How To Get Rid Of Rats In The Attic

One of the most common problems for people is rats in the attic. Rats are also called commensal rodents since they survive well enough in the areas where people live. For such species as a Roof Rat, the best living place is a house. Rats usually choose the attic, but they can also live in the walls, in the basement and etc.

The attic is attractive for them because it’s very convenient to create nesting areas. A female rat can bear up to five litters of young rats a year when one litter can be up to twelve small rats. The age of bearing starts from four months. In other words, rat populations grow really fast.

Besides, the attic is also loved by rodents since it is rarely visited by homeowners. And even if you go often to the attic, this place usually stores a lot of furniture and other things, which makes it difficult to notice a couple of small wild animals. Rats also hear well, so they are ready to hide when they hear homeowners coming to the attic in advance.

In the United States, two types of rats are usually found – the Roof Rat and the Norway Rat. Roof Rats are widely spread in warm regions and enjoy life in the attics. They happen to be black in color, have a sleek coat and a long tail.

Norway Rats are different – they are brown and enjoy staying in basements more. In this article, you will learn how to get rid of Roof Rats in the attic since we cover the problem of any kinds of rats who chose to live in your attic.

Many of you can ask a question, “Do rats travel in packs?” well, they do have a company. It’s not so big, but there are enough of them for a challenging rat infestation in your house which will be difficult to get rid of. Rats quickly give birth to new generations, so four-six rats can easily create the whole colony in the house in a year.

Of course, you will notice a big pack, but they will cause a lot of problems before you see them.

Attic rats are usually thought to be more dangerous since they can affect important communications in the house. Besides, they can bring a lot of discomfort to the homeowners by their noise, their left marks, and many other things, not to mention the possibility to get an infection from a rat.Rats are dangerous carriers since they can have some infections that don’t hurt them but can cause a lot of health issues to people they bring an infection to.

You can guess that there are rats in your attic if you hear scratching or scurrying in the walls or even in the ceiling at night. These animals, as well as mice and raccoons, are active at night, so you will easily notice the noise. The noise can be different, but you should remember that rats don’t pitch, they communicate in a way that is not noticed by a human ear.

The most common sound is scratching since they can climb with the help of their claws, and they also can wrap paper or cloth with this particular sound.

Sometimes you can think, “Do I have rats in my attic?” because you have never noticed them and only heard some strange noise for a couple of times at night. If you are not sure that the sounds are produced by rats, the following features can help you understand that there are rodents in your attic or another place of your house:

• Rodent droppings can be found around food sources such as cupboards, drawers, the place under the sink and near the spots where you leave food uncovered. Rats are good at searching and finding something to eat, but they usually leave such marks not so far from places where they have found food;
• Marks of chewing on packages of food can be found if there are rats having access to your food. They can even get cupboards and shelves where you keep your products;
• Shredded fabric and paper will show you that rats try to find something to create their nests since they use such materials for them;
• The rat urine if not noticed in time and staying for some days will give off a specific stale smell. Even if rats stay in the attic and don’t go often to other places, after some time you will notice the smell from the attic;
• When rats live in the house for a long time, they can leave a lot of chewed small holes in the floors and walls. Actually, they don’t need many days to do it, sooner or later you will notice them. If you also see the marks of bites on the edges of these holes, you can be sure that they were chewed by rats or some other rodents.

But we think that an ideal way to find the signs of rats living in your house is to investigate your attic and other areas of your house like the basement regularly.

Since we have described all the possible notices of rats’ presence, you already know what you should be looking for; therefore, your search will be easy and won’t take a lot of time. The following review will show you what you can do if you find some of the notices we mentioned above.

Rats need to find food for their rapidly growing population. They are very quick and capable, they jump far and climb any place and surface. They are marvelous since they can enter any smallest hole or gap in the architecture.

Therefore, the attic is convenient for them since they can easily find a lot of places to get into and out of your attic such as roof vents, loose siding, the places of pipes entering and even the plumbing system.

In addition to this, there are a lot of gaps in the attic through which rats can get to the rest of the house in order to find water, food, or for example, ideal places for organizing their nests.

