Why Pet Cats Are Not Good Rat Killers
To get a better understanding of why cats do not like killing rats its best to look first at their ability and willingness to kill mice.
Due to there small and unaggressive nature mice are easy prey for cats who are looking for their next meal. So if you have mice problems, a few starved and hungry cats could be just the solution you need to get rid of the problem. Cats can easily overpower smaller mice.
However, this is not the case with rats who often grow 10 times larger than mice. Rats are very aggressive by nature, grow to be very large compared to mice and are not afraid to coexist with cats.
Cats are reluctant to go after rats as a food source because the rodent is too big and too aggressive for cats. This fact is especially true when the cat has other food sources. You cant blame the cat for going after food and small animal prey that does not put them at risk of injury.
Cats actually prefer birds and other smaller mammals and their young. Unlike rats, these animals are easy prey and the risk of the cat being injured while hunting is low.
Killing Rats With Sugar And Baking Soda
If you dont have peanut butter, you can choose to substitute sugar instead.
This method requires you to create uniform particles of sugar and baking soda. Onc method that people recommend is to use a coffee grinder to create a similar consistency among all ingredients.
Spread the mixture where you see the signs of a rat infestation.
Rats will need to consume a lot of this mixture, so be sure to place both poisons out daily until you either stop seeing signs or rats or find dead rats in the home. Be sure to discard of the rat safely using gloves.
A Highly Capable Sponge For Disease
For a couple of years in a row, pest control giant Orkin playfully named Chicago the rattiest city in the country. But its no joke to residents whove seen far too many.
So far in 2016, rat complaints are up 67% from last year.
A mild winter meant more breeding time. A recovering economy brought new rat-disturbing construction that sent the critters scurrying for new rodent real estate.
Rats, in addition to being, well, icky, are, as anyone who remembers fourth grade history will tell you, disease carriers of the civilization-ending variety.
Black death may now be more manageable with modern pharmaceuticals, but rats also carry diseases like antibiotic-resistant E.coli and C.diff. This is scary stuff thats tough to cure if a rat bites you.
Even if you dont get that close, the vermin spread disease through their urine and feces. They also shed a lot and their fur is carried through your ventilation system.
These rat-to-human infections arent merely a horrific possibility, they are a reality. Dr. Chelsea Himsworth studies the vermin of Vancouver. When she tested rats that came from a particular neighborhood with high rates of human MRSA cases, the rats carried the same MRSA strain.
Rats are a highly capable sponge for disease, Himsworth said. They can go into any environment, absorb all of what is dangerous and bring it back to the people.
With climate change and with this centurys unprecedented urbanization, you can expect rat problems to grow.
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Be Wary Of Pesticides
Although pesticides have proven effective in getting rid of rats and mice they also contain chemicals that can be harmful to the environment, as well as to your pets and family. It is therefore crucial to be wary of making use of DIY pesticides as not only can they pose dangers when not applied correctly, but a lot of these chemicals are known as second generation pesticides that contain punitive compounds that work in killing rats and mice rapidly. Unfortunately, this also affects the non-target animal that eats the rodent, which can be owls or your pets.
As advised, not only by the experts at Rentokil, but also by the Poison Working Group, that if you utilise rodenticides to get rid of rats, you must use a rat control product that contains the lowest risk of secondary poisoning i.e. a first generation rodenticide. This is also referred to as a multiple feed rodenticide, because rodents feed on the rat bait in different helpings. It takes 3 successive feeds for the rat control product to work its magic and kill rats effectively
How To Prevent A Rat Rampage
Taking proper care of your household is usually enough to reduce the chances of a rat infestation. After all, getting rid of rats all naturally is not an easy task and if possible you should always try to prevent their entry into the house rather than wait for an opportunity to try out the new remedies.
- Clean out our basement, attic, and garage regularly.
- Be regular when it comes to garbage disposal.
- Get rid of leftover food and clean your grills after barbeque parties.
- Keep your garden in shape, trim the hedges and keep an eye out for mysterious holes.
- Do not leave out food on your porch for birds, squirrels or cats.
- Clean your house with a disinfectant solution as frequently as possible.
- If nothing works seek professional cleaning aid.
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Get Rid Of Nesting Materials
Ensure mice wont find soft nesting materials by storing all fabric, rugs, and blankets in heavy-duty plastic storage bins. Keep in mind that mice will also chew up cardboard, paper, or lightweight plastic to make nests, so its wise to dispose of your households recycling quickly.
Additionally, pay some attention to the outside of your home. Remove foliage and tree branches within three feet of your homes foundation, and keep both the inside and outside of your home tidy and free of garbage.
