rat prevention and proofing your home
Rats in their never ending quest for food and shelter can be very persistent and if they manage to gain access into your home or business they can:
– spread disease, cause damage to food packaging and contaminate food.
– rats can chew through floor joists and walls, damage insulation.
– they can cause fires by chewing on electrical cables.
– rats can undermine retaining walls and other similar structures through their burrowing activity. Even rats in the yard and outside can present as a risk, particularly if those areas are visited by children and pets.
Contact Frontline Pest Management today if you are worried about rats in your home or business.
Rat control solutions
At Frontline Pest Management, we can help you avoid costly damage to your property and prevent the transfer of disease by providing effective rat control services. Our qualified technicians use safe and reliable control methods which offer a long-term solution to your rat problem. The most effective way to remove rats is with the use of rodenticides. They are suitable for use indoors and out.
– we answer all calls promptly and will arrange an appointment at a time that suits you.
– one of our licensed pest technicians will carry out an inspection, assess the problem and make recommendations for effective treatment. Solutions are tailored to your particular rat problem.
– one of our licensed technicians will come at a time suitable to you to carry out treatment once you are happy for us to proceed. All our treatments are safe for children and pets, we use an environmentally sensitive approach and ensure that there is minimum disruption to your home or business.
– follow-up treatments may be required in order to get the breeding population under control.
Call Frontline Pest Management today on 3293 4475 to arrange an inspection of your home or business.
When is the best time to get rid of rats?
If you think you have rats, it is important to act quickly to control the level of infestation and reduce the health risks posed by this rodent. At Frontline Pest Management, our qualified technicians are able to provide the most effective rat control services best suited to your problem.
Know the differences between the Black (roof) rat, the Norway rat and the common house mouse.
Know the signs of rats and rat activity.
Identify your pest
Solutions can vary greatly depending on the species infesting your home or business. You need to be sure you have a rat problem and not a mouse infestation. The situation can be even more challenging as rats are nocturnal; making it unlikely that you will actually spot a live rat. However, once spotted, rats are easy to identify. Black rats have a pointed nose, large ears and a slender body while brown rats have a blunt nose, small ears and a thicker body compared to black rats. Knowing the signs of a rat problem is just as critical as being able to correctly identify a visible rat. This is where a trained, professional pest controller can really help. Correct identification will help you to choose the most effective control method, helping to save you time, money and worry.
How to deter rats
Discovering rats in your home or business can be very distressing. Luckily there are ways you can deter rats and prevent an infestation. Proofing your home to deny them entry and removing easy access to food and water can really make a difference. Rats need easy and consistent access to a water source, even though they only drink between 15 – 60ml per day. They will eat almost anything available, but they do prefer to eat small amounts of a variety of different foods.
Don’t waste time, book a treatment now with one of our technicians today.
Rat prevention tips
• Keep food items in metal or glass containers with tight fitting lids.
• Tidy inside the house and around the garden – less clutter means less places to hide.
• Clean up pet food and bird seed debris and store pet food in sturdy containers with fitted lids.
• Keep gardens free from debris. If you have a compost heap don’t include organic food waste, as this will attract them. If you have already spotted signs of rats such as droppings, prevention may already be too late.
Call Frontline Pest Management on 3293 4475 to arrange an inspection to check for signs of rats.
Rodent proofing your home
By proofing your home, you will help to make it seem less attractive to rodents. Rats will make the most of any opportunity to enter your home in the search for shelter and food. Black rats are good climbers and will happily inhabit the warmth and shelter of the roof space. Brown rats can climb but tend to burrow more – around chicken pens, airconditioning unit slabs, under water tanks. They are very adept at swimming in sewers and drain systems. Both species will gnaw at gaps to enlarge them enough for easy entry.
• Entrances – fit strips to the bottom of doors and weather-stripping around exterior doors as a deterrent. Young rats can squeeze through small gaps under doorways and will also use cat flaps to enter. They will enlarge gaps by gnawing to enter homes via internal garages.
• Gaps in exterior walls – fill holes or small openings around utility cables or pipe work. Rats can jump, so check up to a height of about 1.2 metres.
• Roofs – repair roof damage and use wire mesh to seal gaps. Trim vegetation away from your home. Rats climb along electrical cables or use overhanging branches to get into the roof space through gaps in broken roof tiles or under eaves.
• Drains and sewer pipes – keep toilet seat lids closed. Rats have been known to swim up damaged sewer pipes and get round u-bends in toilets. They will also use drain pipes and drainage outlets. Use tightly fitting metal grates or screens to cover drains.
• Eliminate clutter and items like firewood next to your home.
Need professional rat deterrents?
Regular pest control is often the most reliable form of prevention. Rat bait stations professionally managed by Frontline Pest Management is a trusted rat deterrent and is safe to use even in locations where children or pets are present. Your local qualified Frontline Pest Management technician can provide the most suitable treatments to a rat problem identified in your home or business. Professional services are often the most reliable way to guarantee a long-term solution to a pest problem.