7 Effective Ways to Prevent Pack Rats
Pack Rats Are Like Little Gymnast and Houdini’s
Pack Rats, mice, and rats invade an estimated 21 million U.S. homes every year, especially during the monsoon season.
They are looking for shelter and food and they only need an opening the size of dime to squeeze in. Rodents are good jumpers, climbers and swimmers. In fact, a mouse can jump a foot into the air, making it easy to get into kitchen counters and pantries.
The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make sure your house doesn’t wind up in that group. Let’s talk about how to prevent rodents from infesting your home.
Prevent Pack Rats in Your Home, in Your Car, in Your Yard
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1. Prevent Rodents With TrapsYou don’t have to suspect that you have rodents in your house to set up traps. If you’ve been living in your home for years and you’ve never seen a sign of a pack rat, there’s no harm in setting up a few. Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t mean you never will, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t exist in your home. Pack rats are sneaky creatures, and they need shelter just like humans. If they happen to cross paths with your house, you may never know you are coexisting until there’s already a problem. The best way to prevent that problem from ever happening is to have traps set up in advance. We aim for hotspot areas like under your sink or behind your refrigerator.
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2. Remove Food SourcesDo your best to be diligent, especially in the kitchen. Pack rats eat vegetation, seeds, nuts, and fruits. When they get into buildings, they consume stored cereals and grains. It’s important to store your food properly. Loosely wrapped like cereal boxes, trail mix, or a loaf of bread are easy for pack rats to get into. Also, make sure you cover your trash cans.
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3. Fill HolesThere are plenty of holes, cracks, and gaps in almost every home, and that’s how their pack rats get in. You would be surprised by how little space they need to enter your home. If you find any holes where you think they could enter, fill it with steel wool. Mice and rats can chew through most materials but certainly not a heavy metal like steel.
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4. Keep Things Off The GroundTrim your heavy vegetation from the bottom and try to keep the thick leaves at least 18 inches off the ground. Low hanging vegetation close to the home can be a common habitat for pack rats. Woodpiles are another common home for vermin. Invest in a structure that will allow you to stack your firewood 18 inches or more from the ground or move your woodpile as far away from the house as possible. If you have an old junk car, appliances, or other materials outside where they can nest, get rid of them or store them away from the house. Knowing how to identify a pack rat nest is important to stopping it in its tracks.
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5. Remove Nearby Pack Rat NestsTiming is critical. The nest needs to be removed as soon as the nest is empty or another pack rat will move in. You cannot wait a week to remove the nest. Failure to destroy the nest completely may result in re-infestation, often within just a few days. Pack rat nests can also harbor other pests such as kissing bugs, brown spiders, mice and scorpions.
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6. Let Your Pets HelpDo you have cats or dogs? If you have cats, allow them the freedom to roam around the house in the night, as they are natural predators of rodents. While one cat is not going to handle a rodent infestation themselves, they will certainly act as a strong deterrent to any pack rats wishing to enter.
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7. Call For Outside HelpThe truth is that mouse traps aren’t always effective, and if you already have an infestation in your house, traps won’t do much to solve it. If you have pack rats trying to escape the heat of the desert sun, then you may need Conquistador Pest & Termite to help you get back on track. Once the problem is mitigated, you can use these tips to prevent it from happening again.
12 Rat Myths You Should Stop Believing
There are a lot of natural pack rat control remedies, products, and myths on ways to prevent pack rats. None of these solutions have held up to true scientific testing. Here are 12 myths that we have heard of:
- Gum: Pack rats will not eat the gum, choke and die.
- Mini-strobe Lights: Pack rats adapt. A light in an enclosed area is still a safe enclosed area and the rat will just ignore the light after a short time.
- Moth balls: They are hazardous to human health and the EPA legally prohibits using mothballs for anything other than their intended purpose.
- Ultrasonic Repeller: Too bad these devices have never been proven to actually work. Rats will nest near and even on top of ultrasonic devices.
- Commercial repellent sprays: Pack rats ignore them.
- Potato flakes: Pack rats will not actually eat the flakes, swell up and die.
- Ivory or Irish Spring soap: The smell does not bother pack rats and if they eat the soap it will not harm them.
- Dryer sheets: The smell does not bother pack rats.
- Predator urine: (bob cat, wolf, cougar, human or otherwise) The smell does not bother pack rats.
- Pepper/chili powder: Pack rats love chili seeds and the powder does not bother them.
- Poison Bait: Poisons take 5-10 days to work, which leaves them plenty of time to do damage.
- Soda: Caffeine and carbonation are not good for pack rats, but they would have to drink a full can of soda to have any serious consequences.
Damage caused by Pack Rats
Unfortunately, the hoarding and indiscriminate chewing instincts of pack rats can be quite destructive. Not only do pack rats, or woodrats, damage and destroy landscaping, they notorious for chewing through electrical wiring and according to some estimates, as much as 25% of house fires of unknown causes are attributed to rodents. Pack rats may also shred upholstered furniture and mattresses for lining nests. Pack rats seek opportunities to nest in cars, A/C units and pool equipment and will chew through wiring creating thousands of dollars of damage. They may take up residence in parked vehicles, gnawing on wires and other mechanical components.
One Arizona resident learned this when he parked his car under a shady Mesquite tree for a few weeks. When he opened the hood of the car, he found the engine compartment filled to the brim with mesquite pods with many of the wires chewed through. Getting that pack rat infested car running again was not cheap!
AC units and pool equipment can also be targets. Pack rats can cause thousands of dollars of damage in only one night.
FOR PACK CONTROL
Leave the home remedies and take care of your pack rat problem permanently. Conquistador Pest & Termite is the top choice for pack rat control and pack rat nest removal in Tucson because our licensed staff of technicians. Our experience and attention to detail will even prevent pack rats from coming back in the future.
What Do I Do Now?
Give us a call if you’re concerned about wasps. Request a free inspection from Conquistador Pest & Termite. We can wipe out your wasp infestation immediately.
