Ask Me Help Desk - Rats and my House Foundation Keeping them OUT!

Please help, I'm starting to have sleep deprivation, considering a shotgun to exterminate RATS!

After over a year, of trapping a killing, I've decided to Initiate War of the Rats 2009, and rid these little bastards once and for all. Please help me deliver the Coup de Gras on the Rat Kingdom.

Seriously, the foundation of my house for some reason only rides along the dirt, so it's easy for the rats to dig under it and enter my house. I have found 5 holes, but want to elminate the possibility of them getting in. Do any of you have success with something I can put on the ground around the perimeter of my house. I need something to bide me time. Some time this year, I plan on digging down and creating an extra 2 feet trench/moat and back filling it with cement to thwart there efforts. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you

A pellet gun or at maximum a 22 will suffice!
You can try steel wool in the existing holes to slow them down.
You are probably dealing with about 100 rats increasing by 25% or so every couple months!
I would try thre old true and tested rat spring traps. There are many versions on the market now that are easier to set without injuring yourself. I would try to weight the traps down somehow, because they will drag the trap all over.
I would set the traps at least one night before plugging the holes. Maybe seeing a few comrades killed in action will cause some to move on. It is best to use gloves when handling and baiting the traps to keep your scent off the trap. Put a little bit of chocolate in the trap--they have a sweet tooth. I don't like the poisons. You never know where the body will end up (odor). The sticky pads (there are big ones made for snakes) do the job but not too quickly.
Get a nice hungry cat, too.

Smearcase, thank you. I've caught about 20 so far, and realize they multiply like crazy. It seems only one at a time come in the house, I kill one and then another one comes, and so on. I heard steel wool will only slow them down as you spoke. I need a permanent solution. I'm about to sell my house over this whole ordeal. My idiot brother only poured the foundation on the top of the dirt. I bought a shovel today. I'm going to dig a trench and fill it with glass and cement. Only 30% of my house is having this foundation issue. I found some pellets that keep them at bay, I'm going to see if that buys me time so I can sleep and collect my thoughts. I don't see what an exterminator would do any differently than I am.
Take care and wish me luck, tonight I'm on the sofa away from there noises :(

I would think about this differently. What is attracting them into your house? Is there food that they can gain access to? Try eliminating all food, crumbs, garbage, etc. Rats are extremely intelligent as well as prolific breeders as mentioned. If you are providing something that they need to breed--like food--they won't stop coming no matter what you do.

So figure out why they are coming in...

Try surrounding your house, inside and out, with mothballs, it is a natural deterrant.

Maybe there is something useful in here? I hope so!

Rat Management Guidelines--UC IPM

Thanks all, they are definitely not coming in for food, they are there for the warmth and love I MEAN LOVE, fiberglass insulation, they've been frollicking around and making frustrating me for years, I fear this is a situation where hundreds of rats at one time or another have called the underneath of my house... home. Yesterday, I checked a hole that I buried, and they redug it to enter the house, although I only shoved dirt on the hole. I'm going to try mothballs until I dig my moat and fill it with cement. The only thing I can think of doing is using a thick metal mesh and staple it at all entries between the walls under my house, this is a big effort. Not sure where I stand or what strategy will best end this charade. I'm about 2 days from buying a cat... a very hungry mousing cat... thing is I don't like cats in the house, anybody have a strictly outside cat? I'll build a nice warm place for it to sleep!

I had the same situation with skunks one year. We put a pan of ammonia down in the hole and a box of mothballs. Now, this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!

DO NOT MIX THE AMMONIA AND MOTHBALLS, THAT CAN CAUSE A LETHAL GAS

By the end of the week, all skunks gone!

It would take a very special cat to kill adult rats (as opposed to mice), let alone the numbers you have. If you don't like cats, I would recommend against this.

I think the metal is a good idea. But the link I posted says they will gnaw on all materials including soft metals such as copper and lead. Choose a hard metal if you are going to do that.

Also, keep in mind:

You probably have Norway rats, which are bigger and burrow.

Quote:

Norway Rats. Norway rats eat a wide variety of foods but mostly prefer cereal grains, meats, fish, nuts, and some fruits. When searching for food and water, Norway rats usually travel an area of about 100 to 150 feet in diameter; seldom do they travel any further than 300 feet from their burrows or nests. The average female Norway rat has four to six litters per year and may successfully wean 20 or more offspring annually.

(Roof rats travel farther---300 feet on a regular basis.)

So if they are nesting under your house, there must be food NEAR your house--within 150 - 300 feet. Fruit or nut trees, etc? Another building with food? If you can, limit their access to food and water within 150 feet.

More from the university extension link:

Quote:

Rats, especially young rats, can squeeze beneath a door with only a 1/2-inch gap. If the door is made of wood, the rat may gnaw to enlarge the gap, but this may not be necessary.

Quote:

Sanitation
Sanitation is fundamental to rat control and must be continuous. If sanitation measures are not properly maintained, the benefits of other measures will be lost, and rats will quickly return. Good housekeeping in and around buildings will reduce available shelter and food sources for Norway and, to some extent, roof rats. Neat, off-the-ground storage of pipes, lumber, firewood, crates, boxes, gardening equipment, and other household goods will help reduce the suitability of the area for rats and will also make their detection easier. Garbage, trash, and garden debris should be collected frequently, and all garbage receptacles should have tight-fitting covers. Where dogs are kept and fed outdoors, rats may become a problem if there is a ready supply of dog food. Feed your pet only the amount of food it will eat at a feeding, and store pet food in rodent-proof containers.

.. .

