How do I get rid of rats?

We get rid of your rats in three easy - time proven steps.  1: Initial inspection and control set-up (trapping, baiting, etc);  2: Exclusion, also known as 'build-out'; 3: Final inspection and removal of dead rodents and control materials.

Rodent control is not as simple as setting a few traps or throwing out some bait. Rats are smart, they learn quickly, and there is never just one rat. Our technicians are highly trained on rat behavior, control, and exclusion. YOU DO NOT NEED A MONTHLY SERVICE to get rid of rats.

Our professional rat control begins with a thorough inspection of your home, including the exterior, the sub area under your home- if you have one, and any other potential activity areas or voids in your home:  including attics, garages, etc.

We write up a report detailing the access points that rats are using or could potentially use to get inside your home.  We also look for conducive conditions that make your home attractive to rats.

Our goal is to eliminate the rats you have currently and to keep other rats from being able to move back in.

In the process of our inspection we put out traps, possibly several different types, arranged for the best possible effect, and if the activity warrants it, rodent control bait.  Bait if used, is only used in tamper resistant bait stations designed to keep children and pets out.  We care about kids and pets.

The report we made during our inspection on our first visit detailed what needs to be done to rodent proof your home.  It is vitally important this work gets done and gets done promptly.  Please check the link noted on the upper left hand corner for more info on exclusion.

If we are doing the exclusion, and we strongly urge you to have us, the rodents exclusion experts, do the work, we like to do it in about two weeks.

This gives the control materials a chance to catch some rats before we seal up your home,  But you absolutely do not want to wait much longer. If you wait too long - other rats will move in.  At this time we will do a follow up service for rodent control, by checking the control materials, removing dead rodents, resetting traps, and making any changes that might help with our control efforts. 

We may give a discount on this follow up service, depending on how much exclusion work we do.

Exclusion is so vital that we may not be able to rid your home of rats without it - do not skip Step Two!!

We always need to schedule one final visit after the exclusion in case any rats that were 'trap shy', 'food specific', or just plain too smart - get sealed up inside the sub area under your home or in your attic areas when we close off all of their entry / exit areas, and are subsequently caught on our traps.  Rats have a very high metabolism, a few days of starvation can help draw even resistant rats into traps.

The Washington State Dept. Of Agriculture requires us to remove all control materials from your home unless we have some arrangement with you to come back and monitor them at least once every six months.

That's it.  If we followed all three steps completely, including the exclusion, 99% of all homes will be rat free.

Yes, we would be happy to monitor your home for you.  Homes can change, vents do get broken, trees do grow back. Service people from other trades do sometimes take off sub area doors and let in rodents.  Yes we can install exterior rodent control stations to lower the local rodent activity around your home, if you like.

We also offer affordable regular quarterly service programs designed to control spiders, wasps, crawling insects, and rodents.  We would be happy to start that program and give you a big discount at the same time.

Rats leave their nests every night to look for food, to drink a fairly high percentage of their body weight in water, and to inspect their range. 

During these activities they are constantly looking for bolt holes in case of danger and for new sources of food.

They found your home because a gap was discovered, often due to air flow, that offered potential safety.

Nesting potential and possible food sources were probably secondary.

Everywhere rats nest, they spread contamination.  They urinate and defecate all over the insulation and other materials in sub areas and attics.  Replacing these materials is VERY expensive. 

The most important control aspect is keeping the rats out. The fact that rats have been in your sub area should not affect your health.  If the odor is strong and you want the area cleaned we will be happy to work with you by providing quotes or resources to get these areas cleaned. It is not included with any other service and would be an additional charge.

Be wary of companies that push crawlspace cleanup.  We have seen homeowners pay several different companies to perform these services without getting quality exclusion done first. It is usually a lot of money to have done once - much less two or three times.