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Rat Removal and Rat-Proofing in North Georgia

At Rid-A-Critter, we make a science out of rat control.

Most rat exterminators kill rats by setting out rat poison. We don't. There are more reasons not to use rat poison than to use it, which we'll discuss a bit further down in this page. The long and short of it is that with the exception of a few commercial accounts and other special situations in which exterior bait stations are required by law or industry standards, we don't use rodenticides to kill rats; and we never use rodenticides to kill rats inside of buildings. They're unnecessary and potentially harmful.

What we do is remove existing rats from your home or building non-chemically using various types of traps, and then seal your home or building to keep rats out.

Trying to control rats without sealing them out of a building is pointless. New rats will move in almost as quickly as the old rats are removed. You'll develop a lifetime relationship with your exterminator because the rat problem will never be solved. Your exterminator will show up every month to set out more poison, you will pay the exterminator every month to do it, and you'll still have a rat problem. Forever.

That's not how we do rat removal.

Rid-A-Critter is one of the largest and most well-established animal control companies in North Georgia, and we got that way by doing things differently. Unlike most pest control companies, we practice non-chemical rat control that doesn't rely on poisons, as is consistent with our philosophy and practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We emphasize rat trapping, habitat modification, and rodent exclusion ("rat-proofing") to prevent rats from getting into your home or business.

Removing rats from your home without using poisons means reduced risk to humans, livestock, and pets, as well as less risk of rats dying inside your house and stinking it up. Non-chemical rat control is the smartest way to solve a rat problem, no matter how you look at it.

More Cutting-Edge Rat Control Technology

We also use thermal imaging to help quickly locate hard-to-find rats' nests, so we can get to the root of the problem and solve it quickly -- and permanently. These pictures illustrate how this works.

The top picture was taken with the sheet rock still on the studs. The bright spot that's circled was the rats' nest. the bottom picture shows what it looked like once we opened it up and found the nest -- exactly where the thermal camera said it would be.

When needed, we also utilize other high-tech methods, such as motion-activated robotic cameras, to determine how many rats there are and just how they're getting into your home. Using the "Rat Cam" allows us to be absolutely certain that we've found and repaired every hole to be sure that we've sealed the rats out of your house.

Finally, we also clean up and sanitize after the rats, removing their droppings and applying disinfectants or insecticides as needed to kill parasites and germs that the rats left behind. Optionally, we can also replace the contaminated insulation.

Of course, not every rat extermination job requires such high-tech equipment. But it's good to know we have it for when those tough jobs come along.

Advantages of Non-Toxic Rat Control

In addition to being more environmentally-friendly, "green," non-chemical rat control has many practical benefits:

• Controlling rats without pesticides is safer for pets, livestock, non-target wildlife, and children.
• Rats killed by pesticides often die in inaccessible areas like walls, ceilings, attics, and crawl spaces. When that happens, they can stink up your house for months. In fact, we do a lot of dead rat removal jobs, picking up carcasses that other rat exterminators left behind.
• Larger animals who eat a poisoned rat or its carcass can sometimes be poisoned themselves. This is called secondary toxicity or secondary poisoning.
• Dead rodents create a health hazard. Flies breed in their rotting carcasses and carry germs to areas occupied by humans, domestic animals, or livestock.
• Rat parasites such as ticks, fleas, and mites seek new hosts when the rats they were living on die. These parasites spread a wide variety of arboviral diseases.
• Rat exterminators who don't rat-proof buildings aren't eliminating the problem. There's no sense in killings rats inside a house unless you also prevent new rats from getting in.

Non-toxic rat exclusion and trapping avoid all of these problems and provide the most effective, long-term rat control. Trapped rats don't wander off to die inside walls and structural voids and stink up your house. Instead, they are promptly removed from your home before they start to decompose and stink.

Integrated Pest Management and Rodenticides

There are a few rat infestation situations which require the selective and judicious use of rodenticides (rat poisons), even in the context of an IPM program. But even in these situations, non-chemical control should be the primary rat control method. Rodenticides should be used only when absolutely needed.

Some situations in which rodenticide use is justified include:

• Some commercial food-processing plants are required by law or industry standards to have exterior bait stations around the building's perimeter.
• Warehouses and other buildings with loading docks often need bait stations because they have to leave the loading doors open for extended periods of time, making rat exclusion impractical as a complete solution.
• Baiting for rats is sometimes required by government agencies to get a "rat clearance letter" to certify that rats have been exterminated prior to securing a demolition or building permit.
• Wide-area public health rat control programs sometimes require the use of rat baits in sewers, storm drains, and other rat-prone areas.

Rat Control Gallery

Here are some randomly-selected pictures of rat control jobs we've done in North Georgia.

Rid-A-Critter has locally-based rat control specialists living, working, and keeping rats out of houses throughout North Georgia. We have the tools and personnel to handle any rat control or mouse control job, so please call us today for a professional inspection and consultation.

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Rid-A-Critter provides non-chemical rat extermination in all of North Georgia, including Athens, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Canton, Carrollton, Cartersville, Cumming, Dacula, Doraville, Dunwoody, Ellijay, Flowery Branch, Gainesville, Kennesaw, Jasper, Lawrenceville, Loganville, Macon, Milton, Norcross, Rome, Roswell, Suwanee, Villa Rica, Winston, Woodstock, and everywhere in between.

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