Rat Control in Georgia

How to Get Rid of Rats -- for Good

Unlike most Georgia rat exterminators, at Rid-A-Critter we emphasize non-chemical rat control. Consistent with our Integrated Pest Management philosophy, we emphasize rat trapping, habitat modification, and rodent exclusion ("rat-proofing") to keep rodents out of your home or business, so "new" rats don't move in to replace the rats we catch and remove.

In addition to being "green," environmentally-friendly, non-chemical rodent extermination emphasizing rat-proofing has many practical benefits:

• Non-chemical rat control is safer for pets, livestock, non-target animals, and children.
• Rats killed by pesticides often die in inaccessible areas like walls, ceilings, attics, and crawl spaces, where their rotting corpses can stink up a house for months. In fact, we do a lot of dead rat removal jobs, just picking up carcasses that other Georgia rat exterminators left behind. Rat trapping and exclusion help prevent this problem.
• Dead rodents create a health hazard when flies breed in their rotting carcasses and carry germs to areas occupied by humans, domestic animals, or livestock.
• Parasites such as ticks, fleas, and mites seek new hosts when the animals 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. Otherwise, you'll be paying the exterminator to keep poisoning rats for many years to come.

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 for months. Instead, they can be promptly removed from your home before they start to decompose and stink.

When is Rodenticide Use Justified?

There are some rat control situations in which the selective and judicious use of rodenticides (rat poisons) makes sense. But even in these situations, non-chemical control should be the primary rat control method, and rodenticides used only as 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.
• There are many situations in which rats outside a building are a problem, even though the rats are not getting into the building.
• Baiting for rats is sometimes required by government agencies to get a demolition or building permit.
• Wide-area public health rat control programs often require the use of rat baits in sewers, storm drains, and other rat-prone areas.

Common Commensal Rodents of Atlanta and North-Central Georgia

There are three species of commensal rodents common in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia: The roof rat (Rattus rattus), the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the house mouse (Mus musculus). We provide mouse control through our pest control division.

Roof rats are aerialists. They're commonly are found in attics and ceilings and are common throughout Georgia, especially in rural and suburban areas. Norway rats are burrowers and tend to stay close to the ground (although they can climb and swim quite well if necessary). Norway rats can be found throughout Georgia, but most of our Norway rat control jobs are in densely-populated cities like Atlanta, Athens, Macon, Columbus, Peachtree City, Roswell, and Sandy Springs.

Rat Control Gallery

Here are some pictures of rat control jobs we've done over the years.

With offices throughout North-Central Georgia, Rid-A-Critter has the tools and personnel to handle any rat control or mouse control job, so please call us today.