What should I do if I find a nest of rats in the attic?

Chances of rats nesting in a person's home are quite high. Pregnant female rats are very likely to seek shelter, food and safe ways to bring their babies into the world in a person's home. Rats will get inside the attic in various ways. They might climb using vents, pipes, trees and plants, they might also chew through roofs, walls and window frames. If you have any holes and gaps in your home, chances are that the rat will use them to enter your home. but , what should you do if you suspect that you have a nest of rats in your attic?



Sadly, there is no humane way to remove these rats and let them live. Rat babies will reach maturity after only several weeks, and they will be able to mate and procreate soon after that. It is critically important that you find a way to remove these rats from your home as soon as possible. There are several methods you can choose. You can choose to hire professional service to do this for you, or you can set up traps. Either way, you will need to identify the exact location and the number or rats in your attic.

If you decide to hire professional pest removal company, you should observe the rats and determine their exact moving patterns and total count. Make sure to carefully count babies within the nest. Write this information down, so that you can pass it along to the pest removal expert. After the company finishes removing rats from your home, make sure to perform a detailed disinfection. If you decide to trap rats, you can choose between cage and death traps. Since relocated rats are not very likely to survive, a more humane thing to do would be to set up multiple, up to 20, death traps and use a good bait that will not attract other animal species, like bread. Wait for a few days to make sure that all the rats have been exterminated.

Read here about How to use one-way exclusion funnels to remove rats without trapping them and more about What equipment is needed to trap a rat?<.

After you become completely certain that there are no more rats in your home, you should proceed to seal any holes and gaps that rats might use to enter your home. Even an inch-wide hole can become an entry point for a rat. Fix and maintain your household, to make sure that you don't experience any rat infestations in the future. Also, after rats are removed from your home, disinfected to remove any bacteria that may have remained.

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