The only time I ever enjoyed seeing a rat was when Disney made it. But dealing with a rat infestation is an absolute nightmare. Especially, if you’re living in a tiny space. I live in an extremely tiny space that’s 200 sq ft.
And when I got this apartment, it was, as you guessed, infested. Luckily for me, the owner had everything removed, so there was no furniture and about 5 rats would frequent this apartment on the ground floor all the time. I knew I couldn’t tolerate them as I had come from a place where there were never any rats and I was on the 4th floor back then.
For my case it was easy although it took some time to get rid of the infestation. The entire apartment was empty and I inspected all entry points, I made sure to repair any holes that were made by the rats using this cement. And sealed off entry points.
To make sure, I was deterring rats from coming back in from places it just wasn’t possible to block them off of, I started using this spray on all entry points once a week so that the never want to squeeze themselves in from these places. Keep in mind that this spray needs constant application, and does a good job keeping mice away, but not the rats.
I had just one main gate (the only entry to my apartment) which had in some places enough space for the rats to squeeze themselves in, so I used this steel wool to seal of the entrance along with some mesh tape on it so the rats could no longer make their way in.
Rats can be persistent, this entire effort took 7 months to make my space a rat-free zone. I added rat traps that trap the rat right before the entrance spots outside my house, this kept them going in at all.
This helped me solve my rat problems, but as every place is unique, so is the way you would tackle a situation like this.
If it’s not possible to move every piece of furniture out for some days like I did? So, let’s take a look at this step-by-step plan on dealing with a rat infestation.
Plan Of Action
When dealing with an infestation, whether its a few rats that frequent that place or many, a plan of action is must to help you take care of this situation. Especially, when you are DIY’ing it.
01. Capture/Contain The Rats
There’s many rat traps available out there, and you should spare two miutes to think exactly how you want to trap them. There is a humane and non-humane way to go about it:
Humane Rat Traps:
In my opinion, I like the plastic rat traps the best, they’re easy and much better in build quality. These rat traps are humane because you’re not killing the rat.
Non-Humane Rat Traps
- Death Plastic Traps
- Glue Traps
- Rat Poison
Please note: These traps will kill the rat, glue traps are quite painful for the rat so kindly consider putting lots of oil on the glue trap once you have placed it outside of your house so that the rat can free itself and doesn’t torture himself to death. The glue trap can also end up sticking on a kitten that was hunting for food in your trash making this entire thing a vicious circle of unindented harm to animals. So my advice is to avoid these traps.
Similarly, rat poison will lead to carnivore bird extinction. Birds that eat dead meat will die whn they consume dead rats that died due to poisoning. Please be extremely mindful of these options.
I can understand why you might want to kill the rats, but, I strongly suggest preventing their infestation, and using humane traps to contain them. Always release these rats 3-5 kilometres away from your house.
02. Keep Your House Clean
Once you are finished catching all the mice, the next step is to thoroughly sweep your house. You want to remove anything that has been attracting rats to pay you a visit. Keep your bins covered, try to store food waste outside your house or at least keep it covered.
If you keep grains, rice, flour, butters, cheese and so on lying around carelessly and you live on the ground floor and not a high-rise building, you’ll realise quickly that will attract the rats to you like the moth to fire.
I want to urge you to keep your house clean. Rats in a space can invite many diseases for you and your family, use dettol to wipe down surfaces and clean areas that the rats have visited.
03. Seal All Entrance Points
This step will take you the longest to complete. You will have to stay diligent and notice where the rats are taking an entry from:
- If it’s a hole in the wall, cement it.
- If its the area below the doors or gate structure seal it with steel wool and mesh tape.
- If it’s the door to your entrance which you can’t seal because you need to open it, use door gap sealers.
These steps will definitely work in helping you keep rats away for good. And please don’t forget to buy a rat cage to place right outside your entrance. It works like a charm.
If you’ve tried this post, or improvised on the things I did, please be sure to leave a comment. I’d love to read how it went for you. I’ve been free from rats for 6 months now at the time of this writing and truly happy.