Do you have some little mischiefs you didn’t invite to your home? They might seem and smell unpleasant. Yes, you got it right. I am talking about the little rodents called rats. Rats are carriers of many dangerous diseases that can be risky to human life. Let’s do a thorough analysis of rats.

What do rats survive upon?

Rats can live in rat colonies as well as human settlements. They benefit from several things from humans, which makes it convenient for them to live around them:

Food

Rats are omnivorous animals. They are expert scavengers which scavenge through garbage and devour food that has been left out. Rats can eat small birds and mammals.

Water

Rats do not need to drink water directly. This is because they get adequate water through the food. They drink water through sewer pipes or dripping walls.

Shelter

In the wild, rats rely on grasses, bushes and other plants for protection. A rat will seek sanctuary in homes, beneath wooden furniture, behind walls, or in dark, seldom-used areas. 

Reproduction

Brown rats may give birth to up to 2,000 pups in a single year. With a less than a month gestation period, it’s simple to understand how populations may swiftly outgrow control.

You’ll notice an increase in droppings and damage as rat populations develop in or around your home.

Rats are harmful to humans’ ease

Increasing rat populations put you in danger of contracting diseases spread by rodents. Rats are notorious for distributing a wide range of illnesses. They’ve recently been discovered to be Hepatitis E carriers, infecting others with the virus. Many of them are infected with typhus.

Procedure to Get Rid of Rats

Go step by step through these points to get rats out of your house:

1. Full Inspection

You must first do a thorough home examination to determine where they are coming from. Inspect the outside of the house for apparent entry points, paying specific attention to broken drains, garage door breaches, holes, etc. You may plug the entry sites and place traps once you know where the rats are getting into the residence.

2. Fill The Gap

Rats do not require a human door to enter your house. They fit through the crevices of walls or the hinges of doors. Care should be taken to ensure that sizable holes in walls are mended properly. Make sure to consult a professional not to trap necessary airflow into your walls.

Without this step you run into the risk of having rats enter your house. 

You can fill holes which are not weeping holes, with cement or steel wool and caulk for long-lasting effects. Keep a check on them to ensure they’re in good working order.

You can look out for pest control experts like SIA Wildlife Control to get rid of rats and mend the entry and exit points when practical.

3. Level up house’s cleanliness 

Rats live in dirty places. A place that’s seldom or never cleaned, provides shelter and safety. Stacked up clothing over clothing, unorganized books on the floor and food wraps all over the basement is an invitation to rats.

Rats require their hideouts to be dirty because it implies humans or predators aren’t around. Try to get rid of these hiding places which would automatically take the rat’s refuge away and reduce sightings. It would be a really great method to remove the rat without killing them. You should remove items off the walls and clean up the clutter in and around your home.

Keep the garbage and food in sealed containers, wipe up spills quickly, and keep your pipes and drains dry and clean.

4. Trap Them

Trapping has been the most efficient technique to eradicate rats as rodenticides and severe poisons have gone out of favor or been prohibited. Traps are what kills rats quickly and effectively. Trapping is a non-poisonous way to control a rat infestation.

Although you should leave the hassle of trapping to experts like us. Even then, if you want to do it yourself, set the traps in the places where you have spotted the rat. Bait can include peanut butter, unsalted seeds, bananas, or apples.

5. Things to keep the rat away

• Peppermint oil is not much preferred by rats. You should soak cotton balls in peppermint oil and throw them around the places you found the rats. For maximum effects, keep repeating the activity. This will also keep your house fresh and less attractive to other pests
• Pour the instant potato powder anywhere you suspect the rats will congregate. The rats will consume the powder, but the potato flakes will expand in the rodents’ intestines, eventually killing them.

