Rat Prevention
People do not like rats inhabiting their homes or business places. Rats are often seen invading the inside of walls, attics, crawlspaces and basements. Rats cause property damage and they are carriers of several diseases.
Now, it is a difficult task to get rid of rats once they are indoors. So it is essential to take vital steps to prevent them. There are a lot of things you can do to your property in order to make it less attractive to rats.
The following are the steps you can take to prevent rats from getting into your property.
- Inspection of your property
- Rat proof your home and workplaces
- Cleaning your property
- Keeping your garbage and food secure
Inspection of Property:
To keep rats away from your property, you need to inspect your houses and workplaces from top to bottom.
- You need to look carefully in your attics. Roof rats have the ability to dig holes in roofing tiles and they are known to build nests in attics.
- It’s important to note that rats can get into your house by chewing their way through the sweeping rubber under the garage door or other rooms.
- You should look for holes or spaces in the foundation or the walls.
Rat Proofing Your Property:
Even if there are the smallest of spaces in your foundation, it can provide rats access to your interior. So, in order to avoid such a situation, you need to get your property fixed.
Rats are able to squeeze through small spaces under doors so to avoid this, you can fit strips to the bottom as a deterrent.
- Rats are very quick and they are able to climb along overhanging branches and electric cables. To avoid this, use wire mesh and repair the damaged or spaced parts of the roof to seal gaps.
- Holes around the pipework or small openings around the utility cables also need to be filled by caulking or stainless steel wool wire. For this purpose, aluminum or steel plating can be used and should be 4 feet in height.
- It is also a well-known fact that rats get around U-bends in toilets and swim up damaged sewer pipes. To avoid this, you should make it a habit to close toilet seat lids. You can also use tight-fitting metal grates to cover drains, especially in basements.
Cleaning Your Property:
Rats can use vegetation and debris around yards to hide. One can prevent a rat infestation by:
- Cutting your grass regularly.
- Ensuring that firewood is kept away from the sides of buildings.
- Cleaning up unnecessary vegetation.
- Keeping tall grass, bushes and trees trimmed so that they cannot encroach on the place.
Furthermore, rats will eat garbage if it is not properly secured. So it is best to secure garbage and make sure pet food is not left outside, otherwise it will end up attracting rats.