If you've witnessed a live rat running through your home, you're probably wondering what to do next. It's clear that there is a problem you'll need to handle. You can have a beautiful home in an area that is safe and clean, but that doesn't mean you won't end up with a rat in the home at some point. These rodents are intelligent, and they know how to squeeze themselves into some fairly small holes. It's not uncommon for homeowners to start seeing rats when construction is taking place in their neighborhood. In fact, this may be the way the rat made its way over to your home in the first place.
The Importance of Acting Quickly
Once you've spotted a rat in your home, contacting a pest control company should be the first thing you do. It's important to act quickly for a few reasons. If you're waiting and hoping to catch the rat with a simple trap you've purchased from a home improvement store, you could be wasting a lot of time and giving the rat a chance to mate and have offspring. In addition to giving the rodent time to reproduce and infest your home even further, rats carry tons of diseases that are harmful to humans. They can bite humans and pets and spread viruses to them.
The though of having a rat in your home that has the ability to spread disease, bite, and cause a lot of harm is probably enough to keep you up at night. Although the situation is understandably frustrating, reaching out to a pest control company is the best way to get your problem solved in the quickest amount of time.
Cleaning Up the Clutter
After contacting the pest control company and scheduling an appointment to have a team member come out to your home, you may want to start cleaning up a lot of the clutter in your home. The ideal home for a rodent is one that is cluttered with paper, boxes, clothing, and other items because then it gives them plenty of options when they're looking for hiding places. Because rats are intelligent, they know how to carefully hide out while the humans are awake and then they spend most of the night lingering around looking for food to eat.
If you have any cardboard boxes you're not using and won't need in the future, throw them out. Start going through all your papers and shred the stuff you don't need anymore. Go through toys and toss out the stuff that isn't important. Do a little bit of cleaning each day to make a significant improvement by the end of the week.
Capturing and Removing Rodents
You may have spotted one rat, but that doesn't mean it is the only rat living in your home. In fact, there could be others, and the pest control professional will look around for evidence of that. A pest control professional will look for assorted signs of the rodents, such as their droppings as well as the nests they often create in dark areas where they can usually go undetected. Once the evidence is found, the professional will come up with the right approach to take based on the situation in your home.
The pest control process may include putting out bait stations to capture any rats that are currently living in your home while checking for entry points. Any holes throughout the home are sealed to keep all rodents out. The professional may need to come back to your home to check the bait stations and remove any dead rats from your property.
If you don't want to share your personal, private space with any rats, you'll need to hire professional pest control and start working on getting rid of any clutter you might have. Rats are smart rodents, but it's still possible to get rid of them. For more information, contact a local pest control company.