Get rid of rats in walls (+ signs & sounds of rats in walls)

You hear scratching and pitter-pattering little feet running through the walls of your home. You know it isn’t squirrels or mice because you have discovered a little hole within your foundation where this critter is coming through and you saw a rat scurry into it the other day.

Now, you are sitting back with questions in your mind about what to do with your situation—at least one rat and maybe many rats are in your walls. You know that rats can cause all kinds of damage to your home and their poop carries diseases that can make humans sick.

rats getting into a wall
Rats sneak into a wall through a small opening.

How exactly do rats get inside your home?

Rats get inside your home by crawling in through cracks and holes within the foundation. They can also sneak through broken windows, or holes within the roof and along the chimney, they create themselves by chewing.

Rats are so intelligent that these creatures will even crawl through doggy doors and crawl through drainpipes to make their way into any place that has a good food and water source that is easy to get too.

Video shows how to deal with rodents in your walls

How do you know you have rats inside your walls besides hearing pitter-pattering little feet?

Some of the ways you can discover if rats might be inside your walls besides hearing their pitter-pattering little feet is by seeing rat droppings around your home in kitchen cabinets, entranceways, in attics, crawlspaces and throughout the basement. 

Rat droppings are oval and long in shape with a dark brown or blackish color that are usually left in clusters similar to rabbit or mice poop. Cleaning up rat poop should be done carefully since it could potentially carry diseases that are harmful to humans.

To clean up rat poop you should always wear a mask and gloves and use a strong disinfectant such as bleach. The same goes for cleaning up rat nests inside of walls, cabinets and other spaces rats tend to like to build nests.

What needs to happen to get rid of rats from the walls of your home?

If you discover that you do have rats building their home inside of your home you may need to tear down walls in order to rid their nest, physically capture the rats with traps and remove them from your walls. After, it is essential you clean the inside of the walls extremely well with bleach, install new installation such as a fiberglass kind and put up new drywall and plaster materials to keep the rats out.

You will also want to go outside or anywhere inside your house and fill holes and crackers, fix broken windows and remove any doggy doors to prevent rats from getting inside your home again.

Even spraying a rat repellent along the foundation of your home can go a long ways to keeping rats out. With that said if the rat infestation is too huge you may need to call in the exterminators to solve this situation carefully and properly from your home.

What can happen if rats are left inside the walls of your home?

If you do not take care of rat problems within the walls of your home as soon as you notice it, it can lead to bigger infestations and problems. Rats not only carry diseases within their fecal matter that causes illness to humans, but they can chew wires within the walls causing electrical issues and even house fires.

Sometimes rats that are stuck inside your wall will die there, which can create a foul-smelling odor throughout your home and cause other pests such ants to invade your space. These rodents can even chew through pipes and cause water damage and plumbing issues to you too.

What are some ways to prevent rats from invading the walls of your home?

Besides filling the holes in the walls and foundation of your home, fixing broken windows, and removing doggy doors there are several other methods you can use for preventing rats from invading your home. Those methods are:

  • Getting a house cat or two since rats hate cats.
  • Spray feline urine around the foundation of your home to repel the rats away naturally.
  • Always keep food and water sources unavailable to them by keeping garbage sealed away in airtight trash containers and empty containers that fill up with water picked up.
  • Always put away your grill after you are done using it.
  • Plant mint, garlic, lavender, and cayenne pepper plants around your home since rats do not like the aroma that they produce since they burn or sting their snouts.
  • Place rat traps in areas the rats often come in through to enter your home.

Hidden Dangers of Wall Rats

The bottom line is rats inside the walls of any home are dangerous and getting rid of this problem should be of importance since once again they can carry diseases that can make you sick, or cause damage to your home.

The only kind of rat that should ever be in your home is domestic ones you have as pets. Otherwise, rats should be considered pests and rid from your home immediately as a rat infestation problem is noticed.

Published
Categorized as Rats

By David Jackson

I enjoy learning about new pest control strategies and sharing what I learn at NeverPest.com. I aim to create a reliable resource for people dealing with all sorts of pest issues.

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