There's a Rat in the Kitchen: How to Effectively Control Pest Rats in Your Home

By Roisin Clausen7 min readFeb 2023
There’s a Rat in the Kitchen: How to Effectively Control Pest Rats in Your Home

Rats are definitely not a welcome visitor to your home. They carry and spread diseases, cause damage, and let's face it, even the thought of having one in your home makes you feel uneasy. Never mind an infestation! So what can you do? Here's how to effectively control pest rats in your home.

The Problems Rats Cause

They carry and spread diseases

Rats carry a number of nasty disease-causing pathogens including Salmonella. They also often carry fleas which can infect humans with typhus.

They cause damage in your home

Rats gnaw through everything from wood to drywall, and electrical wiring. This can cause structural damage and is a fire risk.

What Are The Signs I Have Rats In My Home?

If you are in any doubt about the need to control pest rats in your home, know this. A female rat usually gives birth to six litters each year. A litter can contain up to twelve babies. These babies mature in as little as nine weeks, so you can see how quickly an infestation could soon develop.

So early detection is the key to dealing with a rat infestation. Knowing the signs of rats in your home really helps. If there are pest rats in your property, you'll notice:

· Strong smells- rat urine has a very strong smell of ammonia.

· Strange noises- if you hear scratching or rustling sounds in your home, it could mean you have rats.

· Droppings- if rats are present in your home, you'll notice small, dark pellet-shaped droppings around nesting areas and along the areas they travel.

· Smears and smudges on the walls- rats can't see well, so they use walls to guide them around a property. As they go by, they'll leave greasy stains on your walls.

· Footprints- noticed footprints in dusty areas? You could have rats.

· Damage to your home and items in it-noticed chewed through wires and gnaw marks on cardboard boxes and food packaging? It could be the handiwork of a rat.

· Piles of insulation, shredded paper, or fabric- Rats use these materials to build nests.

Of course, the most obvious sign of a rat problem in your home is actually seeing one, dead or alive. Now you know how quickly they breed, the chances are there's not just one.

How to Control Pest Rats in Your Home?

So how can you claim your home back from your unwanted guests?

Inspect your home and seal up possible entry points

One of the main reasons rats enter your home is to find shelter. So a good place to start if you want to control rats in your home is to inspect it and seal up anywhere they might be getting in. In particular, look for damaged drains, cracks and gaps around doors and windows, gaps around vents, and cracks in walls and foundations. Once you've found potential entry points, you can get to work sealing them up. Use wire wool, cement, or caulk for best results.

Keep your home clean and clutter-free

Clean up clutter and spillages and make sure all of your waste is securely stored in your bin. An open bin lid or bag of rubbish next to the bin is an open invitation for a hungry rat.

Don't forget the outside of your home

If you want to control pest rats in your home, you have to control them outside of it too. Make your home less attractive to rats by:

Keeping your garden tidy and clear from clutter;

Avoiding leaving pet food outside;

Trimming trees and shrubs that are close to your home. Rats can use these to gain access to your roof and loft;

Fixing any roof damage where rats could get in.

Call in professional pest control

If you want to control pest rats in your home, it's not as simple as just putting down a few traps laced with things the internet says they like to eat. Rats are cautious by nature, so they usually won't just approach a trap, they'll avoid it, even if there's food in it. For traps to work, they need to be laced with scented baits that are known to attract rats. Even then, sometimes it can take days or weeks for a rat to end up in a trap.

Our advice? If you want to reclaim your home from the rat invaders, call in professional help. Contego's expert pest technicians will identify how they're getting in, where they are nesting, and they'll deploy the most effective treatment for your situation. Not only that, they'll tell you how to stop the problem from ever happening again.

Want to reclaim your home from rats?

Call Contego.