Many Arizona communities, most notably those of the North Scottsdale area have been especially hard hit by packrats (Neotomaalbigula). Packrats are native to Arizona and do millions of dollars in damage to homes and vehicles annually. Packrats damage attic insulation, wiring, roof underlayment, hot tubs, BBQs, and landscaping plants. Many homeowners are unaware of infestations because attic insulation often muffles the sounds. Rodent Proof L.L.C. specializes in all types of rodent issues, offering free estimates and special group discount rates for most services.
The following are several suggestions to consider as individual homeowners and as a community when dealing with packrats:
1. Don’t Give Rats a Place to Live: Packrat nests are piles of sticks, cactus parts, and debris that range in size from 1 to 3 feet and may contain several rats each. Removing these nests, which are often present in cactus patches or bushes, can go a long way in reducing packrat numbers on a community scale. Consult a professional (such as Rodent Proof L.L.C.) before removing these nests as they could represent a considerable health risk and contain numerous parasites.
2. Rodent Proof Your Home: Keeping rats out of your home is foremost in preventing material damage and is ultimately the most humane and cost effective solution available. It is important that each structure be considered individually, so that actions specific to each structure may be taken, ensuring ongoing success in keeping rodents where they belong: outside.
3. Don’t use poison unless your home has been Rodent Proofed: If you are using poison and your house has not been sealed, it is not a question of whether rodents will die in the walls or attic; it is simply a question of when. Using professional grade rodenticides is recommended to prevent damage to tile roofs, landscaping, or vehicles, but only if rats are fully excluded from the structure.
4. Don’t feed the birds: Birds go to the feeders during the day and rats visit them at night. If you are a die-hard birdwatcher clean up spilled seed frequently.
5. Bring in pet food at night: Pet food can be a major draw for rats. Additionally, dog and cat droppings are often consumed by rats and should be cleaned up or removed promptly.
Ultimately, depriving animals of food and shelter goes a long way to discouraging them from nesting in a given area. Rodent Proofing, in addition to these, virtually eliminates any potential for packrat infestation along with infestation by other small mammals preventing untold damage, destruction and disease.
If it seems sometimes as if we humans are merely living in a rat’s world instead of the other way around, this is because we are. Rats got here long before us and they will likely be here long after we are gone along with their rodent brethren and cockroaches. Rats and rodents in general have adapted throughout the years to every change climate and circumstance and we, as humans, could stand to learn from their example.
You may be asking yourself how it is possible for humans to adapt in order to control rats. A good place to start is to consider the rat’s point of view and realize that by removing the things that are desirable to rats from your property, you have accomplished a great deal in deterring them. Rats, regardless of the specifics of species, desire all the same comforts of life that we do: food, water, shelter, and nesting material (their version of furniture). Rats are not so different from us in their needs, but some boundaries need to be set in order to keep them from sharing in the comforts of YOUR home.
Attempting to simply kill rats off, which is a Sisyphean effort unto itself, will work for a short time only to have us revisiting the problem every few months if not weeks or days. As rats have learned to adapt, so must we, by controlling the things we can and in doing so, minimize their impact. The good news is that rat control needn’t be complicated or barbaric when there are smart and permanent solutions available for every budget.
There are any numbers of ways a rat may enter the home from climbing up downspouts to jumping off of nearby low hanging tree limbs. Rats are fearless climbers and jumpers and are simply searching for a way in to the structure for shelter from the elements. Once rats have invaded the home, they must be removed before any efforts to keep them out can take place. Once this sort of work has been finished, areas that have ongoing rat problems may want to consider installing bait stations to help control the rat and general rodent population. Bait stations are now available in an attractive landscaping style resembling a small boulder.
Gardeners and fruit tree enthusiasts often find themselves in need of help with their rodent problems. Citrus trees are a beautiful addition to any yard; however the fruits they produce can attract rats and other pests as well. Harvesting fruit often and keeping it off the ground will minimize the attraction of pests and some pest management companies now offer to assist in these efforts. Other edibles in the garden may attract attention from rats as well, and the only reasonable course of action is to harvest fruits and vegetables as soon as it is prudent to do so.
