If there’s one creature or critter you want far, far away from your home, surely, it’s rats. Their beady eyes, long tails, and pointy teeth are enough to make your stomach churn.

They may not like the cold, but they don’t hate it enough to hibernate the way bears do. Instead, when the mercury plummets as temperatures dip, rats will look for warmth and food where they can find it. One place they often look? People’s homes.

Rats can’t fatten themselves up like other animals during the fall and awake months later when it’s warm out. Instead, they scrounge for whatever food they can find.

Please read on to learn more about the harms and dangers rats pose and what GreenLeaf Pest Control can do to help you avoid this threat.

Indoor and Backyard Attractants

Rodents need to keep warm and stay fed, and they’ll do that whatever way they can. Rats don’t respect human customs like hospitality! If they find a messy area with food spilled, they tend to charge at it full steam ahead.

Our comprehensive services for Newmarket pest control can involve inspecting your premises for attractants and breeding grounds. If you sign up for our Home Protection Plan, we’ll tour your property and hunt for anything that draws rats towards your home.

From the grounds to the exterior, you’ll get preventative treatments to keep any Norway Rat in Ontario away from where you live. We’ll also treat the grounds to eliminate any existing infestations if there are any.

If you keep the inside of your home clean and tidy and don’t leave backyard attractants around, like woodpiles, leaf piles, shrubs, debris, or garbage, you should be alright. If you do these things and there are still rats around, call GreenLeaf Pest Control, and we’ll get rid of them.

There’s no better rat exterminator in Toronto or the GTA, as our technicians are all friendly, professional, and experienced. As a local business, we’re proud to know all our technicians personally, so you can feel assured that the person who enters your home to eliminate pests is vetted.

Tips for Preventing Rats

If you don’t currently have a rat infestation, good! You’ll want to keep it that way. It helps if you do the following:

• Inspect your home and plug up any holes larger than a quarter of an inch.
• Keep tree limbs trimmed so rats can’t climb up and jump into your home’s upper areas.
• Clean your home regularly, especially areas where food is stored, like the kitchen. Pay special attention to the areas near the garbage and places that seldom get cleaned, like the crumbs under the toaster.
• Store dry food and pet food in sealed up containers, so smells don’t attract rats.
• Secure trash can lids tightly
• Pick up any decaying garden debris and store it in bags which get picked up by the city.
• Avoid leaving piles of leaves, debris, or fall tree limbs in your yard.

By being mindful of these things, you can help prevent attracting rats to your home in the first place. Of course, if it’s too late and there are already rats in your backyard, call GreenLeaf Pest Control.

Gutters, Drains, and Underneath the Home

Rats aren’t known for being particularly agile creatures, but they can climb through gutters, drains, and any number of areas inside the home that homeowners infrequently visit, like attics or crawlspaces for storage. If there’s a ceiling and ventilation, a rat can get in there!

Rats have been around humans for thousands of years and, being smart and adaptive creatures, have picked up a thing or two. Sometimes they burrow holes in the ground beside a home to create a warm place to hide from the cold.

Gradually, they come to use the home’s foundations as a roof for their underground hideaway. Maybe they start to feel the home’s warmth or smell the cooking coming from the kitchen! Soon, they become invested in getting inside the home itself, and they look for a weak point through which to enter.

Getting Inside the Home

They may either find an existing hole and widen it or create a new hole, one that might not be immediately apparent to the naked eye because it’s under the home. We’re proud of the expert knowledge our technicians possess, which helps them identify signs of an infestation.

You may find gnaw marks throughout the home. New bite marks tend to be rough, while older ones are smoother from wear-and-tear and, often, greasy. Clues can also be found in their droppings: Norway rats leave droppings with blunt ends, while roof rats have pointy ends.

There are other signs to look for, too. Footprints, greasy and dark rub marks from oily fur against pathways, and runways stacked with food, burrows, and food products that seem damaged or rummaged through point to the presence of rats.

It’s better to spot the signs that rats are present before they get any deeper into your home. Don’t let them get into the attic, let alone the kitchen! If you need pest control in Vaughan or anywhere else in the GTA, call GreenLeaf Pest Control today.

It’s impossible to see a rat anywhere without emitting a ghastly shriek. It’s even worse if they’re in your home! Apart from being unsavoury creatures, rats can also spread diseases and illnesses, cause property damage, and wreak other forms of havoc. For quick and effective Toronto pest control services, call GreenLeaf Pest Control.

During the winter, you might hear of seniors flying down to Florida to chase the heat. But the local rats don’t take time off, and they’ll try to enter your home unless you take preventative action or hire us. We recommend the Home Protection Plan for pre-emptive security, but if you should have the bad luck of finding a rat inside your home or on your property this winter, give us a call.