Seeing a rat in your house is one problem, but spotting one underneath your house is an entirely different kind of inconvenience. By nature, rats prefer dark and damp spaces, which makes the crawl space under your home the perfect option for a nest. The longer rats stay, the more likely they will gnaw at the floor and scurry deeper into unwanted spaces. If the rats living underneath you are causing you to lose sleep, here are some trapping options to consider.
Place a Fan Beneath the Floor
Rats do their best to avoid harsh rain and strong winds, which is why they burrow indoors to find comfort. By placing a small fan unit in your crawl space, you can encourage rats to leave and find warmth elsewhere. It’s best to purchase several fans and place them along the walls of your crawl space, because rats are most likely to travel throughout those areas. Since rats are usually not active during the daytime, however, it can be hard to find time to tell whether your strategy is a success.
Place a Light Beneath Your Floor
As we mentioned earlier, rats love to hide in dark spaces. Therefore, placing a flashlight under your home will literally shed some much-needed light on your rodent problem. With a better view, you can strategically place traps near the walls and around the perimeter of your crawl space. Over time, this will also push rats to leave the crawl space and seek darkness elsewhere. Similar to the fan method, this method also takes some time and requires you to consistently check the traps. If the traps are unsuccessful, you’ll have to repeat the entire process.
Place Two-Door Box Traps Near Entry Points
Unfortunately, both methods mentioned above require you to crawl underneath your house — putting yourself in danger of direct contact with rats. If you run into critters while you are down there, you could face scared, defensive, or aggressive ones that will have a far better range of motion than you do. In other words, things can get real dangerous real quick.
To avoid this risky tactic, purchase double door box traps. You’ll need to first find where rats are entering by searching for burrows near the foundation of your home. Then, you can mount these devices directly over each entry point. Two-door box traps are specifically designed to capture animals in crawl spaces from the outside in. Because these traps are so effective at safely excluding rats, however, they also come at significantly high price points.
Let the Experts Do the Hard Work for You
Let’s face it: There is nothing pleasant about the area underneath your house. Rather than sacrificing your time, money, and safety for results that aren’t guaranteed, turn to the experts at Critter Control® of Orlando. Our experienced wildlife removal technicians will quickly and safely remove any nuisance pests from underneath your property. To schedule your free consultation, contact us today.
