So, you have decided it's time to crawl through your attic, rat traps in hand and start trapping rats. Before you embark on your eradication campaign, prepare to safeguard your health first. You want to get the rats, not have the rats get you!

Rats can carry numerous diseases including leptospirosis, salmonella, murine typhus, hantavirus, and rat bite fever to name just a few. The list of diseases is much longer but you get the idea. They are all bad, some less common than others, but it pays to be safe and take precautions. One of the most common dangers is salmonella found in rat droppings and you don't want that.

When entering an area that has been infested by rats such as an attic or crawl space, the basic precautions are to wear rubber gloves and a hepa filter mask. This will go a long way towards preventing contact with potential dangers from coming in contact with rat droppings, urine, and rat carcasses. Personally, I like to wear disposable Tyvek coveralls so I don't have to worry about my clothes getting contaminated. It is always best to be as cautious as possible when trapping rats in attics that have been contaminated by rats.

Whether or not there is a rat infestation, a hepa mask should be worn when entering most attics to prevent inhalation of fiberglass which is commonly used for insulation. At the very least, inhaling fiberglass particles in the air is very irritating to the lungs and should always be avoided. In addition, wearing that Tyvek coverall we discussed earlier will help to shield your body and clothes from coming in contact with the insulation which can cause skin irritation and itching.

Once you have your safety equipment on and are ready to start trapping, keep an eye out for some other hazards. Be sure to look up at the attic ceiling if it is very low and you might bump you head against it. Sometimes roofers or carpenters may have used nails while building or repairing the roof that were either too long or missed their mark. When that happens, the pointed end of the nails may protrude through the underside of the roof. If working in tight spaces, it is easy to bump your head against a misplaced nail and get a nasty surprise. Also, be very aware of where you put your feet when crawling around in the attic. Many attics do not have a wood floor but drywall with insulation over it instead. If you step on that, you may find yourself taking a quick trip to the room below as drywall cannot support your weight.

Lastly, if it is summertime, you might think about going up in the attic during the evening or early morning. Wearing full protective gear can be hot. Couple that with the intense summertime heat in many attics and you could be on the fast track to heat stroke. If you feel you are becoming overheated, exit the attic as soon as possible.

So, before you start trapping rats in your attic, take the time to protect yourself and make sure it is the rats who meet their demise, not you.

It is possible to get rid of rats in your attic or crawlspace without having to kill them. How? Scare them to death so that they never want to come back to your home again, using a special strobe light.

Let me start off by saying that I battled rats in my attic for over 18 years. I started off with pest control companies trapping rats and sealing entry points. Unfortunately, sooner or later the rats would just chew a new hole through my Cedar siding and the scurrying of little feet across our ceiling would start again. In desperation I tried everything. First it was peppermint oil in the attic, then it was predator urine, then sonic devices, and in between the never ending trapping, killing rats and sealing holes. But no matter how many we killed (and we killed a lot) or how many holes we sealed the furry invasion could never be stopped.

After years of fruitless effort and thousands of dollars spent on pest control, I began to develop a feeling of depression about the whole thing. It just seemed nothing was ever going to stop the rats from coming back to our attic. Their unstoppable determination, sheer numbers and seeming willingness to die to win control of the attic made it all seem so hopeless.

Then one day I read an article online published by a pest control trade magazine. It described how a large pest control company, that actually was in my area, had successfully tested a new type of strobe light that repelled squirrels and rodents. According to the article it worked so well that this company now made the lights a permanent part of their rodent control service. I was excited! Normally I would have cynically thought to myself “oh yeah like that's going to work." Reading such a rock-solid testimonial from a large company that I was familiar with overcame my cynicism.

I set out to obtain these lights called the Squirrel Evictor and Rat Repeller. I ordered some and placed them in my attic barely daring to hope that they might work. Almost immediately the pitter patter of little feet on the ceiling became less and less. Eventually, there was not a sound. A miracle had occurred right in my own home. The rats were gone! For the first time in so many years, my attic was uninhabited. I wanted to run through the streets, stopping total strangers and yelling “they're gone! My attic is empty!” Of course I restrained myself though my enthusiasm remains.

