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Controlling the Rat Per the New York State Health Department, if rats are living in your neighborhood, there are steps you should take, even if they aren't in your home. Rats move freely in and out of buildings in the neighborhood, so any steps that your neighbors take to control rats will encourage them to move into a nearby building (maybe yours!) Rats can thrive on just an ounce of food and water daily, so when they enter a neighborhood and gain access to meat, fish, vegetables and grains, they will stay. Rats prefer to feed in and around homes, restaurants and businesses. But they will settle for scraps from trash bags and cans, private yards and what they find at the community disposal and transfer station. Rats get shelter from tall weeds and grass, fences and walls, rubbish piles and abandoned appliances. |
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Check for freshly dug earth near holes around foundations, walls and embankments. Look under sidewalks, floors and platforms. Check for rub marks, dark smears along hallways, or near pipers, beams, edges of stairs or around gnawed holes. Check near walls, food
supplies and pathways for droppings. Fresh droppings are dark and soft; old
droppings are hard, or gray and brittle. Fresh droppings are sure sign of a
current infestation. |
Getting Rid of Rats The best two ways to remove rats are traps or poison. Both require caution! Choose wooden base snap straps, and enlarge the traps by fastening a 2-inch square of cardboard to each trigger. Set out several traps at a time, at least 10 if you think there are many rats. Place the traps behind boxes and against walls, so that the rats must pass over the trigger. Fasten peanut butter, raisin bread, bacon or gumdrops tightly on the trigger. Don't let the traps run out of bait, and be sure to check them regularly. Warfarin, Chlorophaconone and Pival are all
rat poisons. They work by making the rats' blood unable to clot, so the rats
die of internal bleeding. Rat poison must be fed daily for six to ten days.
Read the label before you begin, and be careful to follow all the
directions. Watch out for children and pets! Read the label to follow how to
dispose of unused poison safely. |
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