Pros: Protects your textiles and fabric goods, easy
Cons: Time-consuming, inconvenient to have bedding and rugs in storage, will not get rid of existing mouse populations
How To Get Rid Of Rats Fast
Apply all of these methods in complex to throw away rats and avoid their increasing population. To make it faster, follow the next useful tips:
- Store the food in hermetically sealed packages.
- Dont let food crumbs lie safely on the countertops .
- Hide even pets food after it successfully has a meal.
War against rats demands lots of patience and insistence in reaching the success. Combine various methods of rats eradication with making your house inaccessible for them.
Have Pest Problems?
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How To Get Rid Of Rats In The Garden
Using rat poison is the most successful method for dealing with rats. However, its not advisable to place toxic products anywhere near where you grow food. So for now, we will concentrate on other methods.
- Remove all clutter. The first thing to do is to remove all the clutter that provides the rats with hiding places. In some cases, this might be enough for them to find your garden inhospitable, despite the abundance of food.
- Live traps. Use small cages with food bait to capture the rat. These are mostly used if youre not sure what kind of rodent infestation youre dealing with. It may turn out not to be a rat, but an endangered species. In this case, you should capture it alive and release into the wild.
- Snap traps. These are designed to kill the rats instantly. For a long time, they have been a very successful method of dealing with rats. If the infestation is small, they might be enough.
- Electrocution traps. Another effective type of trap that can help you a lot. These are boxes that produce a high voltage shock that kills the rat instantly.
- Use water. Flooding their burrows is a good way to evict them, however, bear in mind they might have dug tunnels under your crops, so you might be flooding your plants as well.
Read our post on How to get rid of rats in the garden without poison.
How To Get Rid Of Rats At Home Fast
We’re sure that as soon as you became aware that you have rats or if you even suspect that you have rats that you want to know how to get rid of rats at home. It’s gross when your cat brings you a rat as a present or you find rat droppings among your things.
Another problem is that if they die and are left in your home, the smell as is horrible. Rats also gnaw on just about anything they can find so that they can shorten their teeth which never stop growing. You may see gnaw marks in wood, holes in your clothing, chunks chewed out of your boxes or stacks of paper or even drywall.
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Can Cats Kill Rats
Cats are excellent hunters. In a feral environment, kittens learn how to hunt for and catch prey, but even domesticated cats can be quite adept at hunting live animals, as any cat owner who has seen their cat carryying their prey in their mouth knows. In fact, cats kill billions of animals like birds and rodents every year.
Famous for successfully hunting mice, cats are also adept at killing other small mammals. Voles and chipmunks are potential prey for felines looking for some fun. As a result of this propensity for animal slaughter, residents of some cities have actually utilized cats to help with pest control in both an official and unofficial manner.
In Chicago, for instance, Tree House Humane Society helps put colonies of feral cats to work. Originally famous for becoming the United States first no kill, cageless cat shelter, they feed and care for cat colonies in places where they can affect local rodent populations. And New York City is famous for bodega cats, who are rather effective at keeping rodents away.
Indoor/outdoor Cats And Working Cats
Of course, not everyone keeps their cats inside. While its recommended to keep your cats inside all the time unless they are working barn or farm cats, we know that that doesnt always happen.
Cats that spend a reasonable amount of time outside are generally better hunters, and more likely to kill and eat their prey, even with access to plenty of food and water.
If you see leftovers from these cats, chances are they are getting rid of more mice than they can eat, or they are saving some food for a rainy day.
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Why Cats Might Not Be The Answer To Your Mice Infestation
Some cats will take no notice of mice Thats right, not all cats care about or wish to chase mice. Domestic cats are less inclined to catch mice because they should be well fed and watered regularly throughout the day and so, chasing and killing mice will only be enticing if they wish to play.
Your cat might catch one mouse but not an entire infestation On average a mouse will produce up to 60 offsprings a year and these babies will begin to have their own at around 42 days old.
Your cat cant get into the same spaces mice will Mice can sneak into your basement, attic and small holes in your walls. Mice love these areas, too, which means its likely your cat will lose interest once the mouse is out of sight.
Your cats health Mice can carry disease which puts your pet at risk of becoming ill, which is something you do not want to happen to your family pet. This can be unfair to your cat and can leave you with hefty vet bills.
For effective and efficient pest defence, call ClearFirst Pest Control. We offer a fast, discreet pest removal service alongside free and clear quotations and the promise of results, or we will do it again, free of charge. We operate throughout Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, Rotherham, Mansfield and the surrounding areas. Call today for mice control and mice removal services.
