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
Can Rats Kill Mice?
Before providing an answer to this question, first of all, you need to be able to differentiate between a rat and mouse. As you must already know, they are both rodents and are quite identical. Without precisely knowing the differences between these two rodents, it will be quite difficult to know how they relate with each other and if rats do kill mice or it's just another myth.
To help you understand this in the best possible way, we will be taking a look at some of the qualities possessed by both rodents. After which we will address the main topic which is whether rats are capable of killing mice or not.
Rats
Rats are medium sized rodents with sizes bigger than that of mice. They have long tails and are very active compared to mice. The most common household rat is the black rat and this particular specie of rat is bigger than mice and also very active.
Mice
On the other hand, mice are smaller rodents with a pointed snout and small round eyes. These rodents have uniform traits; hence they often tend to look very identical. They are very docile when compared to their rat counterparts.
Having shared all these, by now you should categorically be able to differentiate between rats and mice. Coming back to the question above, the fact is rats are capable of killing mice. This habit is only exhibited when rats are faced with starvation and the only option left is to kill and feed on them.
Also, a change in environmental conditions can trigger their hunting senses and make them kill mice. Apart from any of these conditions, rats killing mice doesn't usually occur. You might have rats and mice in your home at the same time causing a nuisance.
