If you’ve been noticing the tell-tale signs of rats in your walls, it’s important to act 
quickly. Due to their strong rodent incisors tearing up insulation, wiring, and beams you might find they have already created costly and potentially dangerous damage. While not imminent, shortages in wiring can cause power outages, sparks, and fires that start inside your walls and electrical units, and rats left to die of natural causes can release a terrible odor into your home.
Things to Look out For
Your first sign of a potential intrusion may be the evening and nighttime scratching sounds coming from the walls or ceilings. If you suspect rats, check for these potential problems:
- Feces in attic, basement or along walls
- Urine smells or stains on ceiling, floors, or walls
- Nests in attic
- Chewed or gnawed on electric wires
What to do Next
Two effective ways to get rid of rats include poison and traps. In the case of rats in the walls, poison might not be your best option. Because it is not immediately effective, a poison gives rats the chance to retreat before dying. Then, you’ll either be left to endure the stench of dead rats in the walls or be forced to cut into the walls and remove them. Furthermore, you would also be endangering any children or pets in the home. On the other hand, baiting and trapping is a great way to get rats out of the walls. Using treats the rats would enjoy such as peanut butter or other foods, you can lure the rats to a trap. There are both live-capture and lethal trap options. While both are effective, the one you choose would depend upon your specific situation.
In addition to removing the rats from the walls, you must also seal up any access or entry points to your home. There are many different potential issues with the exterior of your home that could be letting them in including roof shingles, broken eaves, cracks in the foundation, vents, etc. Most rodents can squeeze through holes smaller than you think, so it’s important to be vigilant in your inspection.
Don’t know where to start?
At Critter Control® of Fort Worth, we offer free professional animal entry home inspections! Give us a call at 469-805-6267 and we’ll help you get started on the right track. As always, it’s better to leave removal, extermination, and animal waste clean up to the professionals, so we’d be happy to give you an estimate over the phone as well!