Building Construction and Rodent Proofing
The most successful and long lasting form of rat control in buildings is to "build them out." Seal cracks and openings in building foundations, and any openings for water pipes, electric wires, sewer pipes, drain spouts, and vents. No hole larger than 1/4 inch should be left unsealed to exclude both rats and house mice. Make sure doors, windows, and screens fit tightly. Their edges can be covered with sheet metal if gnawing is a problem. Coarse steel wool, wire screen, and lightweight sheet metal are excellent materials for plugging gaps and holes. Plastic sheeting, wood, caulking, and other less sturdy materials are likely to be gnawed away.

Because rats (and house mice) are excellent climbers, openings above ground level must also be plugged. Rodent proofing against roof rats usually requires more time to find entry points than for Norway rats because of their greater climbing ability. Roof rats often enter buildings at the roof line area so be sure that all access points in the roof are sealed. If roof rats are travelling on overhead utility wires, contact a pest control professional or the utility company for information and assistance with measures that can be taken to prevent this.

Rodent Proofing Your Home

Repair or replace damaged ventilation screen around the foundation and under eaves.
Provide a tight fitting cover for the crawl space.
Seal all openings around pipes, cables, and wires that enter through walls or the foundation.
Be sure all windows that can be opened are screened and that the screens are in good condition.
Cover all chimneys with a spark arrester.
Make sure internal screens on roof and attic air vents are in good repair.
Cover rooftop plumbing vent pipes in excess of 2 inches in diameter with screens over their tops.
Make sure all exterior doors are tight fitting and weatherproofed at the bottom.
Seal gaps beneath garage doors with a gasket or weatherstripping.
Install self-closing exits or screening to clothes dryer vents to the outside.
Remember that pet doors into the house or garage provide an easy entrance for rodents.
Keep side doors to the garage closed, especially at night.

I know a lot of this is obvious and your main problem is the shallow foundation. But if you do succeed in blocking the underside of the foundation, they WILL still look for another way in if you haven't taken care of the food and water and other access problem.

I don't envy you! I built my house rodent proof (on purpose/knock on wood), but I am out in the woods and my cars and garage get wood rats and deer mice. It's awful.

I would recommend that you use a rat poison that results in their becoming extremely dehydrated before they die. This insures that they will be desperately hunting for a source of water just before it kills 'em and not die in/under your house. I seems like I used a product from Green Light when I had the problem years ago. It plagued me during the winter months, they were looking for a warm place. Oh, peanut butter (creamy) on your man sized rat traps is on of their favorites and yep, be sure to tie the traps down. I had about 10 traps when I started my rat eradication program... it was kind of fun to run the 'trap lines' every morning... gave me a feindish delight to see those hateful buggers with their eyes all 'bugged' out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhanna1

I would recommend that you use a rat poison that results in their becoming extremely dehydrated before they die. This insures that they will be desperately hunting for a source of water just before it kills 'em and not die in/under your house. I seems like I used a product from Green Light when I had the problem years ago. it plagued me during the winter months, they were looking for a warm place. Oh, peanut butter (creamy) on your man sized rat traps is on of their favorites and yep, be sure to tie the traps down. I had about 10 traps when I started my rat eradication program....it was kinda fun to run the 'trap lines' every morning....gave me a feindish delight to see those hateful buggers with their eyes all 'bugged' out.

The only problem with the poison is that after they ingest it they tend to go within the walls causing a terrible smell after they die and begin to decay.

I didn't have any of them come back into the walls to die... that was the beauty of it!

Ok what I do with rats is get an air rifle with a night lamp, cover all areas they are with concrete blocks (for safety) and set a night trap, put some cheese (seems to be a rats favourite food) in the middle of the floor but have your lights off, when you hear scurrying turn the night vision light on an pow, job done.

Somne people might find this a bit ludacris though but then again I was brought up on a farm and these are wthe ways we used to use.

Good luck mate

The down side of poisons is that predators such as owls may eat the poisoned animals and die too. Then you have not only killed a key predator in your area, contributing to ecological breakdown, but you no longer have one regular control on the rodent population. Predators such as bobcats, coyotes, and owls, take much longer to reproduce and build up their populations than rodents, unfortunately.

Also pets may eat the poisoned, dying rodents.
I lost a cat this way, after setting out poison for mice.

You are right 'Asking'! Now that you mention it, I lost one of our cats when I was using the poison! Thanks for that reminder. I was reading at another site about a similar issue (squirrels in the attic) and one solution suggested was to place a bowl of ammonia in the area where they are and another separate bowl with moth balls in it, claiming that they didn't like the smell and would vacate the premices. It would be worth a try!

Tom Cat rat poison works great! I didn't have them in the house but they were all over the yard in the fruit trees. I hung 15 blocks in the aureca palms and they were gone in the morning. I repeated for 2 more days (45 blocks) all gone in three days. No more rats and never smelled a thing of saw a dead one. Now I use a bait station with poison to maintain the problem. Even if they do smell when dead it will only last for a week. I was told rats will eat each other after they die so you can get 2 for 1.:):)

I would suggest placing a bed of #2 washed stone 2 feet wide and 6 inches deep around the problem areas. I would also suggest placing commercial rat bait boxes about 50 feet apart baited with rodent bait blocks available at most hardware stores. The bait boxes may be harder to find but should be available at places like LESCO , farm supply dealers or from the web.

The stone will discourage rats digging near the foundation. Bait must be placed in tamper resistant bait boxes to protect it from the weather, inquisitive kids and pets.

Copper mesh, if you can find it, is much preferable to steel wool for plugging holes since it won't rust.