Rats can be an extremely persistent rodent.
I want to share a story, that lead to rat education for my tenant and I at a single family home we own.
I received a call one hot July day, that there was a rat sighting in the house. The tenants seemed upset about the situation.
I went to the house and set some traps. It was about a week later, I received another call from the tenant. She said there was a foul odor coming from the closet that holds the water heater.
I paid a visit and found a decomposing rat in one of the traps I set.
There I am on a hot July day day standing in the kitchen of this house with a dead rat in a trap, and I notice maggots falling on the floor. Fortunately I had cleaner, paper towel and a garbage bag, so I was able to quickly clean up the maggots that were squirming around on the kitchen floor.
About two months went by, and another call came in. Yes, you guessed it, another rat sighting.
This time I called in an expert for some help. I called a professional exterminator, that I have used before. He came out and set up some poison traps.
I asked him to survey the property and make recommendations on how I can prevent rats from entering the house.
He made some recommendations, and showed me some spots around the foundation / crawl space, that he thought they might be getting in. I had my handyman come out and seal up areas, that were of concern.
He also mentioned rats do not like change. He said to move things around in the crawl space basement. That might be enough to have them leave.
He also pointed out how destructive rats can be. They can eat through pretty much any material. Not even metal can stop them, if they want to enter a building.
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He also suggested items, I needed to address with the tenant.
I thanked him, them I met with the couple renting the house, and told them what the exterminator said.
You see, this couple was not big on lawn mowing, so the first thing the exterminator suggested was to keep the grass cut short. I also had to talk to them about the overflowing garbage cans (apparently they missed garbage day).
The good news, is that, this situation happened a few few years back, and I have not had any rat issues since (with this property).
Have you had any hard to deal with rodent problems?
I wrote a whole chapter on the subject. Chapter 10 in my book.
Until next time,
Design your landlord experience,
Michael P Currie
Landlord by Design – Complete Guide to Residential Property Management
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