8 Tips to Help You Keep Your Home Rat Proof

If you already have an infestation of rats in your home, it will be hard to get rid of them without help of professionals.

Your best bet is to prevent them from getting into your home. To do that, here are our top 8 recommendations:

1. Combine your efforts with other members of your community

If you are having a rat problem, it is highly likely that other members of your community are having the same problem.

So, why not combine your efforts with theirs to get rid of these rats from your neighborhood.

2. Use poisons and baits outside your home

To prevent rats from spreading poison inside your home and make your home dangerous for you and your family, make sure you use them outside your home.

Before using any poison and bait, be sure you have read and understood the directions. Always, keep the bait out of the reach of children and pets.

3. Use traps within your home

Use best rat trap within your home, but make sure you place them where you and any member of your household can always see the traps. The best rat trap can help you to deal with the start of an infestation by catching one or two rats that may have found their way into your home.

If you don’t like the idea of killing a rat (yay! Animal preservation), but you are sure your neighbors won’t mind having a live rat roaming the neighborhood, you can use live traps to catch the mice, then, set them free.

4. Make sure your floors and countertops are always clean

You are inviting rats and even mice to your house by failing to sweep up spilled crumbs or food scraps on your floors or countertops immediately.

If you have pets, your home is susceptible to rats because they love to eat pet foods. Hence, make sure there are no bowls of uneaten pet food on the floor.

5. Prevent them from having a place to live

Debris such as unused appliances, old cars or limbs are useful habitats for rats, remove them. Make sure you store any wood piles or lumber you may have at least 18 inches above the ground and at least one foot away from your main building or the walls. Since rats usually hide under heavy vegetation, make sure you clear any heavy vegetation.

Also, ensure that trees, shrubs, and limbs are at least four feet from your home.

6. Keep your compound clean

When your compound is clean of any debris, rats won’t find anything to eat around you.

Thus, make sure:

• Your garbage cans should always be covered.
• You pick every ripened produce from your garden and trees (provided you have one).
• Sweep every compost fruits and vegetables that are on the ground.
• Your outdoor pets are feed during the day, and no leftover foods are lying around.

7. Block any form of openings

Rats can live holes, cracks, gaps or any opening of similar dimension. Hence, make sure you fill them. You can use materials such as cement, caulk, hardware cloth or steel wool to seal them up. If the cracks are large, the most effective material you can use to seal the large cracks is a weather-strip door.

8. Always keep your doors closed

As winter approaches, rats always seek warm places to stay. If you keep your garage doors open, you might be attracting them into your home.

Each time you are entering or leaving your garage especially with your car, make sure you close the garage door at once. Also, always close your basement windows and your sliding patio doors. You should only open them when they have protected screens. When it’s getting dark and before you go to sleep, check all entries including the garage door to make sure they are already closed. Make it a habit of checking all your entries every night.

Conclusion

So, there you have it – a quick and easy eight proven tips for making your home rat proof.

Now there’s just one thing left for you to do – act! And do it today, because the sooner you get started, the sooner you can start keeping your home rat proof.

However, if you already have an infestation of rats in your home, it is best for you to call on professional rat exterminations. Do not try to deal with the infestation by yourself; you may harm yourself in the process. For the best and the fastest results, call in the experts.