San Francisco County, San Francisco Rat Control Situation:
I found you my doing a web search and happen to see that you used everything I have used, but I have not had the success you have had!!! Please David I hope you can help me. I live in San Francisco in the Oakland area on the cities eastside. I live in a gentrified neighborhood where they are tearing down abandoned homes and this is when the rat problem seemed to start. I started having a rat problem about 2010. Our street once upon a time had at least 8 feral cats, but now you hardly see any now. We at one time had zero rat problems. I have always owned cats but when my cat died in 2007 I switched to dogs. Now the male dog I have is a good ratter. I've seen him stomp rats to death. However, the problem is superseding his ability and on any given night I will see rats running around my kitchen 2 or 3 around the same times. I also think I have roof rats as I see rats upstairs that look and act different than the rats downstairs. So I'll sit and wait with my BB gun and hope I will hit one, which is rare. They almost seem to be able to read our minds and anticipate our next tactic. I have tried the Vector rat traps, baiting them with peanut butter, marshmallows chicken grease and they will eat the bait of and leave the trap untripped. I bought the cage traps, baited with dog food and the first few times did catch some but then the dilemma was I couldn't kill them like that, so resorted to poison and at first was killing them great then I started finding their droppings with the green in it and they were still running around. They soon learned to avoid the cages and poison. I brought a zapper; it was great for the mice I caught , but zero rat has been caught!! They also got into my basement by digging along the sewer line. My son has a red tailed boa ,which we thought about putting there, but it's too risky he would escape somewhere. I tried electronics and that just doesn't work at all! These ghetto rats are SUPER SMART. i went to a professional exterminator and he was telling me that this was probably one rat doing this and that some of the things I was telling him they do just wasn't true so i didn't use his exterminating services ,but, did buy the poisons from his retail store and place it as he instructed w/o relief of this problem. They steal too. When all their food sources were dried up, they came in my living room and nawed a rat head sized hole in the stiff plastic bag and stole 1/2 of a 1# bag of hard ginger candy and took it somewhere. There wasn't a trace. I stored my dog's food in a lidded tupperware container and they knawed right through that. My camera is missing, which was on my kitchen table,. Yesterday I was looking for my dish towel and they had put it under the kitchen sink as they had [artially pulled it through the kick plate., They stole paper $5 money from my son's table and it was found inside a hole in the wall. I found where they chewed through mortar so remortared those areas only for them to do again. They are destroying my home and my peace and I am almost ready to just burn this house down (figurative speech). I see them outside like squirrels looking at us and I've called the city and they have done nothing! Is my house possessed by rat demons or is this a living earthly rat infestation that can be eradicated? Can you please give me some advice and direction, please?? Thank you, Ellen
My response: I have had rats steal my camera in the past too. I think it's probably a living earthly rat infestation. You need to find out how they are getting into your house, and seal those holes shut.
San Francisco Rat Control Tip of The Week
The Reasons Why So Many Rats Live In Big Cities
Since ancient times, rodents have noticed how humans have created comfortable dwellings that in turn often house large amounts of food. The invasion of people's homes and privacy by rats is due to their constant search for shelter and food.
Rats can chase man wherever he goes, in order to continue to benefit. These animals can have a great capacity to adapt to the different environments humans live in. The rodent's diet consists of anything and to get it they can gnaw, climb, jump, run, and even swim.
A Big City To Share
With the settlement of large cities, human beings have grown in population and their consequences on the planet too. The environmental pollution of large cities represents a serious danger caused by people themselves. However, for rats, it has represented the peak of their population growth rate.
Human beings transporting themselves from one place to another, wherever they go, will take the rats along with them, having to share their cities. These animals have become pests to many people because it is exactly in the habitats of humans that they find the perfect conditions to live comfortably.
The More Garbage, The More Rats
Rodents can be phobic animals, that is, they fear new places and prefer to move through the same paths their whole lives. The exploratory and inquisitive instinct that characterizes rats is due to their need to survive in the absence of shelter. Rodents consume one-fifth of the world's food supply each year. The garbage dumps in big cities, day after day, are filled with new food remnants that provides rats with everything they need to survive.
Today, it's very likely that you'll come across a rat in any city in the world. However, people take care of their homes by being advised by professionals who teach them ways to combat this urban pest.