These lights, called the Squirrel Evictor and Rat Repeller emit a blinding slow strobe effect. The manufacturer says the lights annoy the rodent's eyes which become fatigued and they no longer want to nest in your attic. Personally, I like to think it just scares them to death. Having been in the attic with the Squirrel Evictor turned on, I cannot imagine any rodent, animal, or human remaining there long enough for their eyes to become fatigued because the light is overwhelming to the senses. Unless someone starts providing rats and squirrels with little sunglasses, I think the solution to rodents in the attic is here.

So if you have been trying unsuccessfully to get rid of rats, try shining some light on the problem. Even though it is a strobe light, the squirrels and rats won't start disco dancing, instead they will be elbowing each other to get out of your attic. At least, that's how I like to envision it.

Affiliate Disclosure: As part of our site, we have links to websites that sell rat control devices. When these links are used we do receive a small commission. This commission does not affect our reviews or ratings of these products.

While it is certainly more convenient to use the latest and greatest high tech rat control devices, it is possible to get rid of rats cheaply and effectively. Some of the best ways to rid yourself of rats can be done with very little money.

Rats can be trapped with great success using your standard wooden rat trap such as those made by Victor. These can even be purchased in packages of 4 on Amazon to save a bit of money. If you have a rat infestation in an attic or outbuilding, the best technique is to put out as many traps as possible and bait them all at once. This is to greatly reduce the rodent population before they become trap shy. Bait the traps with what you have available, no need for expensive commercial baits. Baits such as peanut butter, nuts, candy and bacon are but a few that people have great success with. Try baiting the traps for a week prior to setting them to get the rats used to feeding at the traps.

Place your snap traps along the rodent runs characterized by dark smudging from the oils in their fur. If possible place the traps with the trigger perpendicular to a wall. Trapping rodents with wooden snap traps works very well and is still one of the most common methods used by professional pest control companies.

Once you have trapped most or all of the rats, it is time to seal any access point they might have used to get in the home. Check for any openings or cracks, even as small as one quarter to one half an inch. My advise is to repair any crack or hole no matter how small as rats are good at chewing holes and making little holes into big ones. If you have copper wire mesh, this is one of the best ways to plug a hole or even copper pot scrubbers made of copper mesh can be called into service. It is best to secure the mesh with caulk or an expanding type construction foam. This serves to keep the rats from pushing the mesh out of the hole. Heavy wire hardware cloth can be used to seal openings across vents, just make sure the holes in the mesh are small enough. No need to spend a lot of money, just make sure your repairs use materials the rats can't chew through.

To make sure the little guests won't be coming back, it is time to make your home and your property unattractive to rats. Much of this revolves around basic sanitation. Make sure your garbage can lids are tight, no excess pet food is left out, and any other potential sources of rat food such as fruit from fruit trees are cleaned up. Unfortunately this also includes birdseed. There is nothing wrong with loving birds but putting out birdseed doesn't just feed the birds. Rodents love birdseed!

Next, remove all clutter in and around the house that rats might nest or hide in. Thick underbrush is a favorite place for rats to hide in. It is best to thin this sort of growth out as much as possible. It is also a good idea to keep any type of thick growth well away from the house. Plants growing against the house provides safe cover while rodents are busy chewing their way into your home. At the same time be sure to trim any bushes or trees touching the home as rats use bushes and trees like highways to travel to and from your house and attic. Basically the only cost involved for this cleanup is time and energy.

You can get rid of rats cheaply by using inexpensive wooden snap traps and using some sweat equity in cleaning up and sealing your home. Keep up with these basics and you can win the war against rats.

The best rat bait is whatever they will eat at the time. That seems self evident and it is but sometimes you have to try different things for those picky eater rats. There are some definite tips and tricks for choosing and applying rat baits though. Some pest control companies sell commercial concoctions that are supposed to attract rats, but for our purposes, we will discuss bait that can be commonly found in the home.

The best bait will not only be one the rats are attracted to but also one that is not easily removed from the trigger of the rat trap. You would be amazed how rats can sometimes remove a bait from a snap trap without springing the trap. Even more frustrating is when they eat the bait, spring the trap, but do not get caught. So, keep in mind how well the bait will stay on the trigger.

Some baits can actually be melted onto the rat trap trigger such as chocolate, cheese, or marshmallows. Alternately, some baits, such as bits of hot dog, can actually be tied to the trigger with floss or fine string.  One of the best rat baits is peanut butter not only because the rats love it, but it is sticky and will stick to the rat trap trigger. But sometimes they can even get the peanut butter off the trigger. One trick then is to tie some floss or string around the trigger with peanut butter under and over the floss to help it stay adhered to the trap. If using a rat trap with the metal trigger, you can actually spear some foods onto the metal point on the trigger.