• Onions are not only repulsive to you, but they are also repulsive to rats. However, because onions decay rapidly and might be harmful to dogs at home, this hack is a bit hard. Every other day, you’d need to replace the onion with a fresh one. 
• Combine dry POP with cocoa or chocolate powder and sprinkle it in areas where rats congregate. They will hurriedly race out of your home to drink water and perish once they have consumed the combination. 
• This is the most cost-effective method of preventing pests from entering your house. Pepper is a time-honored method of keeping animals away from plants. 
• Sprinkle pepper about the entryway and adjacent places to keep rats away. You’re probably aware that mice hate strong odors. Fill small dishes with ammonia and place them near their favorite locations.

This concludes the complete guide to keeping rats away. For complete rat extermination without trial and error, call the rat removal experts at SIA Wildlife Control to have a safe and efficient pest removal.

Have you ever heard the sounds of slithering and chirping in your bed? Most of us might have heard these sounds and realized that we may have a rodent in our home. You might be wondering about the times you saw two rats dwindling in your corridor or garden.

People think that rats are like bats and that they cannot get out in the daylight. They presume that rats are nocturnal. Well, that statement does hold true but let’s check its validity throughout this article.

Do rats come out in the morning?

Rats must stay away from the sunlight! That is not true. They are not vampires who cannot bear the sun. There is still a significant probability of seeing one in the daylight. 

Rats, unlike humans, sleep in short periods, and it’s hard to predict when these little rodents stay active. In total, the rat sleeps for 12.6 hours a day. Although when you see a rat in your vicinity, they also see you, and they will run back to their hiding place, so it’s not something to panic about.

Yet, you should be concerned that they carry a lot of diseases despite their small size. Knowing this, you should be cautious while you’re dealing with the rats.

Various reasons welcome rats to roam in the day.

I can see rats in the morning!

Rats do not live in jungles or other wildlife habitats, but they live in urban areas. They do sleep in the day, but you know all the hustle-bustle in the urban cities is not convenient for any living being to sleep. When rats roam the corners of your room or garden in the morning, this does not always mean there is an infestation at your home or establishment. Still, it means that you should analyze the situation more to understand it better.

The rat may have been travelling from its nest to another rat colony when you saw it in your garden. Rats do move to a lot of distant places, and yours could be its travelling path. The curious rats love to explore the opportunities for food around safe places. They are very sneaky and curious as a species. They look out for food most of the time. Let’s look at some of these reasons for the rat sightings in the day at your house.

1. Food, Food, Food…..

This is the foremost reason for a proper sighting in the daylight.

The backyards and corners of your house have little edible crumbs of food. The rat can eat pretty much any fruit, nut, human nutrition, pet food, etc.

You should clean out your house, corners and garden properly. If your house is devoid of these food particles, you might not see these little rodents in your home. 

Any vegetable patches you may have should be sealed. A birdhouse is probably an excellent method to attract both birds and rodents to your property! The sense of smell in rats is incredible. Clean all surfaces and put everything away to reduce the possibility of spotting a rat in your backyard throughout the day.

2. Your House, Rat’s Hideout

Your home might provide a lot of protection. They desire to be in a safe environment. During the day, rats will try to go through locations with the most coverage available.

If rats picked your garden as a travel destination, it was most likely because it was one of the safest routes available. Tall grass, objects laying against the fence, piled up rubble are all examples of safe havens and highways for rats.

3. The Mighty Rat

3. The Mighty Rat

A rat that is used to being near humans might not be afraid at all. We’ve probably seen rats at the bus stations and even roaming around freely on a sidewalk as people stare in awe!

Most rats are terrified of human interaction and will go to any length to avoid meeting people, while others appear to be unconcerned!

4. No Place to Hide

4. No Place to Hide

The rat may be afraid of pets, which may have driven the rat out of its nest. If a rat has been spooked out by predators, it may have come to your house for protection.

Check the infestation

If you find evidence of rats in your roof, basement, or somewhere in your house It can mean an infestation or a presence of a nearby nest. Many homeowners will mistake other animals for rats, so it is essential to research the signs before jumping to conclusions. Call our pest control services for thorough rat extermination.

