Major Roof Rat Problem

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

On 4/2/2013 at 11:07 AM, BiPolarBear said:

I can hear them at night and also hear them returning from outside early in the morning. I went up in the attic and had a look. I am the guy that neighbors call if they have a snake or possum. I took one look at the attic and knew the problem was out of my league. Lots of rat pellets and tunnels and runways in the insulation. I could do the trapping, but would never be able to find all the places they use to get in. Also I read about the need to decontaminate the attic and replace the insulation.

 

The guy from Critter Control just left. I signed right up. There is a lifetime guarantee that we will never have the problem again. They re-shoot it with an insulation that kills insects and irritates rodents so they won't live in it.

 

It will be a few weeks before they get back to do the work. It will be interesting to see how many rats they trap.

I think I have ~40~ of those fockers up there.

 

Ever get rid of them?

 

I am going through this now, the animal control guy seems to believe he can get them all.

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

On 4/3/2013 at 11:18 AM, BiPolarBear said:

All of have to add at this point is the price for all the service:

 

$7,125.00

 

[BiPolarBear 485]

On 3/1/2022 at 3:11 PM, MTSkiBum said:

Hey, bro. 

The Critter Control folks got rid of the rats in one day, and the rats never got back in. 

They used big vacuum hoses to suck all the old insulation out of the attic, and replaced it with a cellulose product that does not allow them to tunnel; it collapses. They filled in all the weep holes between the bricks with a stiff, porous plastic material, and cut sheet metal to block entrances under the eves and other places on the roof. 

I sought revenge on the outside rats and started putting rat traps in the back yard. The biggest one was 18", including tail. 

The whole problem started with a big red oak tree in our backyard. It keeps the rats around with a steady supply of acorns. I flushed out a drain under our pool, and got out hundreds of rat eaten acorn shells. 

 A friend who told me they spent over $10K for the same problem. The cost is calculated on the size of the attic. Their house is a huge one story rancher with a attic to match. 

I talked to another service first, but they wanted to charge me an additional $1,500 to trap rats in the backyard for a year. I wasn't going to pay for something I can easily do, and on some level, enjoy a bit. 

[wiffleball 4,790]

Major roof rat was what his troops used to call @Mungwaterbefore he got a promotion.

[MTSkiBum 1,620]

1 hour ago, BiPolarBear said:

Hey, bro. 

The Critter Control folks got rid of the rats in one day, and the rats never got back in. 

They used big vacuum hoses to suck all the old insulation out of the attic, and replaced it with a cellulose product that does not allow them to tunnel; it collapses. They filled in all the weep holes between the bricks with a stiff, porous plastic material, and cut sheet metal to block entrances under the eves and other places on the roof. 

I sought revenge on the outside rats and started putting rat traps in the back yard. The biggest one was 18", including tail. 

The whole problem started with a big red oak tree in our backyard. It keeps the rats around with a steady supply of acorns. I flushed out a drain under our pool, and got out hundreds of rat eaten acorn shells. 

 A friend who told me they spent over $10K for the same problem. The cost is calculated on the size of the attic. Their house is a huge one story rancher with a attic to match. 

I talked to another service first, but they wanted to charge me an additional $1,500 to trap rats in the backyard for a year. I wasn't going to pay for something I can easily do, and on some level, enjoy a bit. 

 

Crap, i have one story ranch house and 5 oak trees Not only that but i do not have backdoor neighbors, i bought my house specifically because it has a river/forest behind it.

I also think one got into my hvac. We were running the heater the other night and all of a sudden it started smelling burnt hair in half of our house. The animal control guy did find a few spots where they were chewing into the hvac. But the hvac person is not due out until monday.

 

I don't really want to spend 5 figures on this, I am going to go the cheap and see if the animal control guy can seal everything up and trap all the rats. I am not sure traps in my yard will work due to the shear number of animals behind our house.

It is going to be ugly i think.

[Cloaca du jour 2,150]

I this was about the flooding in nawlins.

[MLCKAA 574]

The real trouble makers are bats or coons.  Coons like to create a “latrine” and keep coming back to the same spot to whiz or crap.  Can really be a problem.  Bat dung is just awful stuff.  Coon crap has the histoplasmosis.  Yeesh.

[Masshole 642]

I had a bad mouse problem in one of my previous homes.   Sucked, I had no idea how much damage they could do.    Worst was once they got in they would make nests in the insulation and then sh1t & pee in there.   Even worse is inevitably one or more dies inside a wall or ceiling.   Ugh, then you get smell.  

Root cause was poor construction.   Too many places where they could get in along the sill between the foundation and the wall.    Had to strip all of the old, mousey insulation out, seal all of the holes where they got in, and then set traps to catch any stragglers.   It got fixed but it was a lot of work and I am not a big fan of handling mouse sh1t & pee soaked insulation, no matter how many gloves and long sleeve shirts I was wearing.    I think I burned my clothes after I finished that project. . . 

[wiffleball 4,790]

Just proof that there are dozens of unnecessary critter species.