Brown rat

Brown Rats (Rattus Norvegicus) 

The most common factors which cause Brown rats to be in or around your premises. 

Holes n Gaps

Rats will exploit a 50p aperture. This means if you have holes and gaps within your premises.. bearing in mind the 50p diameter, they’ll probably get in, this could be  via pipe work, gaps under doors, rotten door/window frames, broken sewer pipes, missing roof tiles or damaged air bricks, Ideally if you find these issues.. fill them with either cement/chicken wire or wire wool.

Environmental factors.

If your garden or bin areas are in a bad state of maintenance, (Rats are totally at home in our mess) they are commensal which means they’ll happily live along side humans. Cutting back overgrown foliage especially trees that overhang roofs and gutters, removing any clutter and definitely not storing any bags of general waste are absolute key factors in removing the potential harbourage and food source for Rats. Compost bins are also a Rats favourite haunt, ideally have the bins on hard standings away from your property. Bird feeders, Rats love the idea of tackling these, some bird feeders do offer Rats a free meal especially if they’re over filled with nuts and seeds. If your bins are defective ask your local council to replace them. Standing water, Rats need to have water unlike mice. 

Again in our experience… "I’m hearing scuttling in my attic" one of the most common reasons for this could be due to a defective drain, Rats will use a broken drain pipe or missing covers to gain access to your property... via wall cavities, Norway Rats or Brown Rats as they’re commonly known love to climb, they need a safe mode of transit away from potential predators thus using wall cavities or broken underground pipe work which is perfect for their movement.

How do we at SPS take the initial call to arms and organise a site visit/treatment.

• You call us with what your issues are
• We discuss what you’ve found
• We organise a suitable time to visit you
• Our professional trained service staff will asses the situation 
• Diagnose why and how the rodent is in your space
• We look at the evidence and organise a riddance schedule 
• This could be using the trusted method of using rodenticides or traps. If there are proofing defects within your property, we will offer proofing solutions to deny ingress

Note- when using rodenticides in any property, rodents are highly likely to die in roof voids or wall cavities, the smell can last for a few weeks if not found. Sometimes the professionals can’t locate the deceased rodent! The only way to tackle the smell is by using air fresheners.

Using traps is a great way of catching the culprits but bear in mind, rats have neophobia which means they have a fear of new objects and won’t go near any new objects for several days or even weeks.