Rat removal is a challenge in every situation, because they avoid any new objects, including traps and baits. Rats are incredibly hardy animals, who have never shown any problem adjusting to change. Usually that change is the introduction of a new poison or trap, as humans work harder and harder to exterminate these animals. But perhaps no other animal resists such attempts better than the rat.

We use several different types of traps baited with a variety of food types, including fresh foods that we have found attract them. We do not use poison bait inside homes because rats can die in inconvenient places such as inside wall voids, underneath & behind kitchen/bathroom cabinetry. In that case, you will have a dead decomposing rodent stinking up your home and business potentially attracting insects and flies causing you additional problems. And there is the potential for pets to become poisoned by eating the rodent.

We do use rodenticides, tracking powders, etc. but they normally are reserved for large infestations.

Call Trapper Joe's For Immediate Rat Removal Service

(219) 707-3666

Facts about the Norway Rat and the Roof Rat

Recognizing rat infestations: first and foremost, seeing an actual rat, dead or alive, is a definite sign of a potential rat problem. Other common signs of rat infestations include fecal droppings, fresh gnaw marks, damaged goods, nests, and leave obvious oil rub marks on entrance holes. Nests can be found in wall voids and attics to areas with piles of debris inside or outside which provide them sheltered sites to hide.

Norway rat: measure 12 to 18 inches in length when combining their head and body length. Their tails are 6 to 9 inches long, and they weigh up to 16 ounces. They have brown to dark gray coarse fur, with scattered black hairs and have gray, grayish brown or dirty white hair underneath.

Roof rat: smaller than Norway rats, measure 6 to 8 inches in length when combining their head and body. Their tails are notably longer than their body length measuring 7 to 10 inches. They usually weigh 5 to 9 ounces. They have soft and smooth fur that is typically brown with intermixed spots of black. Their underside are often white, gray, or black.

Rats have voracious appetites. Unlike the mouse, which nibbles a little bit of food at a time, a rat will fill up at one feeding. A rat can eat a third of its body weight each day. A rat will eat anything, including soap, leather, furs, candy, milk, meat vegetables, poultry, eggs, grain, seeds, fruit, nuts, snails, fish, dead animals and birds, and other rodents. Near homes, rats thrive on pet food and pet water bowls, birdseed, grass seed, garbage, dog or cat feces, and any uneaten or spoiled food we discard. Rats will also hoard and cache excess food, which can result in insect infestations like cockroaches.

Health concerns: Rats are considered as carriers or transmitters of more human diseases than any other life form, except maybe the mosquito. Some of the diseases that can be spread from the rat to people are bubonic and pneumonic plague, murine typhus, salmonella, leptospirosis, and tularemia.

For more information on mice and their diseases please visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website at www.cdc.gov.