Humans and rats are both hot-blooded animals. That may clarify something about both the species’ behaviour. Do they share some similarities? Yes, they do. Rats dislike the pungent smell of the bleach-like odour, just like us humans. 

Now, don’t think you can spray a solution or mop the floors, and the rats would go like, “I am outta here.” No, I am afraid that it doesn’t work like that. This will lead the rats to the aversion to that area of your house, yet they won’t vacate it. They will keep making nests inside your roof or basement. It is better not to spray bleach at rat exits or entry points. Rats are stubborn enough to find another way in and will do even more damage to your property.  Bleach can be considered a viable solution. Yet, it cannot be a permanent one. 

Why is bleach so bleachy?

Bleach is a specific cleaning product frequently utilized to remove stains, particularly from white clothing and disinfecting spaces. In addition to eliminating filth from fabrics, the solution may clean hard surfaces such as floors and walls.

Bleach has a distinct odour to it. Even people avoid getting bleach in their nostrils. Furthermore, bleach hurts not just your nose but also your eyes. 

Why do rats hate bleach?

When you inhale and smell chlorine, you know it’s time to clean your kitchen tiles or bathroom floors. That is also why rats will not enter an area that is clean and disinfected. Rats have weak eyesight, so they take a step back when they smell chlorine-like compounds, even if they follow the odours of cheese, peanut butter, and chocolate. You should first figure out what rats consume. Allow them to smell bleach to navigate them.

How to get rodent-free through bleach?

You can mix bleach with anti-rat sprays for a DIY pest repellent. It’s just as effective as rat repellent sprays sold in stores. Furthermore, bleach’s disinfectant properties aid in the elimination of various household pests.

The secret to the successful removal of rats through bleach goes into the preparation and deployment. So, let’s look at the ways to perfect your bleach used for rat extermination.

1. Bleaching the space

Spray the area where you observed the rats come out in significant amounts. Allow the rats to escape by leaving that area open. Although the human sense of smell can endure the smell of bleach to some extent, we recommend diluting the bleach to allow you to remain in your house despite the strong odour. 

2. Disinfect the nests

Bleach may also be used to sterilize rat litter. When you put bleach on that surface, it kills viruses and bacteria. Because rats are known to spread a variety of illnesses, this step is essential. If you have minor children in your home, disinfection is very crucial. When disinfecting, use gloves, and don’t sweep the area you just cleaned since you’ll only spread bacteria all over the place. 

3. Put some more peanut butter

The pungent odour of bleach will deter rats, but if you want to entice them and poison them with bleach, mix a tablespoon of bleach with two tablespoons of peanut butter. Butter is appealing to rats, and it will mask the pungent odour of bleach. The rats die within a day or two due to the repercussions if they consume bleach. 

4. Use bleach balls

There is an innovative way to solve this problem and deal with it more efficiently. You can be creative in this step! Pour the bleach in a container and soak a fabric cloth inside it. Make a cloth ball out of it and place it at the places you don’t want rats to come. As the soggy balls are distributed all over the house, the rats are more likely to disappear.

5. Don’t let ’em enter

If you know where the rats are coming from, you can simply sprinkle bleach there, but what if you know you have rats but don’t know where they’re coming from? In this phase, you may be as inventive as you want! Make fabric balls, soak them in bleach, and place the wet balls in all the areas where you think the rats could emerge. The rats are more likely to flee if the wet balls are dispersed around the house. 

Conclusive Thoughts

Do not contact the rat or attempt to trap it in any manner since rats can be aggressive and, while rare, may attack you. The presence of a rat, which may carry a variety of illnesses, should be cause for alarm. Because rats spread diseases through their urine, feces, and salvia, act with caution. Employing specialists is a cost-effective and time-saving option because technicians have years of expertise dealing with rats in various situations.

