Chicago has a long history of dealing with rats and other rodents. But when rats threaten to invade and take over your house, you should take the situation seriously. Rats carry various pathogens that can harm the adults, children, and pets in your home.
Many different symptoms can signal a rat problem, including damaged personal items. Learn why rodents damage your personal items and what you can do about it.
Why Did Rats Attack Your Things?
When Chicago’s weather changes for the worse, rodents will seek warmer resource locations. But during their quest to find new resource areas, rats can wreak havoc on your home. Some of the household items you might find destroyed by rodents are your personal belongings.
Like squirrels and mice, rats build nests to hide and nurture their young. Rat nests generally consist of a variety of things, including strips of cloth, paper, dead leaves, lint, strings, currency, and other items.
Nesting sites may even contain pieces of electrical wiring and magazine clippings. Some of these items can be found inside your storage boxes and closets.
If your personal items do appear damaged by rodents, take heed. You don’t want to clean up any area frequented by rats until you speak to a professional pest control company. The items, flooring, and floorboards may contain saliva, urine, and dropping residue. Rat saliva, urine, and droppings, along with the same items left by mice, can harbor bacteria and viruses, including the virus that causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Rodents also defecate and urinate on the things they encounter, pathogen contamination is a certainty. You might find small piles of feces in your closets, on the surfaces of your storage boxes, and even inside your shoes. Rat urine can also cause great harm to your nasal passages and lungs, especially if it’s in concentrated amounts.
Pest control can help you protect your home and take on the unwanted pests without compromising your loved one’s health.
How Do You Protect Your Personal Belongings From Rats?
Pest control won’t just come in and place traps in your house to get rid of the rats. Contractors will need to find out why Chicago’s biggest pests invaded your home in the first place. To do so, contractors may:
- Look for food, water, and other attractants that drive rats to enter your house
- Inspect your closets and storage rooms for rodent holes and other potential openings
- Inspect your basement, garage, and trees for rodent nests
If necessary, pest control contractors will check your home for the presence of rodents. Rats can enter buildings not just through grade level access points but also through the roof if there are power lines, overhanging tree branches, and fences nearby. Once contractors troubleshoot and secure these locations, they’ll address the infestation inside your house.
Treating rodents inside the house requires a great deal of strategic planning. Rodent infestations can vary from home to home, so pest control needs to implement a plan that works best for your home. Your treatment plan may include:
- Place strategies on the outside of your home to interact with rodents before entering the home
- Placing Control strategies in areas of the house that see rodent traffic, such as in the basement or inside an attached garage
- Creating a plan that protects your home throughout the year, including during the winter
Pest control professionals may also need to check your home throughout the winter. Because rats leave pheromone trails as they move through an area, they or other rodents may return regularly. Pest control may want to make your home as uninviting as possible to keep rodents at bay.
If you’re tired of finding your personal belongings and other items chewed or destroyed by rodents, reach out to us at A-Alert Exterminating Service Inc. for help today.