Rats love ponds, pools and irrigated yards and golf courses. There is little you can do to change this reality, but it may be helpful in understanding how it could be possible for so many rats to survive in desert climates. Irrigation lines are often chewed through by rats and other rodents in an attempt to find access to water, so you may want to look for new leaks in drip system lines.Pool and hot tub equipment is often chewed through for the same reason, much to the frustration many homeowners.
Attics, crawl spaces, hot tubs and barbecues are favorite places for rats to seek shelter. Thankfully, rat control in these areas is absolutely possible with permanent and customized solutions available from licensed pest and wildlife management companies. Structural exclusion methods used by such companies prove to be the most effective and humane solution in a situation where rodents are present. Exclusion has come a long way from it’s beginnings with steel wool and caulk and is far more attractive and durable now. This method, once successfully completed, keeps all small animals out of the home which protects precious electrical wiring, insulation, duct work, and so much more. It must be mentioned here that structural exclusion will only prevent damage from occurring in the home when all animals have been trapped and removed from the structure to be sealed up. A trapped and panicky rat can be extremely destructive before they die of thirst or starvation.
Rats will use available loose brush (i.e. / twigs, branches, leaves, rubbish) to build a nest or midden outdoors rather than OR in addition to invading the home. These middens take time to build but can grow quite large and complex over time and may house several territorial rat families. To prevent such rat nests from cropping up on your property, it is advisable to remove any materials that may be used and easily carried by rats to build such a structure. Pest and wildlife management companies may be utilized in order to destroy and remove middens. It is particularly advisable to enlist help in dealing with midden removal considering that they can grow to weigh in at hundreds of pounds and may grow in height to six feet tall. Help is also necessary in situations where a nest has been built in an attic area that may be difficult to move about within and the risk of exposure to infectious diseases carried by rats is highest.
Ask your friendly local pest and wildlife management professional today if bait stations and structural exclusion are right for your home and property today. These individuals can help you fix the problems you have with rats and other pests as well as assisting to adapt your home to its environment and prevent pest problems for years to come.
No. You are not crazy. (Especially if you live in Cave Creek, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley or North Phoenix.) Those noises you have been hearing at 3 a.m. are not the product of your active imagination and no, your house is not “settling.” As it turns out, you have packrats and when you realize the damage they are capable of creating, you will see that you had good reason to be afraid.
Although they are not the ugliest of all of rodent species, these nocturnal critters are extremely intelligent and industrious making them potentially more insidious and destructive than their mousy relatives. This rat may be handsome, but no amount of charm and good looks could make the list of horrors he brings palatable to any homeowner. The white throated wood rat (commonly referred to as the packrat), as you will soon learn, is possibly the most dangerous of all residential pests.
In truth, it all begins with the packrat’s nest. Whether this nest is built in your yard, attic or crawl space, it can pose a serious threat to your property. When a packrats builds a nest in a residential yard, it can grow to a tremendous size in both height and weight. Several feet high, weighing in at hundreds of pounds, these nests can house multiple generations of territorial packrats. When a packrat builds a nest in an attic or crawl space, this area can fill up with literally thousands of pounds worth of waste and debris. As packrats delight in collecting all sorts of items, it is obvious that they would bring them back to their nest. What you may find once this has gone on for years, is an attic full of rat droppings, yard waste, rotting trash, and even small shiny items such as jewelry. Items you may have stored in your attic or crawl space are likely to be discovered and enjoyed by these little explorers and for your purposes as a human, sadly rendered useless.
