How Rat Populations Get Out Of Control And How You Can Stop It!

Seattle has rats.  For those of you who have dealt with them before, this is an obvious statement.  But, for those of you living in the Seattle area that don't realize this yet, you will.  I used to work for a pest control company in Portland and we had some rats, but nowhere near what we are seeing here in King County!  Hundreds of years ago, there were not any rats in the area.  The entire filthy, disease ridden population was brought here on ships and has just kept reproducing until we arrived at the problem that we now have.

I go into homes everyday (especially in the city of Seattle) that are torn to pieces by rats and horribly contaminated. So, why are some homes so bad and other homes in the same neighborhood completely untouched?  How can you avoid an out of control rat problem in your home? 

The answer is usually prevention.  Here is a typical scenario that leads to big trouble for a home owner.  A rat gets underneath the home because a foundation vent was left open.  Once the rat gets in there, two things start to happen.  First, they start to leave feces and urine around, contaminating the crawl space and other rats become attracted to the smell.  Basically, the scent tells them that other rats are living under your home, so they can join them.  The problem gets worse and worse as the population grows.  Secondly, when female rats are in a place that feels safe and warm they reproduce at a faster rate and there is not a safer warmer place than in your crawl space.

So how do you stop this from happening?

Some simple prevention can stop this whole scenario from unfolding.  First of all, make sure that there are not easy entry points that they can get through.  Do a quick walk around the home and look for golf ball sized holes or larger.  Make sure that they are not getting in through a wide open screen and check for any burrow holes.  If you see possible entry points, you should probably call a Seattle pest control company to investigate underneath your home.  The last thing that you want to do is plug up their exit and have them die in the walls.  Secondly, remove any conducive conditions.  Conducive conditions would include food sources like pet food left out or things that they can hide in like tall grass, wood piles, etc.  If you were to just do those simple steps, you could be saving yourself thousands of dollars in repair costs.

If you think you have rats under your home or in your attic, the very best thing that you can do is act quickly.  Every day you waste, the problem can get worse.  If you are hearing scratching or seeing other signs of activity, please give us a call as soon as possible and we would be happy to help you out!  Here a Seattle pest control coupon that you can use towards a rat treatment.