You should call out the experts to get rid of these stubborn rodents. Our pest control service provides the best rat removal services in and around Toronto. You can call us to retake a sigh of relief in your beautiful rodent-free home.

Based on the technician’s knowledge and training, they will create an effective rodent management plan for removing rats from your home right away. During the visit, the specialist will perform an exterior check and advise the homeowner on possible entry points such as fissures, cracks, and other fundamental breaches, including vents and pipes. It’s a highly efficient way of making your home rat-free in no time.

Rats are magnificent little creatures who have a lot of unique characteristics. They reproduce fast, swim in the water, and give birth to up to 14 little rats at once. They have incisors that grow indefinitely, and they can also laugh. Yet this doesn’t mean that we should adore them and let them wreak havoc in our houses or in our residential areas. One should know the things that can make rats precarious.

Why are Rats Harmful?

Rats become a nuisance as soon as they establish themselves in your yard, garden, or home. Rats can cause a remarkable amount of property damage in a short period. When rats are around, homes, automobiles, and parks are all at risk. Rats are also dangerous to humans and pets because they carry contagious illnesses. When a rat infestation is found, it is critical to promptly eliminate the rats and guarantee that they do not return. You can also make efforts to prevent rats from coming in the first place.

Rats are wary of strangers and aren’t quite as interested as mice, although they’re considerably larger. Rats, rather than fleeing, may choose to stand their ground and may fight and bite if they feel threatened. This is just one more reason why rat avoidance is such a big subject, in addition to the health hazards rats represent. Continue reading to find out which scents may attract or repel rats.

What Attracts Rats?

If you want to get rid of rats, you must first figure out what draws them to gardens. Some plants attract rats, so you might be tempting them without realizing it. To make rat traps work, you must first understand why the rats are there. If traps are to function, whatever is attracting the rats must be eliminated.

1. Rats and mice are attracted to odours and scents from pet waste, pet food, rubbish bins, barbeque grills, bird feeders, and even unharvested fruit and nuts from plants. Maintaining good sanitation habits might help you to avoid inviting rats to your yard.

2. Rats prefer overgrown regions over open spaces because they provide shelter from predators and are a perfect site for establishing their nests. You must deny rats access to the refuge to keep them out of your yard. Maintain a tidy yard by removing any wood, brush, garbage, compost piles, dense shrubbery, ground coverings, and ivy piles since these will attract rats over time. 

3. Most rats demand a regular water source and like to congregate around it. It’s essential to get rid of, conceal, or fix any water sources for these rats. Swimming pools, leaking faucets, irrigation lines, pet water bowls, and other heads of standing water are all examples.

What repels them?

Rats have an exceptional sense of smell. There are some household methods that can come in handy to handle a small infestation. It’s crucial to realize that while rats and mice are sometimes lumped together, they’re not the same, which applies to pest control methods. A house cat or dog, for example, may help frighten away mice, but you wouldn’t want to rely on them to get rid of mice or rats. Rats can be aggressive and may cause injury to your pet. Instead, think of other rat-prevention options. Look at these readily available household items to repel mice or rats.

Mothballs

Even though mothballs have a strong, unpleasant odor, there is little scientific proof that they may be utilized to effectively repel pests such as rats. Mothballs are explicitly discouraged as a DIY repellent by the National Pesticide Information Center. Even though some rats dislike the scent of mothballs, it doesn’t imply they’ll stay away indefinitely. Rather than relying on possibly harmful or inefficient rat repellents, it’s preferable to hire an expert like SIA Wildlife Control to assist you in dealing with rats.

Peppermint oil

Peppermint oil is also a well-known way of keeping mice and rats at bay. And it’s easy to see why: it’s natural, non-toxic, and doesn’t have an unpleasant odor. The disadvantage of peppermint oil is that its efficacy varies. Experts disagree on whether or not this approach is beneficial. While it won’t hurt to try, there isn’t enough scientific proof to back it up.