If you want to get creative, some of the foods used for rat baits include pet food, bacon, hot dogs, cashews, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, gum drops, pieces of candy bar or chocolate, cheese, marshmallows and peanut butter. In my opinion, the winner for best rat bait though is peanut butter. Rats just love it, it sticks to the trap on it's own, it doesn't rot really, and it's easy to apply. So the next time you bait some traps maybe start out with peanut butter and if the rats get “trap shy” after a while, you might ring the dinner bell with a new delight.

Say rat trapping and people head for the hills because it is the job that nobody wants. Yes it would have been better if every entry to the house had been sealed, the trees trimmed that were touching the roof, and the underbrush cleared away. But now what are the best techniques for getting rid of rats. If you decided that using a repeller such as the Squirrel Evictor will not solve the problem in you crawl space, attic, or other location, then the only workable solution is rat trapping and seal every nook and cranny If they are in the house. Bring out the rat traps!

There are several different options for rat trapping. There are electronic rat traps, the time honored wooden snap trap, and also live traps. The electronic rat traps such as the Rat Zapper Ultra make the trapping job less gross and they are much easier to set (flip a switch). Also, removal of dead rodents is a breeze, just tilt the zapper over a bag. The drawback is they are also more expensive. The most common method and still most popular way of trapping rats is the good ol' wooden snap trap. The king of the wooden snap trap is made by the Victor company. In the numerous times that I had pest control companies come to my house this was always the preferred trap. They are more humane then glue boards (personally I advise to never use them as they are inhumane and unpleasant to use), or poisons (never ever poison rats in the home, they tend to die in walls and oh the smell). There are also modern day versions of the snap traps such as the tomcat. The Tomcat is easier and safer to set but they are more expensive than a wooden snap trap. Lastly, for those who don't want to kill anything there are the live traps such as the Havahart. Unfortunately unless the rodent is released far away, he will most likely come right back or invade someone else's home.

For the purposes of this article we will discuss ways of getting rid of rats with either an electronic rat trap which electrocutes the rat or the snap trap. To start off you'll want to know what is the best rat bait to use. If using an electronic rat trap, most people commonly use dry pet food or nuts. For messy baits such as bacon or peanut butter place the bait in a plastic lid of some sort and slide to the back of the trap. For snap traps everyone has a favorite bait. Some swear by bacon, hot dogs, nuts, pet food, etc. But the best rat bait I believe is peanut butter. It sticks to the bait tray on the snap trap very well, it does not really rot like bacon, or roll off the trap like nuts. And best of all, rats love peanut butter. So, I believe the winner for best rat bait goes to peanut butter.

Now that you've decided on a trap and a bait, time to set the traps. Something to keep in mind is a rat's habits. They tend to use "runs" where they follow the same path over and over. If the rat problem has been long term, you can generally see dark discoloration on the boards or whatever they are running across. This is discoloration caused by the oils in their fur rubbing off and also discolorations from urine and droppings. Ewwww. If in an attic, you can often see "tunnels" or worn down paths in the insulation. It is important to locate these places because this is where we are going to set our traps. Don't just place traps out in the middle of nowhere and hope the rats find the trap. Take the trap to the rats and you will have much greater success. A word of caution: if you are setting traps outside or inside the house make sure they are not accessible by pets or children. A snap trap could potentially break a finger or seriously injure a pet. Also, if outdoors, traps will catch and kill squirrels and other animals. Usually this is not a problem in attics or crawl spaces.

Once you have found the rat "runs" it is time to set the traps. When possible, set the snap traps against and perpendicular to the wall with the trigger end towards the wall. If not near a wall, then place near or on where the rats are traveling. With an electronic zapper, make sure you place it on or near the runs.

One technique to increase your chances of killing all the rats is to put out as many traps as possible with bait but do not set the trap. Just re-bait the traps and leave them in place for several days. This serves to overcome the rat's wariness and gets them accustomed to feeding at the traps. Then, one day set all the traps and catch rates can be much higher initially. Rats can become "trap shy" so it is best to set out more traps than you think you might need initially. Then, when you set all your traps at once, you get a larger kill that hopefully eliminates most of the rats before they become wary. I have seen animal control companies place a cluster of traps near one another like in a half circle with dog food placed on the floor in front of the traps. This is to entice the rats to the location of the traps and increase the chances of kills. Zappers seem to have a bit less problem with wariness on average and many users report catching multiple rodents in one place with the same zapper.

