What attracts rats to your house?

If you think you have a rat infestation at your house, you have to know the main reasons what attracts them to your house - so that you can take a few practical steps to prevent further outbreaks from this pesky rats.

What causes rats to come in your house can be seen from their three basic needs that encouraging them to create a nest in your home:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Shelter

Food

Basically, rats will eat anything a human eats. They will eat almost anything available in your kitchen cabinets or cupboards, but rats prefer to eat small amounts of a wide variety of foods, giving them a very varied diet.

Rats are easy to detect the presence of foods in your house by using their whiskers. They use their whiskers as much as humans use fingerprints to touch and/or feel objects. Rat’s whiskers serves more as their highly sensitive sense of touch, which help the rat to find and discriminate food they found.

If you eat food that has been contaminated by rats through its urine or feces, it will transmit bacteria that causes salmonellosis, or salmonella poisoning followed by diarrhea.

Water

Rats find water as the same way they find food. Rats can live in a dry habitat where the source of water are not available and gain all the water they need from the foods they eat. Rats found the sources of water at your house through the leaky pipes, leaky sprinkler heads and your pet water dishes.

On average, rats require 15 to 30 ml of daily water consumption a day when they are feeding on dry foods, but they will need less water consumption when moist foods are available.

Shelter

Rats are generally always look for shelter that they can be found inside and outside your house to become their potential nesting site for their young.

Rats are resourceful. They can make use of just about any kind of available materials that usually constructed of man made debris to build their shelter on your attic or garden.

Find out more where do rats build their nests in your house here

What is the best thing to keep rats away?

See our practical ways to prevent rats from becoming a problem in your house:

Remove food sources

• Keeping food in tightly sealed containers and put them in the refrigerator whenever possible
• Place outdoor rubbish bags in metal bins with securely fitted lids to stop them feeding from contents
• Clean up pet food and bird seed debris, and store pet food in robust containers with fitted lids and don’t leave your pet food lying around

Remove water sources

• Fix leaky water pipes and dripping faucet that become source of water for rats
• Eliminate any standing water and old pots filled with water

Remove their access to build a shelter

• Seal tiny gaps and cracks in the house with sealant
• Check all walls, windows, doors, eaves and drains for possible gaps
• Keep gardens free from debris. If you have a compost heap don’t include organic food waste, as this will attract them
• Tidy inside the house and around the garden — less clutter means less places to hide

Rat proofing your home

No one likes to find rats in their home. Start making your home become an unattractive place for rats to stay by contacting one of Rentokil experts today at 150808 or online for a free property inspection and to discuss your options for rat control and prevention.