Rat and Mouse Control

Non-Toxic Rat Control and Mouse Control in Georgia

Rat and mouse control keep us very busy this time of the year. Rodents start hoarding food during the fall and move into warmer places to spend the winter, and then emerge from these places in the spring. That's why rat control and mouse control (along with squirrel removal and control) are among our most popular early spring services.

A lot of times, customers call us for rodent control when they hear scratching noises in the attic or walls. Rats or mice often are the source, and we spend a lot of time getting rats and mice out of houses every winter. (Squirrels and birds are other common sources of attic animal noises.)

Advantages of Non-Chemical Rodent Control

There are plenty of good reasons why people call us, rather than conventional exterminators, for rat and mouse control. Unlike most "rat exterminators" in Georgia, our Animal Control Technicians are experts at non-chemical rat and mouse control and exclusion. Our green, non-chemical rodent control methods are far superior to poisoning rats and mice. Here's why:

• Non-chemical rodent control is safer for pets, livestock, non-target animals, and children than using toxic rodenticides.
• Mice and rats exterminated with pesticides often die in inaccessible areas like walls, ceilings, and crawl spaces, where their rotting corpses can stink up a house for months. In fact, we do a lot of work just removing dead rats and other animals that ordinary exterminators left behind.
• 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.
• Mouse and rat exterminators who neglect rodent exclusion and population control aren't eliminating the problem. There's no sense in killings rats and mice inside a building unless you also prevent new rats and mice from getting in. Otherwise, you'll be paying the exterminator to keep poisoning rodents for many years to come.

Non-toxic rodent removal and exclusion avoids all of these problems and provides complete rodent control.

Trapped rats don't wander off to die inside walls and structural voids and stink up your house for months. Rats and mice controlled by trapping can be promptly removed, like the ones in the picture on the right, which were removed during an Alpharetta rat control job.

In addition, our non-chemical rodent control methods offer a more permanent solution to rodent problems. We provide fully-warrented rodent damage repair and exclusion. We don't just kill rats and mice: Our professional rodent exclusion techniques make your home rodent-proof for more permanent control.

 

Rodents as Public Health Pests and the Need for Mouse and Rat Control

Rats have been recognized as pests for thousands of years. People in Biblical times noticed a correlation between rat populations and incidences of certain diseases (see 1 Samuel 6). But once the rat's role in the transmission of bubonic plague was scientifically established, the profession of "rat catcher" (and the professional pest control profession in general) was born.

In addition to plague, we now know that rats are involved in the transmission of many other serious diseases including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, murine typhus, rat-bite fever, salmonella, leptospirosis, lyme disease, encephalitis, and many other arboviral diseases.

Rats and mice also cause billions of dollars in economic damage worldwide by their gnawing, and contaminate untold millions of pounds of stored food with their urine, droppings, and shed hairs. Rodents also cause fires by chewing through electrical wires. This is an especially serious risk in Georgia's historic cities like Atlanta, Marietta, Peachtree City, Roswell, and Macon, with their irreplaceable, historic buildings.

Many people think mice are relatively harmless compared to rats. But despite their small size (in fact, because of it), mice are serious disease vectors. Mice tend to live closer to humans, often making nightly trips into cupboards to eat our food, and contaminating it in the process.

Both gray squirrels and flying squirrels can become a nuisance when they get into houses and other buildings. A squirrel's diet consists mainly of nuts, so their powerful jaws and sharp teeth are built-in nutcrackers. They also use those jaws to chew holes through wood, siding, and other building materials, which can cause serious damage to both the building and any belongings stored in it. Squirrels also increase the risk of fire when they gnaw on electrical wires.

In addition to the physical damage they cause, squirrels' urine, droppings, shed fur, and disease-causing parasites create health risks. Dead squirrels also can cause odors and serve as a breeding medium for flies and other disease vectors when they die in wall and ceiling voids, soffits, and other inaccessible areas. This is one reason why you should call an animal control specialist, not a "squirrel exterminator," for squirrel control.

 

Mice and Rats Common to 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).

Roof rats are aerialists and commonly are found in attics and ceilings and are common throughout Georgia, but especially in rural and suburban areas. Norway rats are burrowers and tend to stay close to the ground (although they can climb 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.

House mice are most commonly found in and around kitchens, basements, garages, and other areas close to food sources. They're common everywhere, from the most rural to the most urban parts of Georgia.

Rid-A-Critter offers effective, environmentally friendly, non-chemical control of all three commensal rodent species. Here are some pictures of rodent control work we've done throughout Georgia.

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.