When removing dead rats from snap traps, make sure it is dead first! Then, wearing rubber gloves, pull back the snap a bit and allow rodent to drop into an open trash bag or container. I prefer to use a screwdriver to pry open the snap which keeps my fingers away from the dead rodent and ensures I do not accidentally snap the closure on my finger while removing the rat. Then, you can place the contained dead rodent, in an outside trash container or bury it. To remove a dead rodent from a zapper, simply tilt the opening over a container and the dead rat just slides out. If putting a rodent in the trash, be prepared for a real stench if the trash is not picked up soon, so keep that in mind.

You can reuse the same snap trap after making a kill. Some people advise washing the trap, but I have seen certain animal control companies just re-bait and reuse the trap immediately with positive results. Regardless, always wear rubber gloves when handling dead rodents or used traps as rats ain't sanitary even when they are alive.

If the rats were in your home, make sure that you seal every crack and crevice around the house after you feel confident you have eliminated most of them. Continue setting traps after the home is sealed to make sure you are getting rid of rats who may have been trapped inside. Rat trapping is not a pleasant job, but if you have to do it, it's best to acquire the knowledge to do it right and solve the problem once and for all.

Affiliate Disclosure: As part of our site, we have links to websites that sell rat control devices. When these links are used we do receive a small commission. This commission does not affect our reviews or ratings of these products.

After years of battling rat problems I had to learn the hard way how to deal with them.  The first and foremost thing is removing all potential food sources for rodents.  This includes pet food, bird food, fruit on the ground from fruit trees, open garbage cans, compost heaps and anything else that could be a potential source of food for rodents.  If you have a rodent problem, as long as there is a food source, the rodents will persist despite your best efforts to trap and kill them.

Once you have removed all the food sources then it's time to remove the places they might hide.  Trim all trees and bushes that might be touching the roof as this acts as a highway for the rats to enter the house and increases rat problems.  It is also good to remove or thin out bush's or plants up against the house or rodents might hide in them as they seek entry into the home.  Finally, it is best to thin out any dense growth in the yard where rodents might seek shelter.  I initially resisted this step of the process as our house is surrounded by gardens and I was very resistant to removing any plants.  In desperation I finally cleared about 2 feet of space all around the perimeter of the house.  One of the ways that I believe this is effective is it creates a danger zone for the rodent as they try to enter the house.  As they stand in the open they become vulnerable to predators and it seems to go against their instincts which is to remain hidden. Basically we want to make your yard and house an unsafe place for rodents.

Next, make sure of that all cracks, crevices or holes in the house are plugged to prevent easy access for rodents and stopping rat problems dead in their tracks.  All openings greater than 1/4 inch should sealed to exclude mice and 1/2 inch or greater to exclude rats.  In practice my feeling is it is best to seal all openings no matter how small as rodents are great chewers and, depending on the material, can make a tiny hole a large one.  Some of the more common access points for rodents are around the air conditioner connections, vents, drain pipes, attic vents, and utility lines.  Also ensure the shingles are down tight on roofs, sheathing is complete and all roof ventilators, wall vents and overhangs are sealed.  Spaces beneath doors should not be too large.  Basement windows should be intact and any potential entry point underneath the house should be sealed.

For large repairs a very heavy metal screen material may need to be firmly attached.  Make sure the screen material is heavy enough that the rodents cannot chew through it or crawl through it.  For filling small holes, copper wire mesh is an ideal material.  It can be molded and crammed into the small openings very tightly.  Even better is to combine the copper wire mesh with a structural foam or some other sealant.  This ensures that the copper wire mesh cannot be pushed out or fall out of the hole and has the added benefit of keeping even small insects out of the home.

Lastly the time honored tradition of having a large cat or a small dog that likes to catch mice and rats is a great natural deterrent.  Once again the idea is to make your property unsafe for rodents, your house hard to get into, and nothing for a rodent to eat.  If you do all of these things it is very likely that potential rat problems will be avoided and the rodents will be encouraged to move on to greener pastures.

Affiliate Disclosure: As part of our site, we have links to websites that sell rat control devices. When these links are used we do receive a small commission. This commission does not affect our reviews or ratings of these products.