The telephone just never stops ringing here at North Fulton Exterminating when it comes to frantic folks having problems with critters in the attic. It's amazing....especially in the wintertime when it is cold. Every now and then, it turns out to be a raccoon or 'possum, but the vast majority of the times, its rodents.....rats, mice and squirrels!
Rodents (gnawing animals) love the attic. Yep. It was definitely made for rodents. That's mainly because the attic provides "shelter from the storm", if you know what I mean. The attic is dry, warm, quiet......no predators and no people. Just right for snuggling up for a cold winter's nap and having lots of little babies in a safe environment. Insulation makes great nesting material too!
The two most common rodents found in attics are roof rats and gray squirrels, but flying squirrels are frequently there also. And, sometimes, you find all three inhabiting the same attic. Oh....I forgot to mention mice. That makes four!
People don't like the hear critter activity in the attic at night. Gnawing, scratching, bumping and thumping and squealing sounds above your head when you are trying to sleep can be distracting. You wonder if the little buggers are going to end up in your bed at some point. (We'll get to that later!)
When we inspect an attic for rodents and find evidence of an infestation, the first thing we do is try to identify the particular species. It makes a big difference in the treatment method. You do have to figure out how they got in, but getting rid of the ones that are there is the first thing we need to worry about. After the infestation is eliminated, we can worry about plugging up all of the holes and cracks so others can't get in later on.
The most common way they get in is through the gap between the fascia and the roof decking, although they are not above chewing a hole right through the siding. This gap is, supposedly, to allow for ventilation in the attic. Sealing it with galvanized screening or flashing is a really big job and usually costs a lot of money. Very few people know how to do it correctly because they don't understand the absolute maniacal tenacity of squirrels and rats once they've made up their mind to do something.....like get back into your warm, cozy attic! (especially if their babies are in there)
As I mentioned earlier, the treatment methods vary according to the species you are dealing with. We can eliminate rats with lethal traps and poisonous baits, but the baits don't work with squirrels because, for one thing, squirrels just don't care for the bait and secondly, it is illegal to poison squirrels because they are classified as a game animal in Georgia. Rats are considered vermin. Like I said, squirrels won't eat the bait in most cases, simply because they don't like it. Dogs will eat a lot of things that a cat would never touch, and vice versa. So it goes with squirrels and rats.
The quickest and surest way to get rid of rats is to bait them and the best way to get rid of squirrels is to live-trap them and release them somewhere else (at least 15 miles away or they will come right back). Baiting rats with poison gets rid of them quickly in most cases, but it sometimes leads to a nasty odor problem. This can be very distracting, but it is temporary and in most cases it is far preferable to living with live rats in the house.
Rats and squirrels, although they are both rodents, are very different critters when it comes to their treatment of your lovely home. Squirrels live in the woods and the trees and only come inside to sleep and have their babies. They spend almost all of the daylight hours outside foraging for food....mainly nuts and seeds.... in trees and on the ground. During the summertime, they might avoid your attic all together, preferring to construct nests high in the branches of trees or inside hollow trees. If a squirrel does ever find itself inside the living quarters of your home, it will soon panic and begin to destroy the entire room in an attempt to get outside. It will chew the window frames into a thousand slivers and splinters and knock over everything that is not nailed down as it climbs and bounces up one side and down the other, ripping drapes and shredding curtains in a desperate attempt to be free. I have seen the inside of homes after a panic-stricken gray squirrel had been trapped inside for a day or two while the owners were away and all I can say is.....I'm glad it wasn't my home! The destruction is incredible. Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often because squirrels just don't like to explore the entire house. They are normally quite content to stay in the attic for the night and head on back out to the forest in the morning.
Rats, on the other hand, are an all together different story. Roof rats are classified as commensal rodents. Commensal means, "lives with man" or "shares man's table". And share man's table they will!
Roof rats don't live out in the woods. No sir. They live in homes just like yours and mine. They have lived in our homes for thousands of years and they are perfectly adapted to an indoor lifestyle. They live in our homes and eat the food we provide for them. (If you have a bird feeder and, especially if you provide sunflower seeds for the birds, you can almost be certain that, at night, roof rats are coming to the feeder for the sunflower seeds.) If rats end up inside your home, you can know for certain that they came from one of your neighbor's homes. And, if you get rid of your rats and don't take the necessary steps to seal the cracks and gaps that allowed them to gain access, others will follow. You can be sure of that.
I once found evidence of a rat on my screened porch and so, just as an experiment, I set three rat traps and left them there 24 hrs. a day for 2 years. During that time I caught 36 roof rats......all of them attempting to find a way inside my home. I could do the same thing in any neighborhood and get similar results. Most people would simply be amazed at how many rats are really out there!
If rats are in your attic and you don't get rid of them, they will eventually invade the rest of the house and take over. They will get into your pantry. They will drag your bananas and apples from room to room. They will eat your bread and chew holes in every food container they find that isn't made of metal. They will pee and poop all over everything in your house. They will chew holes in your sofa and recliner to get the stuffing for nesting material and chew holes in carpeting and gnaw away at the bottom of doors in order to get into other rooms. They will cause major flooding when they chew holes in water hoses behind your dishwasher and washing machine. They chew electrical wires and cause short circuits and, in some cases, fires. Eventually your whole house will stink of rat urine and droppings and you will be opening dresser drawers and cabinets and finding litters of little wiggling pink, naked baby rats and having big, huge, ugly rats leaping out right in your face!
This would be an extreme case and most folks simply aren't going to let things go that far. They will take action to get the rats before the rats get them. We did, however, catch 53 rats in one home over a 5 night period once and it was not a pretty sight. The owners had already moved out!
Rats are associated with the spread of serious diseases such as Salmonellosis, Typhoid and Bubonic Plague. Breathing the invisible dust from their droppings (feces) can cause serious respiratory problems and droppings from mice have been directly linked to the deadly Hantavirus. Rats and mice shed thousands of hairs all over everything.
Oh....and you wouldn't believe what a rat or even a mouse can do to the inside of an automobile. (They are attracted to the engine warmth after you park it, and they will take up residence there in a heartbeat and literally destroy the upholstery and wiring!)
Bottom line......you don't want rats in or around your home under any circumstances. If you have them, don't mess around. They are extremely difficult to trap and you don't need to be playing around with poisons unless you are a licensed, trained professional. Each year in this country, well meaning folks attempt to use pesticides and rat poisons in an attempt to save a few bucks and it leads to disappointing and in some cases tragic results. My advice.....Don't do it! Leave rodent control to the professionals who are trained and equipped.
Once the infestation is eradicated, you MUST have all gaps and holes sealed that allow rodents access to the structure. If you don't do it quickly, more rodents will be there.....you can bet on it! If your rodents are eradicated and you don't do the follow-up exclusion work and you end up with more rodents of the same, or different species, don't be upset when you have to spend more money having more rodent control work done.
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