Rats are no strangers to our neighborhoods, but lately there has been an upsurge in their presence – or so many believe. People report recently having problems with these persistent rodents, and solutions can be difficult and varied. One neighbor wrote to THE BEE recently about it, and suggested that an article on the subject might help others.
“We moved to the Woodstock neighborhood a couple of years ago, and recently started struggling with rats getting into our crawlspace,” she told us.
“We have had several visits from a pest control company, patching up holes and setting up traps and bait stations, but we are having a hard time getting rid of them! Of course, we are keeping our yard and home clean – no food sources available ... No chickens or birdseed or anything!”
You cannot name a neighborhood that doesn’t have these critters. And pest control companies and Multnomah County Vector Control are being kept busy trying to help beleaguered residents who are sometimes at their wits end to find a solution.
Keeping everything cleaned up inside and outside a residence is important, setting traps and catching some rats often doesn’t eliminate the problem. If it is determined not to be a sewer problem (which it can certainly be), then networking with nearby neighbors can be one way out of the situation.
Woodstock resident Norm Bone said that is exactly what he resorted to. Two years ago there was a persistent rat problem around his house and in the yard. After hearing from neighbors that he wasn’t alone in this, he decided to encourage surrounding residences to also start trapping.
“My neighbors on all four sides of my house cooperated to trap and keep our yards clean.” He set out a humane trap because he didn’t want to use poison and had found conventional traps were not very effective for him. And yes, he did what some pest control companies do at the end, although he is reluctant to admit it. He drowned them.
Bone told THE BEE, “Snap traps resulted in some not so pleasant outcomes. I set the [humane] trap after dark along a fence line. Use a little peanut butter and some dog kibble. Disable the trap in the morning to prevent catching squirrels. Drowning worked well. Quick, and no mess. Double bag the rat and place in your garbage can.” He trapped 25 over a period of two years.
His advice? “Be vigilant and consistent. Talk to your neighbors. You NEED to cooperate, or it’ll never work. One interesting thing: Keep an eye under the hood of your car for rat droppings and chewed wires. Apparently, some manufacturers are using plant-based insulation and other parts that rats like to chew on. My neighbor says she put bars of Irish Spring soap under her hood and hasn’t had a problem since.”
Bone never had rats in the house, but the person noted above who recently moved to the neighborhood reported that they have them inside their house too. With a toddler and a baby in the household, the problem is even more trying. The following graphic paragraph from the mother is certainly instructive about the intelligence of rats.
“We have had more visits from our pest control company and they’re hoping they’ve finally sealed all the entrances to our crawl space. The rats had piled up rock so they could climb up the pile, and they got into a hole in the wood and into the crawl space. They’re very determined and intelligent creatures, yet I’m not feeling very charitable towards them.”
And she added this graphic comment: “One ventured out of the crawl space and got caught in a trap in our laundry room last Saturday, but due to its large size the trap didn’t kill it so it was just running around with its head in the trap. Our pest control company did an emergency weekend visit to drown it. Pretty gross stuff. We also had an issue in which rats would die in the traps, which then would bring a lot of flies – we’d have dozens of flies in the house.”
The county inspector said the rats were apparently coming into their yard from a neighboring property since they could not identify any food sources or issues on the property where the rats had entered. They concluded that the rats were being fed and reproducing in other spaces nearby, and had just found a dry place in the crawl space of this particular house. Tightening the crawl space, and several visits from the pest control company, eliminated the problem (for now).
A third household in Woodstock had mice and rats in the house and garage until they finally found a company that told them they needed a crawl space VAPOR BARRIER to protect against moisture and rodents. This plastic or foil sheet covers the ground, walls, floors or roofs, preventing rodents from burrowing and/or nesting.
And if you are looking for an especially good rat-kill trap, one reader recommends the “UCatch tunneled rat trap” found on Amazon; he has eliminated 23 rats in the last year, so far, with it – including three whopping eight-inch-long ones (not including the tail) which barely fit even halfway into the trap. This trap is designed to catch and kill the rat instantly. But, since any rats not trapped reproduce fast, although such traps can help control rats, they may not eliminate them without bringing in professionals, he told THE BEE.
Good luck, and let THE BEE know if you have found an effective solution for this pesty problem.
For more helpful information, Multnomah County has devoted a webpage to dealing with rat problems, including listing resources – https://tinyurl.com/5c3j5d2m
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