Ammonia

Ammonia is said to be one of the scents that mice dislike. This might be owing to the foul odor it releases into the air. Researchers from Iowa State University wanted to see how ammonia affected mice. Mice did neither avoid nor prefer ammonia, according to the researchers. In other words, it had no effect on the behavior of mice. Even the highest dosages had no impact. Ammonia, especially in high quantities, is not recommended. Ammonia, as a compressed gas, can have severe adverse effects. Skin burns, eye damage, irritated airways, and even death are all possibilities.

Chili Oil or Powder

When eaten or inhaled, chili oil is a frequent component that can cause discomfort. As a result, it’s thought that these unpleasant effects could be enough to discourage mice if inhaled. Chili was shown to deter mice from returning to the lure in their study. However, the researchers acknowledged that this may not be feasible in real-world settings. Experiments in a controlled environment get better results. As a result, chili oil may not be a reliable deterrent for mice in your house.

So, these were all the substances that repel the mouse in your household. Although if you wish for an effective, expert, and permanent solution, you can start looking for pest control and wildlife control specialists. You can check out SIA Wildlife control for a trustworthy rat removal service.

Rodents like rats and mice make their way into warm structures as it gets colder outdoors. This time of year you may wake up in the middle of the night to what seems like scratching in the ceiling or walls. Which is a big confusion to people when they hear noises in the attic or the walls, especially if it’s their first time hearing these noises. Normally in this time of the year, we receive calls from all over the Greater Toronto Area in regards to scratching in the walls. This is a typical rodent behavior but the type of noise can be misleading. There are several ways to accurately identify the differences if you are not sure of what type of pest you are hearing.

Mice V.S Squirrel

When dealing with a mice problem, majority of the time you will hear scratching in one spot. Multiple areas are also possible but again, the scratching or gnawing will be in one spot. In some situations where the inside portion of the drywall contains no insulation the noises can be amplified. Most of the time mice movement won’t be heard, but rat movement can be. Squirrels are fast and jittery animals, which means that they can run very fast and are very active. So expect the most noise and scattering in a larger area of the ceiling or attic during the day when dealing with squirrels.

Mice and squirrel noises can be misdiagnosed. If you suspect a squirrel is in the walls or in the attic, consider the following. Squirrels very rarely travel inside the walls of the house but this situation is not unheard of. Some homes with chewed side vents can present this possibility, or younger squirrels that have fallen in between the walls. 

Time Of Day

First and foremost, when are you hearing the sound and what time of the day or night are you hearing it? There have been occasions where we arrive at a client’s home to inspect the attic and find that it has been a windy week, and a loose attachment was squeaking on the roof. So it is important not to panic, and to give a nice quiet listen to troubleshoot what it is that you’re hearing.

The time of the day is important. Squirrels are active during the day which means if they’ve sheltered in your attic, they will exit and re-enter regularly. When it gets dark they enter the attic and begin to sleep. More often than not, you will not hear a squirrel at night. They tend to be active just before sunrise and during the day time. Mice are shy and cautious rodents. You may be a light sleeper and find that you are hearing scratching / gnawing within the walls or the attic. This may wake you up in the middle of the night. Our clients say that when they tap on the wall to investigate the noise, it suddenly stops. This behavior is related to mice portraying their cautious and shy nature and it’s a great testing tool!

Evidence Of Mice

If you are able, you can check the attic for droppings and tunneling in the insulation. Pathways that are about 1-2 inches wide on the surface of the insulation are where mice have traveled. You will also find tunneling in or near these paths. Tunneling is a great indication of mice presence, they look like someone took their finger and poked through the insulation. These are pathways or highways that mice create, they mostly use the same path to navigate through the attic. Mice droppings can be difficult to find depending on the type of insulation. They resemble a dark brown colour and look smaller but similar to a grain of rice. This information can also be obtained in kitchen cabinets, behind fridges, stoves and basements.