How To Get Rid Of Rats Naturally
Rats are some of the smartest animals on the planet, but they are also one of the biggest disease-spreading pests around. Thats why so many people wonder how to get rid of rats in a natural, safe way, and that curiosity has spiked recently.
It turns out, rats dont just carry filth and annoying disease they can be lethal. In fact, recently in New York City three people became severely ill, , due to the rare disease leptospirosis. According to the NYC Health Department: Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that is most commonly spread by contact with rat urine and is very rarely spread from person to person.
However rare, the disease can be lethal, evidenced by the New York death. And thats not the only disease rats spread. Thankfully, if youre wondering how to get rid of rats, there are natural, effective ways to do so, without harmful rat poison.
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The Thrill Of The Hunt
Cats have strong hunting instincts like, really strong that were bred-for over the last few thousand years, ever since cats started hanging around people in a big way. Cats are simply hard-wired to pursue things that give good chase.
However, cats dont always eat their prey in fact, this is fairly uncommon for domesticated cats. Rather than for food, the domesticated feline might give chase to rodents for a variety of reasons, including:
- Its just fun! Cats love indulging their hunting instincts on a regular basis. Its good exercise, and it keeps them alert.
- Cats sometimes bring back trophies, such as dead animals, because theyre trying to teach you how to hunt for yourself. Its a service they provide for their own youngsters, but sometimes they feel we humans need a lesson as well!
Employing Cats To Remove Rats
There is no more natural method for exterminating rats than keeping cats. The problem with using cats for rodent control is that there is no guarantee that the kitty you come to love will have a natural inclination or skill for hunting and killing rodents. And if your inside-outside pet cat is a good mouser, then you may also notice song birds missing from your yard or even wake up one morning unable to locate the family hamster.
Kittens usually learn how to hunt rodents at night by watching their mothers. Its only natural to keep a good mouser and her kittens for long-term pest control. Keeping multiple cats to keep rodents in check, however presents additional problems. Cats are territorial. They will mark their territory with urine. They can catch tapeworms, roundworms, tularemia, toxoplasmosis, and yersiniosis from the rats they catch and pass that disease on to dogs or even to you and your family. Furthermore, rats reach places in your home too small for a cat to squeeze in. Its a temptation to put out poison in the nooks and crannies that cant be entered by cats.
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How To Effectively Get Rid Of Mice In Your Home
Youre a gracious host, but if theres one group youd prefer not to share your home with, its mice. In addition to damaging your home, mice carry diseases and can put your familys health at risk. Fortunately, learning how to get rid of mice is easy.
Here at Smiths Pest Management, we specialize in helping people get rid of mice in their walls, ceilings, insulation, and more. Our team offers various humane and eco-friendly rodent control services, and we know a thing or two about how to remove mice from your space.
In this post, well share a few of our top tips and help you find the best rodent removal solution for your family. Let’s dive in!
Get Rid Of Ivy And Other Ground Covers That Provide Cover For Rats
Ivy running along your fence might look lovely in your yard, but it is also providing a freeway for your rats to roam around safely and without detection. While ivy is definitely a culprit in many backyard rat infestations, it can happen with any ground cover, bushes or shrubs that provide decent coverage . No matter how much you love your ivy, it is time to rip it all out if you want to get rid of your rat problem.
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Cats May Have Duped Us About Being Great Rat Catchers
Breweries, warehouses and waste facilities sometimes turn to cats for rat controlbut do they really help?
Mice may stare out at chances they dare not take, as the poet Ted Hughes observedbut rats are another matter entirely. When caught in a cats gaze, a rat might stare brazenly back. It may scurry around, apparently untroubled that a hungry predator is looking right at it.
This happened often when cats moved into a rat-infested recycling facility in Brooklyn, in the middle of Fordham University ecologist Michael Parsons experiment . Parsons had wanted to determine how certain rat pheromones, like those of an alpha male, might influence the animals actions. We wanted to understand behavior based on their own scents, he says. As a behavioral ecologist, I was like, Lets get rid of the cats so we can do our rat research.
Parsons and his colleagues set up cameras around the Brooklyn recycling facility and fitted as many rats as they could catch with unique radio frequency tags . This was so that we can follow each individual and their behavior, he explains. After that, and analyzing more than 300 videos of cats and rats on the floor of the recycling center, the resultspublished Thursday in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolutionwere clear as day: The cats didnt really bother when the rats were on the open floor, Parsons says. In one video, a rat walks calmly around the floor while a cat watches it from a box a few feet away.