March 31st, 2020 by Becky Calvert

There’s no way around it, rats and mice can cause some real problems if they happen to find their way into your home or workspace. Not only do they carry germs and bacteria, but they also breed extremely quickly, leave their droppings everywhere and can start to chew through everything in sight. With this in mind, you want to be able to remove them as quickly as possible and as safely as possible – especially if you have pets or children around. Here’s everything that you need to know about removing rats from your home safely…

Facts about Rats and Mice

How Long do They Live for?

On average, rats have a longer lifespan than mice do. Rats usually live for around 2 years, whereas a mouse only lives for a year and a half. Although they only have short lives, they breed a lot during this time which prevents the problem from going away once they start to die themselves. With this in mind, it’s super important to tackle the problem as soon as you notice the rodents are there, or you could end up with far more rats or mice roaming your premises than were originally there.

Why Are They Classed as Pests?

If you’re reading this – we’re sure you already know! However, with more and more people choosing to have mice and rats as pets, it’s important to know. Rats and mice that live in the wild often spread and carry diseases, which you definitely don’t want to be bringing into your home. They also chew through whatever they can (especially wires) which can cause fire hazards. They can even cause structural damage to the property if you have them for a long enough, too.

How Do They Feed?

Typically, they like to feed at night when it’s dark. This means that they rely on their sense of smell a lot to find their food. With this in mind, this is why a lot of bait is now sweet-smelling to entice the rodent to start to nibble on it.

Pest Control Methods

Traps

Traps are great for killing rats quickly. They’re simple to use and make sure that you have the body to dispose of (to avoid the rat dying somewhere you can’t get to). Our mouse and rat traps break the rodents back and kill them as soon as the trap goes off, which avoids unnecessary pain or suffering for the animal. All you need to do is set the trap, use a small amount of bait and wait for the rodents to do the rest.

We recommend this pest control method in households where the total number of rodents isn’t too high, as you’ll need to keep resetting the trap to remove all of the mice or rats which can take more time, unless you decide to get quite a few.

Rotech Snap-E-Trap Rat Trap

A humane way to control rat infestations with a safe spring mechanism you set from behind.

Price: £8.99

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Grain Bait & Blocks

These are a type of rat poison that have a chocolate smell to entice the pests to eat them. As we mentioned before, rodents rely heavily on their sense of smell to detect food and therefore, they’re instantly attracted to the sweet-smelling grains and blocks. They’ll start to nibble on the grain or block and once the poison is inside them, they’ll start to kill them quickly – which is a more sensible option for those with large amounts of rats as you can place the poison in several places and remove more rodents at a time.

Xterminate Super Strength Rat Poison Blocks 300g Sachets

Price: £8.99

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How Do I Know if the Rodents Have Eaten the Bait?

Our grain and bait blocks all have a red colouring within them. This means that when the rat deposits droppings, if they’ve consumed the poison, their droppings will be red too! This way, you can track how much the rats have had – allowing you to see it working and the pests being controlled.

How Do I Safely Store Rat Poison?

Although super effective, rat poison isn’t something that you want to have laying around your home – especially if you have children and pets. Although it’s designed for rodents, it can be deadly to other animals and human alike, so every precaution should be taken.

It’s now actually against the law to not keep your rat poison in a bait station. Bait stations are a great way to protect yourself and your family from the bait, whilst still making it accessible for the vermin. They’re designed to entice rats inside (we recommend using the sweet-smelling bait to do this). Furthermore, you can even place a trap inside the bait station if you want to double up on the pest control methods! Bait stations are really hard to open without a key and your poison should always be kept inside, whether you’re currently actively using it or not.