Dauphin County, Harrisburg Rat Control Situation:
David, I found your website very thorough and educational, especially when researching how to handle the rats in my walls/attic. I do have a question though. How do you install steel mesh barriers in the crawl space with the dirt? Won't they dig and try to get under the mesh? Unfortunately, I do not have a husband and need to try to resolve this issue myself so want to do it "right the first time". Any help you can give is appreciated.
Hi David, I found your website "Rats In The Attic" very interesting. I live in a 2-story house. My bedroom is on the second floor, and I get awaken many times at night by the sound of a rodent chewing in the ceiling, but there is no activity there during the day. I could not find any place the rodent could get in there, even from the attic. I liked your idea of setting a trap in the attic to lure this rodent from the ceiling space, and would like to get your advice. Do you have any suggestions on how I could figure out by the sound alone if the rodent is a mouse, a rat, or a squirrel - so I would set an appropriate trap? Please let me know the size of the trap and what bait should I use for this rodent. Thank you.
I have Rats in my Garage and have been using a Rat Bait plus I have a pest control company come out but the Rats do not like HIS bait but seems to be ok with the Home Depot products. What do you charge to ‘take care' of these pasty rats? I just dumped my 2nd dead rat in the trash can for this week!
What if there is scratching at 8:30 in the morning as well as around almost 11 at night on inconsistent days? Is it most likely a rat? The scratching noises arent small mouse ones . I put the fireplace on ( which i just read not to do) and deetermined it isn't in the fireplace because the scratching continued after the fireplace was on for a couple minutes. What could this be ? And outside in our very small backyard... Where are some possible entry points? Would the entry point most likely be where the rat is scratching or if the scratching is in he back yard walls the rat could have come from all the way in the front if the house (should i be looking all around the exterior if he house?)
Harrisburg Rat Control Tip of The Week
Reasons Why Relocated Rats Don't Survive Out Of Their Usual Territory
After trapping a rat in your home, you will have to decide either to kill it or relocate it. If killing a rat doesn't go down well with you because it makes you feel inhumane, you will be left with no other option but to relocate it.
If you have decided to relocate a trapped rat into a new territory, you need to understand the fact that it might not survive. Despite being a very smart household pest, rats find it very difficult to cope in a new environment for several reasons. The following are the reasons why a relocated rat won't survive out of their usual territory.
The first reason why rats won't survive in a new environment is that they are accustomed to their old environment. They have spent their entire life studying where they stay, knowing the exact place to find water and food in order to survive daily. Transferring this survival instinct to a new environment is a quite difficult thing to do for rats. As a result of these differences, they will find it difficult to locate food and water which they need to survive in any environment they are relocated to.
The presence of predators in the new environment is another reason why rats will find it difficult to survive. Animals like cats, snakes, and birds hunt for rats and will take advantage of the fact that the newly introduced rat doesn't know its way around to capture it.
When you introduce a rat into a new environment, it is going to meet other street rats that are already accustomed to that specific environment. Rats being animals that exhibit dominance in the form of hierarchy, where the submissive group is traumatized by the dominant rats, your rat will face multiple brutal battles and might end up in bad shape in the process. Over time, they will either get killed or too weak to look for food and shelter.
All these clearly show why any rat you decide to relocate might never survive the effects of leaving your home and being transferred into a new environment.
