Wyandotte County, Kansas City Rat Control Situation:
I pray that you receive my email. My house in Kansas City was infested with roof rats this year while my Daughter and four year old grandson were living in the house. I was living in the back guest room. They were continuously ill with flu symptoms and moved out. We had hired Tru Pest Control to help with the rats with no avail. Finally after they moved out the rats disappeared. However as my husband and I removed some built in cabinets in the family room, we uncovered two rat holes, nests, lots of feces. We disposed of the cabinets and haven't done anything else since. We are still living in the guest room in the back of the house. We do not have any rats. The house was built in 1940. The main house which was infested with rats has original wood floors and the entire front house has a crawl space. The guest room was originally a garage so it sits on the ground and has a cement floor. I am 58 yrs old, my husband is 59 yrs old and has been disabled since 1992. He has had his aortic and mitral heart valves replaced with mechanical valves and has a pacemaker. The BIG question is, will the house ever be safe for us to live in again? The decontamination sounds brutal and I am very sensitive to chemicals. We will never own the home free and clear in our lifetime. Should we even attempt to fix it up to live in or move??
Kansas City Rat Control Tip of The Week
Why Are Mothballs And Ammonia Ineffective At Repelling Rats?
When it comes to repelling rats, the use of mothballs and ammonia are quite common, as many people consider using them to help keep rats away from their home. Despite how common these repellents are, their effectiveness is still questioned.
Mothballs and ammonia emit a strong smell that is believed to help repel rats by making them feel irritated, with the hope that the effects of the smell will make them lose interest in staying in a particular place and keep them away. The fact is, this might seem effective at the onset. But within a short time, these repellents lose their effectiveness and will no longer be able to repel rats.
Rats are covetous. When they see a need to stay around your home because there is abundant availability of food, they will ignore the effects of these repellents and continue with their activities. This simply means that if you choose to buy either mothballs or ammonia to repel the rats in your home, provided they see a greater need to stay, you will only be wasting your time because neither of the two repellents will help you in making your home rat-free.
Instead of using any of these repellents to help keep rats away from your home, you can focus more on making your home rat-proof. To do this, all you have to do is fix all the cracks and holes in your house which could serve as an entry point, get a very agile cat to help hunt them, and also keep your house and surroundings clean by removing trash. These are better ways to repel rats when compared with the use of mothballs and ammonia.
