How Are Rats Getting Into Your House?
A question we are asked time and time again, is “how are rats getting into my house“?
The answer is sometimes a simple one and sometimes, just guess-work based on significant experience, both our own and that of other professionals who have kindly shared their experiences with us.
The most common points of entry into our homes and businesses include: Rat entry via Drains:
Drains are one of the most common points of rodent entry into a property. Pesticide based control measures, are only ever temporarily effective in controlling a problem.
In the absence of any obvious external building defects above ground, it is the drains that come high up on the list of entry points.
Sometimes a drain inspection will help you confirm this, but many older properties have secondary drain systems that are no longer connected to the house. This means that lifting the floors to find it can sometimes be the only answer, and it can be a very expensive one.
Rat entry via The Roof:
The roof represents a real bonanza of entry opportunities for rodents of all shapes and sizes.
Rats often access the roof via trees, shrubs and climbing plants that grow over or into the roof and gutter. Once up onto the roof they can easily get in under the tiles, unless you have some form of proofing in place.
Dislodged roofing materials such as tiles, lead flashing or rotted timber can also provide easy access.
Where you are in a terrace or linked in other ways to adjoining properties, they might be the source of the problem and unless you have their cooperation, your rodent problem might be very hard to cure!
Rat entry via The Building Structure — Internal: Some buildings have cavity walls. If these are NOT sealed properly or NOT filled with a “FREE FLOWING” insulation material, then they can easily provide an avenue for rats to access almost any part of your property.
Some cavities are filled with fiber based insulation materials, but these are the perfect nesting and burrowing materials for rats, and once those materials are in, they are not going to come out (unless you knock the house down!).
The rats simply burrow up through the material and eventually, arrive in your loft, where the cavity stops.If your property is attached to other buildings, then rats might be able to access your property through theirs, via the fabric of the building or below floor level.
This is quite common and sometimes difficult to solve, especially if your neighbor is uncooperative, which they usually are.
Rat entry via The Building Structure — External:
Between ground level and about a meter from the floor can be found the most common points of rat and rodent entry into homes and businesses.
These faults are sometimes overlooked because they are obscured by vegetation or structures.
This is often the reason any rodents present have had the time and resources to become a problem, so managing waste and signs of activity is essential. The most common points of entry are often so obvious it’s surprising to learn they are overlooked so frequently.
Listed are some of the most common points of entry.
Defects in, or gaps around drain
Holes in walls, especially “rounded” holes where old pipes or ventilation hoses used to be.
Holes in the brickwork
Holes in The building where soil pipes exit the building at ground level
Gaps between door and window frames
Gaps under garage and workshop doors
Damaged or contrived ventilation bricks and vents Cat flaps As you can clearly see from the information above, rodent problems are here to stay and are not always easy to solve.
The most important thing to remember is the longer you leave a problem, the worse IT WILL get, the more it WILL COST, and the higher the likelihood that more SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES of rat infestation (fire, disease, flooding from damaged pipes etc) will manifest themselves.
Get further help and advice on our Bristol rat control services from our Bristol pest control team on 0117 303 5181.
Originally published at bristolpestcontrol.blogspot.co.uk on August 2, 2015.
