Tag Archives: rat infestation

Top 10 Signs Of Rats

top 10 signs of rats

During autumn, animal pests like to enter your home, seeking shelter and food. In rural areas, when fields are plowed, rats lose their habitat and make their way indoors. In urban areas, the cool weather drives them into your home. Regardless of where you live, rats can cause big problems. Aside from the numerous diseases and parasites they carry, they can cause major damage. If you have a hunch that you have a rat infestation, check out our lists for the top 10 signs of rats:

TOP 10 SIGNS OF RATS

  1. Scratching in the walls – Scratching or rustling sounds in the walls is one of the early, subtle signs of a rat infestation. They run through the walls to and from food sources. In addition, if they are building a nest, they will be moving materials between the walls.
  2. Rat droppings – Rat droppings are small, brown, and rice-shaped. A single rat leaves between 10 and 30 pellets a day.
  3. Grease marks – Rats have an oily fur that leaves grease or dirt tracks. You may notice them along floorboards or across counter tops in your house.
  4. Footprints – Their tracks have front and hind paw marks plus a tail print. You may notice them in dustier areas of the home.
  5. Rats holes – Brown rats are great burrowers and may leave holes as evidence.
  6. Rat nests – Rats make nests with cardboard, straw, and other soft items. You may notice them in your attic or basement, depending on the type of rat in your home.
  7. Rodent odors – You may notice a musky smell with the presence of rats.
  8. Urine stains – Their urine stains glow under UV lights.
  9. Chewed wires, floorboards, & boxes – Rats’ teeth are continuously growing, which means they gnaw on plastic, wood, and anything hard to keep them filed. You may notice gnawed floorboards, boxes of cereal, or walls.
  10. Rat sightings – If you’ve seen a rat, dead or alive, in your home – you may have an infestation.

If some or all of the top 10 signs of rats apply to your home, it may be time to call pest control. Attic solutions can safely and effectively remove rats from your home and repair damage caused by rats.

Types of Rats

There are two primary types of rats that live in the United States: the roof rat and the Norway rat. Both of these pests can be quite troublesome in your home and infest different areas. It is not impossible for a roof rat infestation to exist in the attic while a Norway rat infestation is in the basement of a home.

types of rats

Roof Rats

These dark colored rats nest above ground, fitting the name “roof rats.” They are slender and have very little hair. Roof rats, or black rats, are great climbers and prefer to live in trees, woodpiles, wall cavities, and ceilings. In fact, these rats spend 90% of their life 4 or more feet off the ground. Common signs of roof rats include seeing them on trees, power lines, and roofs, discovering banana shaped rat droppings, hearing noises in the walls and attic, and identifying gnaw marks near roof eaves. Roof rats have much longer, scaly tails, are smaller in size, and have larger, hairless ears than Norway rats.

types of rats

Norway Rats

These rats are sometimes known as sewer rats, as they can be found there regularly. Norway rats like to burrow and live under concrete slabs and infest basements. Norway rats are found in 48 states in America and all continents besides Antarctica. They are considered the most successful mammal on the planet besides humans. Common signs of Norway rats include gnaw marks on wiring and furniture, banana shaped rat droppings, rat tracks, and unexplained grease marks from their oily coats on the floor or walls. Norway rats are usually brown or gray and larger than roof rats but have shorter tails.

If you suspect either of these rats in your home, call pest control immediately to take care of them and prevent or treat an infestation.