Dealing with Outdoor Rat Problems at Your Home in Northern Virginia

Before rats can move inside and cause an infestation, they often first cause issues outdoors. Rats can live around your yard and when a change occurs in the weather or their food supply, they can quickly come inside through any of the small openings that may exist around your home.

Finding and patching the holes that rats used to get in is an important part of rodent control, but it can also be beneficial to avoid having rats in proximity to your home at all, leaving no chance for them to get inside. This requires outdoor rodent control which is generally relatively easy to implement around your home.

Outdoor Rodent Exclusion Methods

There are many areas around your yard that can make ideal hiding spots for rodents, providing them with adequate shelter from predators and access to nearby food sources. Minimizing these potential habitats is the best way to avoid problems with rats outdoors as it forces them to look elsewhere for places to live. The best ways to do this are to:

• Keep Things Neat – A tidy yard presents fewer spaces for rodents to hide. This includes cutting back bushes, raking up leaves, and tossing out any trash that rodents could hide in.
• Setting Up Barriers – If there are places in your yard that might be especially attractive to rodents, such as gardens, garbage cans, and similar areas, using physical barriers to keep rodents out of these places is an efficient way to deal with rats. This can include storing garbage cans with their lids on or moving them inside and fencing off gardens.
• Watch for Burrowing Rats – The Norway rat will occasionally make its own shelter by building a subterranean nest. Their tunnels will go down several inches and can be seen at the surface by n opening measuring approximately 2 inches. If you notice any of these holes around your yard, you can set rat traps by the opening or fill the holes with steel wool and dirt to force rats out of them.

Effective management of rats both in your home and in your yard is rooted in prevention and exclusion. At ExtermPRO, we provide rodent control services in Northern Virginia that can locate any rats already on your property and implement exclusion, trapping, and guidance for habitat management to help you keep rodents under control indoors and out. Get started with effective rat control for your property when you call our team today.