Rats are dangerous animals that can cause serious heartache if they become residents of your home. They’re known to destroy property, tear up electric wire insulation, cause structural damage to your home by gnawing on foundations and walls and spread disease through their droppings.
On top of that, they can grow pretty large in size and can pose a safety concern due to their aggressive nature, especially for small pets and children. Because of this, it’s important that you take the necessary measures to ensure your home is rat-free, and there are step-by-step instructions you can follow to ensure just that.
Rat-Proofing Your Home – Professional Inspection
If you have any inkling that there might be some rats hiding in your home, the first step is to get the home inspected. Look up your local rat pest control service online and see if you can book a time for them to come in and do a full inspection. How the inspection will go will depend on several factors, such as whether or not it turns out there are rats in your home, and what kind of procedure the business you’ve called has. However, in general, you could expect it to go something like this:
- Making the call – since time is precious when it comes to rats – if one got in, more as soon to follow, you should make the call as soon as you think there might be a problem.
- Price, Date, And Time – based on your description of the problem, the company should give you an estimated price, as well as the exact date and time for when they’ll be performing the inspection.
- Treatment – if it turns out that there are in fact rats in your home, the company will conduct the treatment that is the most suitable for your specific situation.
- Aftercare – some companies will offer to inspect your home three more times after the treatment in order to ensure they’ve done the job well.
Rat-Proofing Your Home – Pipes And Vents
One common hiding place for rats is inside your home’s pipes and vents. Once your home has been declared clear of rats, you need to prepare everything you need – steel mesh, wire snips, protective gloves, a tape measurer, expanding foam, a scalpel, and some screwdrivers. Optionally, you might need a ladder as well.
- Check your pipes for any holes that could lead inside. Remove the grilles from the vent.
- Measure any holes, excess areas around the pipes, as well as the vent opening, cut the steel wire to size, and place it atop of the openings.
- Use the expanding foam to fill any remaining gaps that aren’t supposed to be there – bent opening excluded, and to fix the mesh to its place. Put the grill back over the vent opening. Take care not to cover any openings that are supposed to be there with the expanding foam.
- If the expanding foam reaches a bit too far, wait until it sets, and cut the excess off with the scalpel.
Rat-Proofing Your Home – Wall And Foundation Cracks And Holes
Small cracks in your walls and foundation aren’t really a problem as of yet. However, cracks in the wall can sometimes mean that that’s a weak spot that could more easily get chewed through, which is why it’s important to quickly repair them. To do that, you’ll need some cement – you can either buy it ready-made or make it yourself, a leveling tool, some masonry paint, and a caulking gun. Make sure the area around the crack is dry and clean of debris
- If you’re making the cement yourself – get a bucket, shovel, mixing stick, and putty knife. Mix it all together according to your calculation.
- If you can see any holes in the wall, patch them up with some cement first. Pour the cement into the leveling tool, and apply it to the wall, while smoothing it with some masonry paint.
- Use the caulking gun to seal up any gaps if your cement doesn’t stick together well enough on its own. Let it dry for at least half an hour.
Rat-Proofing Your Home – Crawls Space
This is a tricky spot to take care of because you can’t get rid of the rats without removing everything from the crawl space. For this part, you’ll need steel mesh, wire cutters, and a nail gun. If your foundation is made out of brick or another material a nail gun can’t get through, you’ll need another tool that can fix the mesh to its places like a drill, screws, and a hammer.
- Cover the floor of the crawl space with wire mesh, using nails to attach it to the wood frame if necessary. Measure your wall spaces, cut the mesh according to those measurements, and use either a drill or some more nails to attach it to the wood frame.
- Measure the distance between your house’s foundation and the ground. Cut off a section of wire mesh that you can create into a barrier around your home’s baseboards that will serve as protection against any rats trying to get in via the ground. Fix it in place with a drill or a hammer and nails.
While it is somewhat of a tedious task, rat-proofing your home is pretty easy when it’s all said and done, and you’ll get to relax knowing that you won’t have to deal with those pesky rodents anymore. By following these four steps, you can ensure that your home is rat-free and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. Of course, keeping an eye out on your handiwork is important so that you can maintain it and fix any mesh that might’ve moved over time.