Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, I came across your website and found it extremely informative. We are in the process of home inspections on a house we want to buy. It is in a great neighborhood at a fair price. The homeowner died recently so there is no one with any knowledge of the home's current condition and history. Yesterday we had the general home inspection and found piles of rat droppings underneath kitchen drawers and under the kitchen sink, dead rats and piles of droppings (I mean tons!) under the house, a two-foot pile of attic insulaton under the house where the rats were carrying it out of the attic via inside the bathroom wall, and depositing it down there. When the inspector opened the attic crawl space door, piles of droppings fell out. The house has a faint bad odor. There are entry holes all over the house. We will be bringing in a rodent expert for an estimate. My question to you is, when is this too much to clean up and disinfect? We have two young children 5y and 7y, and I worry about the residual health impact of the droppings and urine. Can we ever live in this house and not worry about our health? Also, will the clean up cost add thousands of dollars to our home cost? Thank you! I am looking forward to hearing from you! Sincerely, Heidi
Kalamazoo Rat Control Tip of The Week
Are rats hibernating creatures?
Rats are nocturnal:
Rats sleep a lot even without cold conditions. The average rat will sleep between 12 to 15 hours a day and in colder conditions they will often seek warmth so that they can sleep safely for this amount of time. Because rats often walk around at night, detecting them can be somewhat difficult. Making sure that you can detect them often means checking into areas where they could nest or remaining somewhat attuned to what is going on in the night time when they are most active.
Rats breed throughout the year:
Even in the wintertime rats are continuing to breed, make their nests, and live without any issues. They don't hibernate during winter. Instead, rats will continue to breed. Most rats are able to wean a litter in about one month and leave the babies to fend for themselves after that period of time.
Rats will seek spaces to live:
Even though they don't hibernate, rats will seek warm and safe conditions. This means that in the wintertime it's likely that they will be looking for space inside your home where they can spend time sheltering throughout the winter. Spotting areas were rats can get into your home can be important to preventing an infestation.
Food gets scarce in winter:
If you are in an area where the climate gets cold this can lead many rats to find an area where they can access food much easier. Rather than getting stuck with very little food supply over several months, they can detect food that's in your home and then stay close to it.