Rats in the attic can be very annoying: they leave a lot of dirt, can destroy a lot of things, and produce noise at night. Besides, rats can spread infections among people by touching their food and other things. Rats in the attic can even cost you a lot of repair works if they damage some electrical wires or pipes, which are difficult for rebuilding, for instance, those which are placed in the walls.

This is the reason why many people search the ways how to get rid of rats in the attic since they don’t want to face all the potential problems and deal with the rat presence consequences.

However, an ordinary homeowner usually doesn’t know or can’t guess how to get rid of rats in the attic. That’s why we have decided to prepare this informative article to give you all the needed information so you could remove rats or prevent rats’ infestation in your house.

How To Remove Rats From Your House

We can’t claim that we offer the best way to get rid of rats in the attic, but we can assure you that this procedure has been used by many homeowners and they were happy to completely get rid of rats in their houses. If you want to try to remove rats by yourself, you just need to follow the instructions we have prepared on the basis of homeowners’ experiences.

There are four main steps to how you can easily get rid of these rodents in your house. They are the following:

1. You should inspect the whole house: all the rooms, the basement, the attic, all the vents and etc. in order to make clear where they get in and where they have nests. Besides, you will be able to see all the destruction caused by rats such as chewed wires and others;
2. Then you should seal all possible entry holes in order to prevent them from coming again or running away to the places in the house where you can’t find them. You can use professional-grade repairs, metal screens or other things that rats can’t chew or damage. In this way, the rats inside the house won’t be able to leave their places, and the rats outside won’t find the entry hole to get into your house;
3. The third step is to trap all the rats and remove them from your home. The most common tool is wooden snap traps. You can also use traps with one-way exclusion doors. We suggest you didn’t use poison since it can be dangerous not only for rats. You don’t have to study the ways how to kill rats in the attic, since it’s easier to catch them and remove them. If you use other ways, the bodies of rats can stay in the walls or in the ceiling. This will cause a smell and rotting, and you will have to organize additional repair works.
4. The last thing you have to do is to repair all the damages such as broken electrical wires and to clean all the places where they were. You can also decontaminate the places where the rodents used to live.

VIDEO THAT WILL HELP YOU: How to Get Rid of Rats In The Attic

Watch this video the find out how to get rid of rats and mice in the attic in the 4 easy steps. Detailed instructions.

How Much The Rats Removal Costs

The cost can differ according to the situation. The simplest issue will cost you around $100. This can be when there aren’t many rats, they don’t have nests and they didn’t manage to destroy many things in your attic. If the situation is more complex, it can require more visits, home repair works, additional cleaning, and others.

Of course, you can choose some of the services in order to save your money, for instance, you can clean your attic yourself. The prices also depend on the city or town where you live.

If you are afraid of a rat in the attic or don’t want to deal with them yourself, you can call a professional so that they could do all the dirty work and you will just have to enjoy the result and, maybe, think of the following preventing works in your house.

But if you are ready to face the problem yourself, you already know what steps you can follow. In this case, you will save a certain sum of money, though you will need to dig some dirt.