Insulated areas are ideal homes for packrats who use insulation as nesting material. In a relatively short period of time, an attic full of insulation may be matted down by the effects of rodent traffic and sticky tar-like urine. This sort of “wear and tear” on insulation will have a dramatic impact on its performance in its ability to help warm or cool the structure and can be tremendously expensive to replace and in most cases, impossible to clean.In those same areas where insulation is often destroyed, packrats often go after an unfortunate favorite snack: wiring. Although most are not aware of it, cottonseed and linseed oil are used in wiring, making it irresistible to rodents. When wiring has been gnawed at by packrats or any other rodent in an area where it is exposed, the potential for fire is present. This situation requires the assistance of not only wildlife or pest management professional, but also a seasoned, licensed electrician.
The mere presence of packrats in the home or on one’s property necessitates the mention of the insects and disease they bring with them. Kissing bugs (also known as the cone nosed beetle, Mexican bed bug or assassin bug) prefer packrat nests as their breeding ground. The bite of this bug may make a person quite ill and can be described as more painful than a scorpion or bee sting, while some may be bitten and never realize that it has happened. Packrats themselves may carry fleas which have been known to spread bubonic plague which has been reported in Arizona in recent years with one notable human fatality in the Grand Canyon area. Additionally, both botulism and salmonella are spread via packrat droppings while Arena virus (also known as Whitewater Arroyo virus) and hanta virus have been detected in Arizona’s packrats in an extensive CDC study.
Truly, the scope of potential damage caused by packrats is astounding. When you have a packrat infestation, you have a real and dangerous situation on your hands with both safety and health concerns. Happily, there are permanent, customized solutions available to prevent such devastation from taking place as well as remediation (clean-up) services for situations in which the damage has already been done. Such services are available from skilled, licensed professionals in the wildlife and pest management industry. For more information on packrats and how to prevent or eradicate an infestation, call 480-874-1368.
For years, neighborhoods in Gilbert, Arizona have had problems with feral cat colonies. These situations usually begin with careless pet owners neglecting spaying and neutering laws. It seems that the economy and rapid increase in home vacancies due to the numerous forclosures have exacerbated the growing feral cat problem. It appears that families, having suffered forclosure, have been forced to leave pets behind to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, many other Arizona residents are finding a marked increase feral cat populations throughout the greater Phoenix area.
Feral cats have been recently reported living on people’s rooftops, in trash piles and in back yards throughout Phoenix and surrounding areas. While this may seem like a wonderful solution to the area’s roof rat and general rodent woes, it only presents a new list of problems and concerns. Should you encounter a feral cat on your property, there are a few things you should know:
1. Animal control will not assist a home owner to deal with a feral cat. Maricopa County has absolutely no funding to catch and kill cats.
2. Cats roam to look for food and to mate. Spayed and neutered cats in a colony won’t roam more than 300 feet from their food source. Unaltered animals will roam much further.
3. It is against the law to relocate cats. If you remove, catch, and then dump a cat at another location you could be charged for abandonment of that cat, and the owner of the property where you dropped it could sue you criminally, civilly, or both.
4. If you capture a feral cat and take it to be euthanized at the County shelter it will cost you $95.
5. Cats can begin reproducing as young as five to six months of age and usually have two litters a year, with six kittens in each litter. This means that a single pair of cats can become over 2000 cats in two years.
6. There is no need to fear feral cats. Generally, these cats will never let anyone get near enough to grab them so the risk of a bite is minimal. What may concern you, however, is the prevalence of FIV in feral cat population. If you have a pet cat, you should strictly limit exposure to feral cats to prevent the spread of this virus. Humans will not catch the virus.
To avoid the problem entirely, home and business owners can call a wildlife management company such as Rodent Proof L.L.C. Companies such as Rodent Proof L.L.C. will live trap and remove feral cats from an area so that one might avoid the hassles and fees associated with taking care of the problem on their own. If you notice a colony of feral cats in your area, you should abstain from feeding them. Any cats you feed belong to you in the eyes of the law – regardless of where they are fed. Whether they are fed on your porch, at the back door of a restaurant, or at a lumber yard, all cats you either feed, take to the vet, spay or neuter, and vaccinate are YOUR cats. Choose the most humane and sane solution to a feral cat problem in the Phoenix area: the wildlife management professionals at Rodent Proof L.L.C.
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