Saint Lucy County, Port St. Lucie Rat Control Situation:
Hi there, I'm glad I found your website, its been pretty informative, and helpful in reassuring me a bit. Ok, so me and my boyfriend just moved into a rental house 2 months ago, and we've been hearing scuttling in the ceiling crawl space, and I've noticed when I turned on the oil heat, that the odor that comes out of the ducts with the heated air smells like dead rats and urine, and every time we had the oil heat on at night, I would wake up with a slight feeling of throat irritation and like my nasal passages hurt, but since the summer we haven't been running the oil, but I dread when winter comes... and the scuttling continues. Well I went up into the crawl space last night, after we had a talk with the property manager, and he assured us he would be out and take a look and fix it, he didn't, anyways, it was easier for me to crawl up, as my boyfriend is 6'3" and would be bent like a hairpin, I suited up as you suggested, latex gloves, full respirator, safety glasses, headlamp, camera and flashlight, even a shower cap to protect from gunk falling on my head. I found extensive evidence of rats or squirrels, poo, tunnels, chewed stuff etc.,. took loads of pics to show to the property manager. From what I've seen and smelt, I am thinking that this will cost the owner of the house a tidy sum to clean up, because I am sure this is very dangerous health-wise to live in, and this type of condition should not be allowed in a rental home or any home. This may sound like a dumb question, but I was wondering how do I convince the owner and property manager this needs to be cleaned up ASAP, professionally. Also how would the rat urine etc. get cleaned out of the ducts in an oil heated home? That seems like it would be tough to do properly and safely. Any advice or info you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
Port St. Lucie Rat Control Tip of The Week
Steps To Make A Rat Trap
Catching a rat is a pretty easy job if you have the right tools. Without a doubt, rat traps are one of the oldest and simplest methods that could be used when catching these nasty rodents.
Homemade traps are very effective for catching rats, and making them is really simple. There are infinite options. Below, we will explain all the steps to make a rat trap.
But before doing that, here are some points that you should take into account:- Evaluate your materials: depending on the materials you have, you can make different types of traps. This time, we will make a homemade trap whose main materials are a plastic bottle, newspaper, cardboard, and rat glue.
- Define specific points: there are places in your home that can be very attractive to rats, especially those that provide food or shelter: the kitchen, dining room, or holes in the walls.
- Building the trap is really simple: you can cover the surface on which you will place the trap with newspaper, and you can place a piece of cardboard on which you will put rat glue, leaving a space in the middle to place the bait, -which could be a piece of cheese-. This bait will attract the rat and it will get stuck.
Sounds pretty easy, right? But...
What Happens If The Rat Evades Your Traps?
You may be dealing with a rat that has learned to survive in the most dangerous environments, so they will completely avoid all those things that could be a threat. In this case, you must add poison to the list of materials.
If you use the same technique, it is likely the rats will evade it again. So change the strategy; you can keep the traps with rat glue but poison the food this time.
It is important to note that poisons may have a delay in taking effect, so it is important to locate the rat after it ingested the poison. If not, it might die in places that are difficult to access.
