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Professional advice and resources for nuisance rat and mouse problems.

Rat & Mouse Control & Removal

Need rat or mouse removal in your hometown? Click here for our 2013 nationwide list of hundreds of wildlife removal experts, serving all 50 states!

How To Get Rid of Rats: There is a great deal of wrong information and ignorance regarding rat control. Many extermination companies and people resort to poison use for rat control, and this is a big mistake.  For a list of many reasons why, read my rat poison page. In short, poison does not solve the problem and creates many additional problems.  The proper way to solve a rat problem is by stopping the root of the problem.  If you want to get rid of rats in your house or attic, you must first find out how they are getting in, and seal off those entry points permanently.  Once that is done, the rats should by physically trapped and removed from the building, as seen in my photo to the right.  It's also a good idea to clean and decontaminate the mess that they've made.

Please read my below information, and my rat blog for useful information regarding rat and mouse control.
Click for my rat removal photo gallery.
Click my awesome rat removal journal blog!


After you read the below information, in the event that you wish to hire a rat removal company, you may want to see how much does rat removal cost?

To get rid of rats permanently, you need to follow four important steps, as shown in the below graphic. First, you need to perform a full inspection of the home, from top to bottom - under the house and on the roof, anywhere rats or mice can find an entry point. A mouse in the attic may have gotten in at ground level. Next, every last entry point that rats and mice can use - and they can squeeze through amazingly small areas, must be sealed. Seal with steel, something rodents can't chew through. They can even chew through concrete. Next, you need to perform rat extermination, but under no circumstances use poison. What is the best way of how to kill rats? Not with poison, but with actual rodent trapping, with snap traps. There are many effective brands, but with many years' experience, I like the wooden Victors the best. If you have rodents in the attic, then you have to set the traps in the attic, on the rat runways. Trap placement is very important. Look for the droppings, runways, and brown fur grease. Rodent removal is a very exact science, and it must be done correctly if you want permanent rat eradication.



Rat info: The most common nuisance rats are the more northern Norway Rat, or Brown Rat, and the more southern Roof Rat, also known as the Black Rat. Rats are commonly associated with urban areas. They will go wherever they can find food and shelter, and that often includes buildings. Although they may look large, they need only a tiny hole (the size of a quarter) or a 1/2 inch crack to fit through. Black and Norway rats will consume many different types of plant and animal foods. They also contaminate food with their urine and feces. Rats are carriers of many different diseases, they contaminate food, and sometimes bite. Rats are primarily nocturnal. Even though they often live for less than a year, they can breed in large quantities.

Mouse info: The house mouse weighs less than an ounce. It can fit in a crack of only a quarter inch. They can and do get everywhere. If your house has food and has any small openings, eventually mice will find their way in. House mice eat many types of food but prefer seeds and grain. Mice are primarily nocturnal, they can dig, they gnaw like all rodents do, and they can produce a tremendous number of offspring.

Nuisance concerns: Most people complain first about the noises that the hear in the walls and attic, the scampering and running and sometimes scratching.  They chew on wires, which can cause a fire hazard and anything else they can get their teeth on.. They eat your food and contaminate far more than they eat, often spreading diseases that pets and humans can contract. They leave droppings in the attic and everywhere they roam, and these droppings are also often disease ridden. They spread filth and pestilence, and many diseases are contracted via rats.  Some examples of rat diseases that can be spread by rodents are Salmonellosis (acute food poisoning), Rickettsia Pox, Hantavirus (via droppings), tapeworm, infectious jaundice, and tularemia. I highly recommend attic decontamination services if you've had rats living in your attic. I also recent wrote some articles about rodents in the walls of homes and buildings, including rats in the wall and how to get rid of mice in the wall.

Wondering how to get rid of rats? There is no magic spray or device that you can use to make rodents in the attic or house go away. Some people try to sell various rat or mouse repellants such as predator urine, such as coyote or fox urine to get rid of mice, but that doesn't work. They also try to sell ultrasonic sound emitters. These devices are worthless at eliminating rats. Some old wive's tales recommend the use of mothballs or ammonia-soaked rags to make them leave, but I've been to countless homes where these techniques failed - biologists know that these attempts won't work. The ONE AND ONLY WAY to take care of your problem is with trapping and removal of the animals, and in sealing up buildings to keep rats out. If you need to find a professional trapper in your hometown, just click our comprehensive list of hundreds of rat removal professionals, and you can have your problem quickly taken care of!

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