How can I keep out rats?

Question

I live in a small neighborhood and recently there have been a lot of housing additions in my city and they have been cutting down a lot of wooded areas, since this happened my house is constantly infested by rats. I hate rats and we have been keeping our house meticulously clean, yet they keep returning. What can I do?

We live in an old home with a basement so there is no way to cover holes in our foundation.... so we don't know what to do. Any ideas?

Answer 1

in the uk we have rent a kill which will come and get rid of them for you, they are the experts who know when and where to place all the traps and poison etc.

Answer 2

If you don't have rabbits or hamsters try one of the electric high frequency devises that plug into your wall.  Of course there are rat traps of all kinds.

Answer 3

Sounds like you can't keep the rats out?  So, you have to kill the ones who make their way inside.  

Most house cats, unless they are unusually big and tough, won't fight a 2 1/4-pound Norway rat.  So unless you get a good ratting cat (preferably two or three), don't bet on a cat solving your problem.

If you have a bunch of rats, and they're in your home, poison is your best choice.  It's the most efficient way--you'll get rid of a bunch, or all of them, fast.  There's one drawback (see below), but it's better than live rats in your house.  

Choose a poison that has brodifacoum (a very toxic, one-feed rodentcide) as the active ingredient.  D-Con is one brand that has it, it's sold at Wal-Mart and some hardware stores.  Make sure you get a package that says "Rat" poison--mouse poison is not strong enough.  

Mix in a little peanut butter, with a stick or plastic utensil, to make it more enticing.  If you have pets, put the bait trays inside shoe boxes with the corners cut out so the rats can enter.  Wrap rubber bands around the box so pets can't open it.  

Set baits close to walls and in dark corners, such as behind the stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer. Put out a lot of bait.  You want to kill them all at once.

If rats die in walls or the attic, they will smell for a short while.  That's the drawback of poison.  But the smell will go away, and it won't hurt you--the diseases that live rats carry will.  

If you really want to be slick, wrap bacon around poison to make a mini-burrito that is approx 1 inch square.  Tie it with thread.  The advantage of this is that the rat will bring the poison back to its nest; you can kill multiple rats with one bait setting.  If you do this, use rubber gloves and wash your hands even after wearing the gloves.   Good luck.  I hate rats, too!

Answer 4

I think I'd get 1 or 2 cats, or set rat traps down there, or like another person said, buy rat poison.  Good luck!

Answer 5

I think the best way is rat traps. you can remove dead bodies of rats.

You can keep cats there. They will care about rats as possible as they can. And you can use rat killers.

But the problem is you happened to remove dead rats and parts. This is very hard to do with basement. Because rats will go after eating poisons anywhere and die. You happened to find them. And cats will not eat whole rats. This will be a great problem with stink.

Try using traps and fix them anywhere so you can remove dead bodies. Because rats can't drag them.

Answer 6

get you a cat or some ratt poison

Answer 7

Get a cat or find someone that has a cat and put some of there cat litter in a bag and just sit the bag in the basement