Madison County, Huntsville Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, I found your website online -- very informative for removing rats and squirrels from attics. My problem is the animal(s), which I'm guessing are rats or mice because they only scratch at night, is in the ceiling, but there is no attic or crawl space. The structure is a two story condo and the scratching sound is in the same location for the past 2 - 3 nights: in the ceiling of the small landing between the two upstairs bedrooms. There is a recessed light in that ceiling, and removing the light cover does provide a small access into the ceiling. The actual hole is about 6 - 7" wide, but there is an old-style light can in the hole, which only has a few small openings in it. Last year prior to painting the ceiling we removed the light cover and down came some animal droppings. Even though we weren't hearing any animal noises at that time, we set two Victor mouse traps which we were able to fit inside the small openings. We didn't catch anything so eventually, we just put the light cover back on. Now, there is very active scratching in the ceiling a few inches from the light so there is definately something alive in there. If it's a mouse, we can probably set a trap like we did before and I believe there is enough of an opening to remove the trap with a mouse in it. If it's a larger critter like a rat, we may or may not be able to set the larger trap and/or remove the trap with the dead animal because the opening may be too small. Even if we are successful at trapping and removing the animal, there is little access to remove the droppings or see if they've done any damage in there. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Nicole in Huntsville AL
Between floors is hard. If you can get a trap inside, great. You still need to Inspect the house and find out how the rodents are getting inside and seal up every single last entry/exit hole and gap with steel.
Huntsville Rat Control Tip of The Week
Humane Ways To Kill A Rat
You might be thinking of the best way to get rid of the rats in your home without making them go through prolonged and excruciating pain. There are several ways to get this done, but first, you need to make sure all the possible entry points of rats into your house are sealed. Failure to do this will only make you continue to repeat the whole process of rat removal without getting the desired result.
To humanely kill the rats in your home, you need special rat removal devices like live traps and snap traps. These traps are designed to capture rats without making them suffer or go through pain before dying.
The best part about the use of these traps is that you won't even watch the rat die. All you just have to do is set and bait the trap properly. When you are back to check it, the trap will have caught and killed the rat.
Snap Traps
The use of a snap trap is one of the oldest yet most effective ways of removing rats from homes. This trap is designed in a way that captures the rat by the head and kills it instantly. Apart from being an effective way of trapping rats, setting it up is very easy. All you have to do is bait it using good bait. While the rat is trying to take the bait, the trap will be triggered and the rat will be caught. But this trap will only work when the whole head of the rat is inside the trap.
Live Traps
If you are looking for an alternative to trapping rats humanely without actually killing them, the use of live traps is a good idea. This type of trap is designed to help capture rats without causing them any pain or stress. However, for you to make sure this trapping process is humane, you need to check the trap frequently to avoid starving the rat before actually relocating them.
