Berks County, Reading Rat Control Situation:
David, Thanks for having such an informative website. We've recently gotten over our second round of rats in the basement. We have had a pest control group helping us, pretty much with bait throughout the basement. It's certainly worked, but boy is it not fun to follow the smell to the dead guy. It seems we have been free from seeing any droppings for a few weeks or any signs of activity. The strange thing is that in the past week we have had hundreds of house flies that we are dealing with in the basement. I'm assuming the problems are related. We've been going down to vacuum all visible flies (every 4-6 hours). Each time we easily find another 20 to suck down. We aren't smelling the familiar smell of a dead rat, is it possible it's there but beyond the stench phase? Any suggestions? The flies aren't congregating in one spott, they tend to hover around the windows. Any chance you service Reading PA? Could really use someone as yourself to complete the inspection of the basement for possible other entry points and removal of any additional insulation that may be harboring feces. Ok, I appreciate any input you could provide.
We have 5 cats, three are usually indoors all the time. Sometimes they bring in a mouse or rat and it gets away. And then the rodents can live in the house for a long time and the cats don't care one little bit unless the rodent just happens to make a dash across the room in broad daylight - and gets spotted. Otherwise, it's home sweet home for the rodents until I snap-trap them into oblivion. I would add that if you know you have mice or rats, deal with it as soon as you can. We had a mouse get up inside our washer and chew through 7 of the little control wires to the control panel, killing the washer and necessitating a $50.00 replacement part, and later causing a flood from a leaky hose that cost me $200.00 to fix. Had we taken care of him earlier this could have all been avoided. I agree with you about glue boards. Seems needlessly inhumane. Just put yourself in the position of the rat: you want to go out quickly or be stuck on a glue board until you starve to death?
Reading Rat Control Tip of The Week
Ways To Get Rats Out Of My Garage
Clean Your Garage Out:
Before you begin setting down traps to work on removing rats from the area, you need to eliminate places where they can hide. Store trash and other items outside of your garage. Clean out your garage to make sure that there is no need for a competing food source or a problem with rats hiding in enclosed containers.
Setting Traps:
Setting down traps and using various methods for getting rid of rats is the next step. You can consider items like glue traps, snap traps, and certain types of poison. Rats can easily track poison around a garage so it can be important to keep your pets out of the area whenever possible.
Seal Up Areas Of Your Garage:
If rats have the chance to get into your garage, this could mean that their numbers will grow. Sealing up the ceiling and looking for signs where rats can get in can be important.
Disposal:
Making sure that you dispose of materials where rats have been can be important. Get rid of nest materials and make sure that you remove any of the rat carcasses from your garage as these can start to smell and cause other issues. Proper disposal can be a solution that will help you to remove the rats from your home and make sure they do not return.
Use Bleach:
Rats have a great sense of smell and they will often avoid areas that have been cleaned or bleached. If you have an area that has been bleached, that will often prevent rats from making their way into your garage and avoiding the area.
