Hampden County, Springfield Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Saw your site on the internet. Most informative. My concern is as follows: My wife regularly puts out a tray of bread crums on the outside (rear of house) path for the wildbirds. To day at 2.30pm while at the kitchen window she saw a 'rat' about 8-11 inches long (and as fat as was big) feeding off the breadtray then running into a cavity in an adjoining wall & repeated this a number of times. The rat after its last feed then ran down towards the rear of the garden which adjoins some other gardens and disappeared. I purchased rat poison from our local store and placed it in a covered runway at where the rat disappeared. I would appreciate your views / advice on any of this.
Hello my name is Linda and I have a problem, you are so kind to offer advice through email. I am a single middle aged woman and have just purchased my first very small home in Springfield MA. I live just barely from paycheck to paycheck or I would call a pest control so I am looking for a way to do it myself....uugh! If that is possible. Anyway the problem is I am hearing scratching in one place above my infrared heater that apparently used to be a fireplace but has been closed off under the mantle and the gas heater was hung. It has been going on for a few weeks and I hit the wall to make it stop. However, today I began to hear the scratching and then after hitting the wall I heard scratching on the wall across the room, when I hit that place I heard the running through the wall. It has calmed down now but I know this is not good. Do you have any suggestions that will not be to expensive or something that I myself may can do. Thank you for any advice you may have!!
Springfield Rat Control Tip of The Week
Will A Rat And Her Babies Nest In An Attic?
If you have a possible rat infestation in your home, chances are that rats and her babies are nesting in your attic. These rodents have a special liking for dark places with small holes where they can reproduce and there is no better place to do that in your home than your attic.
Unlike other parts of every home, attics are places with little to no source of food. So you might be wondering why they would go all the way there just to stay. Once the rats in your home decide to move into your attic, their primary objective is to go and give birth to their babies. With their short gestation period of just 22 to 28 days, you will be having an average of 10 babies from just a single mother. This shows how rapid rats can breed in your attic when allowed to.
Having realized this, you need to get rid of the rats in your attic whenever you seek out to remove other animals nesting there too. Apart from breeding in your attic, rats are very destructive. Within just a short time, they can wreak havoc in your attic by creating cavities in and around your attic.
To remove the rats and her babies nesting in your attic, all you have to do is search your attic carefully. Although, this can be a very difficult task because rats are good at creating hideouts when they want to nest. As a result of this, you might need to consider other removal methods such as the use of lethal traps, rat poisons, and sticky traps which are often inhumane methods.
If you are not too comfortable with the use of these methods, the best thing you can do is hire a wildlife removal expert to help you get rid of the rat and her nest of babies.