Rats
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Rat Control
One of the common issues homeowners around the world share is an absolute hatred of rats in their homes and businesses. Rats not only cause extensive damage but also contaminate food and spread disease. This makes it vitally important to eliminate a rat problem as soon as you notice signs of it.
Damaging Effects Of Rats in Your Home
Whether you suspect rats have moved into your home or your business, ignoring the problem will have dire consequences. The most crucial of these are:
Extensive Damage to Property
It’s no secret that rats usually create a lot of damage just to get into your premises. Once inside they gnaw at everything from floorboards to plumbing pipes. Nothing is safe from them as they search crazily for items to rip and shred to create their nests.
Contamination
Rats are notorious for transmitting diseases. This is because their urine and droppings contain diseases such as hantavirus, salmonella, rat bite fever and Weil’s disease. All of these can be fatal to humans and pets. Additionally, if rats urinate in your grocery cupboards or pantry, this contamination is potentially spread to your food.
Negative Consequences of Rats In Your Business
If you’re a business owner, then you know how signs of rat infestation can affect your business. The last thing a customer of your business wants to do is see a rat! This is considerably worse if you own or manage a restaurant or any food-related business.
It’s important to be aware of how rats can affect your business. The most prominent consequences include:
Risk to Zero-Tolerance
Restaurants and other companies in the food sector require a zero-tolerance of rats and pests in order to comply with U.K. legislation. Signs of one single rat can result in fines or in some severe cases, closure.
Damage To Property and Equipment
Since rats gnaw at everything in sight, they often damage equipment such as electrical appliances, pipes, wires and computers. Additionally, they also cause damage to the structure of your building when they gnaw at floors, walls, doors and roof boards.
Financial Losses
The last thing any business owner wants is a financial loss of any kind! It’s even more annoying when it comes as a result of cancelled orders, contaminated stock or patrons walking out due to rats. Since bad news travels fast, it’ll be damaging to your reputation as well!
Common Signs of Rats and Infestations
If you’ve never had a rat infestation before, you might be uncertain of the signs to look out for. We’ve highlighted a few common signs to look out for.
- Rat droppings: You’ll easily be able to identify rat droppings in your home or business. Look out for small black pellets behind furniture, the refrigerator and on windowsills. Alarmingly, rats can produce up to 40 droppings per night.
- Scratching and squeaking noises: Rats grind on furniture and flooring and often make scratching noises at night. This can be in your home or even inside the roof. They may also make squeaking noises at night when they’re most active.
- Rat holes: The common brown rat is well known for digging and burrowing as it creates a nest. Often these burrows are created next to solid structures for support.
- Rat nests: Rats will live anywhere. This includes cavities in walls, attics, roofs, basements and even in clothing or grocery cupboards. These pesky critters will also shred any available material to create the nest. Plastic, papers, roof insulations and cardboard boxes are only a few of the items they’ll shred.
- Rub marks: Since rats have terrible eyesight, they use established routes along walls to help navigate their routes. As they brush against the walls or skirting boards, the oily residue on their bodies leaves dark smudge marks.
- Footprints: Another clear indication is little claw prints in dusty areas such as windowsills.
- Noises around your outside dustbin: If your outdoor dustbin doesn’t have a tight lid, you’ll hear rats climbing in or out during the night.
- Musty smell: If you notice a dank, musty smell in rooms or cupboards that you don’t often open, it could be rat urine that you’re smelling.
Practical Tips to Prevent a Rat Infestation
While finding signs of rats in your home or business can be quite alarming, the good news is, that there are a few steps you can take to avoid the issue altogether. The number one way to combat these pesky critters is to rat-proof your home or business as much as possible. We share a few of our most effective tips for doing this.
- Eliminate their access to food and water: Like other pests, rats are attracted to places they can have easy access to food and water. This means keeping your space clean and free of crumbs or open food. This includes pet food and water.
- Store food in strong airtight containers: Since rats can gnaw through just about anything, it’s crucial to store food in strong airtight containers. This includes cereals and rice.
- Clean often: Regularly wash counters, sinks and areas where food could be spilt. This includes behind or underneath your refrigerator, dishwasher and stove.
- Secure dustbins: Keep indoor dustbins sealed with solid lids. Outdoor dustbins should also be cleaned regularly to avoid rats moving in there.
- Tidy outdoor area: Keep the garden and patio area clean. Don’t include organic waste in compost heaps and move wood piles away from the house.
- Keep outdoor drains clean: Rats are excellent swimmers which put your drains and outdoor pipes at risk. Ensure these areas are clean and free of garden debris which could make great hiding places
Combat Pests Top-Notch Rat Control Solution
At Combat Pests, we understand why it’s necessary to keep your home and business rat-free. That said, we’ve developed an effective rat control solution that will get rats out of your property and keep them out! This is what you can expect from us:
- Pest control experts with more than a decade of experience in the industry
- Modern solutions customised to the specific needs of your building – these include thermal imaging, motion sensors and drain surveys
- Ongoing pest control contracts to keep your premises pest-free
- Specialist services that include humane pest control
- Waste carrier services to remove the “after-effects” of rats such as nests
- Options for 24/7 call-outs
When to Call Us
It’s important to remember that there’s never only one rat. Never assume that the lone rat you’ve seen dashing across your windowsill is just passing by. If you see a rat, its droppings or hear gnawing it’s important to call us immediately.
Our experts at Combat Pest Solutions are waiting to rid your home or commercial space of a potential rat infestation. Simply call us on 01183 801544/07972 189648 or email us at info@combatpestsolutions.com. The Combat Pest team will not only rid your home of pests but share methods to keep them out for good!
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