also in the insulation under our mobile home. They must also be in the walls because I found droppings coming out of the crack between my tub & shower wall. Since there are many openings in the skirting, it is easy for them to come & go, & even if we were to fix the skirting, I'm sure they would find a way in. It is very difficult to go under the mobile because it is not very high, & you have to snake crawl most of it, & a lot of the insulation is torn down. Another problem is money. In these difficult times, money is very scarce, so we don't have hundreds of dollars to pay a pro. Treating this problem in a mobile home is a lot different then treating an attic. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can handle this problem?
Columbus Rat Control Tip of The Week
Why Using Poison Causes Dead Rats In The House
Unintended Victims:
Using poison can be quite risky as you could put your pets as well as young children at risk. If you're laying down rat poison throughout your home, it's possible that it could easily become targeted by toddlers who might be attracted to the small size and colors. Your pets could also be taking an unplanned trip to the hospital if they happen to ingest any of the rat poison as well.
It's Harmful To The Environment:
Using rat poison not only causes dead rats in the house but it's also harmful to the environment. You could end up with a predator in your home that's scavenging off of the dead rats, it could kill off some of the plant life in your area and it can lead to the chance that you might end up with other animals falling victim to the rat poison as well. Many homeowners have woken up to find a bobcat, fox, or coyote killed in their backyard from ingesting a rat that ate poison or from ingesting the poison themselves.
It Also Doesn't Solve The Problem:
Rats are finicky creatures and you might end up with just a few of them dead in the house before they communicate with one another and begin to avoid the areas where you place down poison and traps. Rather than facing ongoing difficulty with poisons and not getting all of the rats out of your home, choosing a different method could be a wise choice for making improvements for the future.
It's Often Time-consuming:
You might end up having to change out the poison or change your trap location on a regular basis just to capture a few rats. This can often be more time-consuming for you and your family.
