5 Everyday Habits That Lure Rats Into Your Home

Rats excel at living among people in both rural and urban settings.  As warm-blooded mammals, their basic needs are similar to ours: food, water, and shelter.

So, as temperatures begin to drop in the fall, our warm homes become attractive homes to them.

Once inside, these tiny terrors contaminate our food with their urine and feces, spread disease, and damage our property by gnawing on wood and electrical wires.

Although rats and mice are uninvited guests, there are everyday things we do that make our homes a more likely target for an infestation.

The Termite Lady reveals that changing these five habits can act as a rat deterrent:

1. Maintaining outdoor food and water sources. Don’t keep pet food in bowls in the backyard. Feed pets indoors as rats like dog and cat food.
   Keep birdseed in sealed containers and hang bird feeders that rats cannot climb to. Empty water bowls when pets are indoors. Keep trash tightly covered.
2. Overlooking kitchen crumbs. Keep kitchen counters and floors clean. Easy-to-forget places include under the toaster oven and by the base of the fridge.
3. Storing pantry items in their original cardboard packaging. Rats can chew right through cardboard. Store indoor food in sealed plastic containers.
4. Holding on to too much clutter. Cardboard cartons, piles of paper, and stored clothing are favorite materials for rats for building a cozy nest.
   De-clutter and store important items in sealed plastic tubs.
5. Letting the yard go native. Maintain a tidy yard. Trim tree branches that could allow rats to climb onto your roof, store firewood at least 20 feet away from your house, and train any vines to climb on free-standing trellises.

Changing these habits is not only good for discouraging rodents — ants, spiders, cockroaches, termites, and more are all looking to take advantage of vulnerabilities in your home.

Call for Professional Pest Control Help

When you see one rat or mouse, you can bet there are more. Rodents reproduce profusely, so it’s imperative to eliminate them as quickly as possible. Ecola provides free inspections and offers  eco-friendly pest control solutions. With DIY solutions, you can never be certain you eliminated them all. Ecola will also close up all openings where rodents can come in and clean the infested area so more rats won’t come to replace the ones you just got rid of.

Call Ecola at 800 471-BUGS (2847) to schedule your inspection. Free estimates are also cheerfully quoted over the phone!