What You Should Know About Rats In The Attic

• First of all, you can find a nest or even several of them in your attic. These rodents breed very quickly and productively. Nests can be in the walls as well. You should remember that rat nests are small enough and difficult to find. But if you want to get rid of rats, make sure you remove all rat nests. Although small rats can’t survive without adult rats, teen rats will replace the removed ones in a small amount of time and create an issue again.
• What damages can be caused by these rodents? Of course, they chew. Chewing on wood won’t even be noticeable, but rats can destroy such things as electrical wires or PVC pipes and other important features for living. Electric wires are dangerous because of a fire hazard. Rats also make holes in insulation, which can also cause problems during cold temperatures. They leave a lot of dirt near the places they live as well.
• Trapping is the most productive way to control the rats’ population. But it works only when the whole house has trapped in every place and all the entry holes are sealed by something that rats can’t chew. You can choose the kind of trap you want to use in order not to kill animals but to get rid of them. But you should remember that even if you want to let them away in the wild, they will be in danger of being eaten by wild predators. Glue boards are also severe in use. We think that the best trap is the common one, the standard wooden snap trap. Bait can be any you choose – rats will be attracted by peanut butter, but you can use any kind of food or don’t use any of it at all. We suppose that using rat traps is the most humane way to get rid of rats in your house.
• But what about a rat repellent? We have investigated all the possible types of rat repellents and we are ready to tell you that if rats already live in your house and have nests in your attic or your walls, they won’t work. Actually, some of the rat repellents can be effective in preventing them from coming to your attic or any other place in your house. But you should remember the other ways to prevent rat infestation, which are described below.
• Poison won’t also work if there are entry holes and gaps in your house. Some rats don’t eat poison. Sometimes poison doesn’t work even if it was eaten. Even if poison kills some of the rats living in your house, they will quickly refill the population. Besides, if the poison works, rats can die in your walls and it will be difficult to remove their smelling and rotting bodies.
• In order to keep rats away from your accommodation, you should inspect the whole house to seal all the possible entry holes, so rats can’t get into the house. You also should keep your house clean and quickly get rid of the things which attract rats into the house.
• You can remove rats away from your house yourself just following the previously mentioned four steps. Firstly, inspect all the places in your house. Then seal all the entry holes and gaps. Next, you should trap all the rats and get rid of them. After the whole process, clean the house. It can seem difficult, but we are sure that if you read more about the procedure, you will manage to do it yourself.
• The cost of rat removal depends on the difficulty of the task and the company that will do the job. The more complex the issue is, the more expensive it will cost. But you should remember that you can do it yourself and don’t hire anyone who won’t be able to get rid of rats for a long time. If you still need the professional service, you should look for the one who has the needed licenses and certifications, who offers insurance, and who offer additional services apart from removing rats such as repair works and cleanup.

What Else You Can Do To Prevent Rats In The Attic

So, we have already discussed how to get rats out of the attic when they have lived there for some time and have had some nests. But we think you should know not only about the ways to get rid of rodents.

If you have already got rid of rats in your house or just willing to prevent their infestation, you can do some things in addition to the mentioned above. Of course, you can’t fully stop rodents if they want to inhabit your house. But still, there are a few things that can discourage rats.

First of all, you should get rid of nesting materials in the attic or any other places in your house. As we have already stated, rats enjoy using pieces of paper or clothing in building their warm nests. If you store something like this, you should place it in a plastic container or bin with a locking lid. They have to be plastic because if containers are made of cardboard.

You can also remove leaves or deep mulch from your yard since they can be also used by rats for their nests.

Secondly, it will be useful if you trim tall trees in the yard. How do rats get in the attic? Rats can use trees to climb up and pass branches as a bridge. After that they find some hole or gap to get to your attic. The tree branch is also a good way for them when they want to find some food or water.

Of course, tall trees decorate your yard and you probably don’t want to cut them. But we don’t ask you to do it, you just can cut some trees which are close to the roof of your house. Without these branches, it will be much more difficult for rats and other rodents to get to your attic.

In addition to this, you can cause the rat problem if you feed wild animals and birds. You can even have some special birds’ feeders on your trees. You should always remember that some left food can attract different animals such as rats and mice in the attic. And if they detect any food, they can become interested in your house. Of course, you can continue feeding wild birds and animals, just try to do it far away from your or any others’ homes.

If you don’t need to get rid of rats in attic or even don’t have to prevent their coming, we think that this information will be useful in case you will move to another house or will be able to help your friend or relative.

In Closing

So, as you can see in our review, rats can be got rid of by yourself. Of course, it’s not so easy, but if you accurately follow the steps described above, you will be able to do it yourself without the need to invite a professional a pay them some sum of money, which usually happens to be large.

The review has described all the steps of the rats in attic removal. The things that you should remember to do in order to get rid of rodents is to investigate the whole house, to seal all the entry holes and gaps which can be used by rats, to catch all the rats and to remove them from your house. Of course, you will have to clean up all the places where rats lived and could go.

As you can see, getting rid of rats in the attic is not so difficult when you know all the needed steps and have seen the instructions. You don’t need any special tools which you have no idea how to use. Everything that you will need is the material to seal all the holes and gaps through which rats can get in and out of your house and rat traps.

We hope that this review will give you a helping hand and you will be able to deal with your rat problem!