Of all the pests that can invade your home, rats are one of the worst and the most damaging. Once rats find a way into your home, they can be very difficult to find and eradicate. This is why a rat nest in your garden or yard is bad news indeed. Although they might already have a nest somewhere in your yard, rats will migrate to your home if they sense an abundance of food and shelter.
If you think you have rats living in your yard, look for the following signs.
Tracks or paths
Rats usually create pathways from their nest to a food and water source. These paths most often go through undergrowth and along fences. This is because rats don't like to travel in the open due to fear of predators. If you find tunnels through the undergrowth or tracks in the dirt, then you could have a rat issue to deal with.
Grease marks
Rats leave greasy streaks along the surfaces that they encounter as they move. This is because rats spend much of their time crawling through dirt and filth. Check along the edges of the boundaries in your yard, such as the fences, walls and outbuildings. Greasy streaks indicate the presence of rats.
Rat droppings
Rat droppings appear in large groupings. The droppings themselves are about the size of an olive and are cylindrical in shape. Check around and inside the outbuildings in your yard, such as your shed, and search for small mounds of droppings.
Damage caused by gnawing
Rats have extremely hard teeth. This allows them to chew through tough materials to get to where they want to go. Unfortunately, rat teeth also never stop growing. Because of this, rats need to keep gnawing on tough materials to wear their teeth down.
Check your yard and the objects in your yard for gnawing damage. If something has been gnawed, then the culprit is likely to be a rat.
Burrows or holes in fences
Since rats can chew through tough materials like wood and plastic, they can easily create pathways that lead from one yard to another. They can also gnaw through shed walls or through fences when they need to. This means you should check your yard for holes in fences or other surfaces. Rats also create nests in the soil, which they can access via burrows. Check the soil in your yard for burrows, and contact your local pest control business for more help.
Share18 April 2022
Hello, my name is Mandi, and although I own a number of pets including my dog, two ferrets and a guinea pig, I am utterly afraid of all non-pet creatures in my house. I hold the guinea pigs as I watch TV, and I sleep with my dog, but the idea of a mouse running through the walls makes me incredibly uncomfortable and tense. Since pests are such a trigger issue for me, I have spent a lot of time researching them. I have learned how to get rid of them, but more importantly, how to get rid of them without bothering or putting my pets in danger. If you are trying to balance the wanted and the unwanted creatures in your home, I hope these posts help!
