Successful long-term rat control is often not possible in old barns and similar structures. Rat populations may also be a consequence of community-wide activities over which you have little control improper garbage disposal, building demolition, and poorly maintained bird-feeding stations. Rats often come into a home to escape the cold weather outside. Not the noise coming from the attic, particularly. It is the noise you’ll hear in your walls, just as you’re laying down to go to sleep. Rats are primarily nocturnal creatures. Their eyesight is suited for darkness. When night falls, rats will become active. If you have mice living in your attic, it is likely that they are traveling down through your wall voids to access areas of your home that have food or water sources. This is the noise you’ll hear: scraping, scrambling, bumping, thumping, and sometimes, squeaking.
If rats find a pathway that does not go by your bedroom, you may never hear them. This actually happens quite often. The first sign of mice is usually the presence of mouse droppings in the backs of kitchen drawers. Rats chew out of wall voids and gain access to kitchen drawers and cabinets from the back. But, droppings don’t appear only in your kitchen. They can also be found in the attic where rats are living and exploring.
When you do a search for mouse droppings, do a search for nests as well. Nests will look like matted down material, and will usually be tucked away in hard-to-get-at spots. There will also be droppings around the nesting sites. Since heat rises, an attic space can be one of the warmer places inside a home. This can make it perfect for rats.
Rats are timid creatures that prefer locations that have lots of safe places to hide. If you store boxes in your attic, you will make it ideal for rats. Rats run along boxes with one side brushing against them. They hide in the gaps between boxes. And they love to chew their way into boxes.
Even an empty attic is ideal for these timid critters. Mice like secluded places where humans and pets don’t frequent.
Insulation. One of the first things a mouse will notice about your attic is that there are all kinds of fluffy material for them to make a place to lay their head. They’ll also create tunnels and pathways through insulation to have quick escape roots and safe pathways to get to wall voids.
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