Rats seek warm homes for winter

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Rats seek warm homes for winter

As temperatures drop, rodents move in to households causing structural damage, spreading diseases

Web posted Tuesday, December 12, 2000

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By Gail Krueger Morris News Service

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Rats!

Rats - black rats and Norway rats - are now seeking out warm spots to spend the winter. If you're unlucky, the warm spot is your home.

Rats can cause structural damage and spread diseases.

Brett Eanes is a wildlife biologist who works for Trutech, a company that specializes in removing all sorts of animals from rats to bats to snakes. This time of year, Mr. Eanes is especially busy as many kinds of animals move in from the cold.

``There are rats all over this city,'' Mr. Eanes said during an inspection of a Savannah home where the owners had killed six rats and were hearing more.

City officials, however, are not experiencing a higher-than-usual number of rat calls, according to Alonzo Adams, senior inspector with the city's Property Maintenance Department.

``In the past, we've gotten calls when sightings are frequent,'' Mr. Adams said. ``But we know they are out there.''

Sharon Varn, environmental health specialist with the Chatham County Health Department, said while rat-bite calls to her office are not up, rat stories are. Ms. Varn is not surprised.

Television shows concerning the diseases rats carry have people talking about the varmints, she said. And, people see more rats as the weather turns colder, she said.

In a midtown attic, Mr. Eanes found plenty of evidence rats had moved into the brick home.

Loose insulation in the attic showed tell-tale trails where rats habitually came and went. A careful look at pipes and beams showed stains from rat urine and the characteristic dark marks left by rats rubbing along a wall.

Mr. Eanes pronounced the infestation a weak one - probably from rats that had moved in through a hole he found in the soffit of the house.

When he finds rat droppings in the middle of the attic, not just along the edges, Mr. Eanes knows he has a major infestation. Rats are sly and secretive and stay out of the middle of a room unless there are a great many of them.

His record, he said, is 36 rats removed from one home in one week.

The midtown homeowner lamented about why he had rats and his neighbor didn't. Mr. Eanes had an easy answer.

``They're probably over there, too. They're everywhere.''

Mr. Eanes is not an exterminator.

Although friends and customers might rib the good-natured Eanes about what he does for a living, it takes a specialist to deal with urban wildlife.

Ms. Varn, at the health department, says almost anyone can deal with a mouse or two, but when it comes to rats, a specialist is best.

Mr. Eanes holds a special nuisance wildlife removal license, a trapping license, and a license to handle rodenticide. He doesn't do bugs - except to remove bees and other stinging insects.

He also doesn't deal with deer, alligators or migratory birds, all of which need a different set of licenses.

Each animal removal case is different, taking a specialized set of humane traps and strategies. Most of the animals Mr. Eanes traps are released in appropriate settings. Racoons must be destroyed according to state law because so much of the population carries rabies.

Bats, which are a protected species and must never be harmed . Mr. Eanes deals with them by sealing up all but one entry hole and then waiting for them to leave. Then he installs a bat flap - a door that lets them out, but not back in.

When it comes to ratsMr. Eanes sends them all to rat heaven. He recommends and carries out a three-part program to rid a home of rats.

First is trapping. The midtown homeowners had set out a few traps. That's not what Mr. Eanes had in mind. He said he would use more than a dozen traps. A rat shouldn't be able to go more than 10-feet before hitting a trap, he said.

The way to go is to keep the traps ready consistently and frequently change the type of bait. Rats are smart and quickly learn to elude a trap or two.

After a week or so of trapping, it's time to seal up the house. Sheet metal and hardware cloth are used to cover holes. Since rats can move through a space smaller than a quarter, this part of the job takes particular vigilance.

Last comes a careful baiting program. Mr. Eanes does not use bait inside the home - the risk of a rat dying inside the walls is too great.

``There's nothing I dislike more than having to retrieve a smelly dead rat,'' he said.

The risk of accidental poisoning of pets and children is high when bait is used indoors, he said. Instead, Mr. Eanes baits around the perimeter of the property to draw rats from the house.

He uses special techniques to prevent the bait from being accidentally ingested by the neighbor's dog or that cute squirrel your children like to watch.

So when it's all done, are you free of rats? Yes, for a while. But rats are among the most persistent of all creatures, and as long as people have homes that are warmer than the outside, rats will be moving in.

http://augustachronicle.com/stories/121200/met_MNS-4616.002.shtml

-- The Exterminator (Home@improvement.channel), December 12, 2000

Answers

The cheapest way to get rid of vermin is to have a couple of cats. they can be neutered, but leave the claws.

-- Johnn Littmann (littmannj@aol.com), December 12, 2000.

It's funny, but whenever my brother-in-law comes over, he says, "Man, it's nice and warm in here".

Coincidence?

---------------------------------------------------

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), December 12, 2000.


Johnn, I've never understood that theory. Does anyone really need Wild Kingdom demonstrated in their house?!

Lon, LOL!!!

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), December 12, 2000.


Hey I knew the clintons had to leave the whitehouse jan 20 but I had no idea that they would try to sneak our home

-- Bosco (denden@home.com), December 12, 2000.

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