Rats in Attic Health Concerns | How to Eliminate

10 Steps to Safely Get Rid of Rodents and Cleaning Up After Them

• First step is to keep the kids away from rodents: If you have mice in your basement or attic, the kids should not go there. If there are rats in your crawl space, shed, or under your mobile home, you need to restrict your kids from going to these areas.
• Second is exterminate the rodents. For this, you have several options:
  • Rat and Mouse Snap Traps: The old-fashioned victor snap-traps with peanut butter bait is still the best option for rodent extermination. Re-useable Plastic snap traps are nit advised because of the risk of disease spread while attempting to re-use or wash. They also may be less effective and don’t snap as hard.  You can buy them affordably and in bulk on Amazon.com and Walmart.com.
  • Glue Traps: These are more effective for mice, and sometimes for rats, however you will probably have to get rid pf a live mouse, which puts you at risk for scratch or bite  (and it’s no fun at all).
  • No-kill Traps: These are hard to use because you have to relocate the rodent at least two miles away, and you need to transport and release the rodent without exposing yourself, your cat, your children, or car to the diseases these animals carry.
  • Electric mouse and rat traps: These traps electrocute the rodent as soon as they walk into the tunnel-like device to get the bait. They cost a lot of people say that they are less-effective than snap traps. They are reusable, but any reusable traps may be contaminated with a rodent-borne illness. You can buy them from Amazon.
  • Poison: Poison earned a bad reputation because owls and other wildlife can and will die when they feed on poisoned rodents. However, if you are exterminating rodents that do not leave your attic or other space, there should be no risk to the owls. Pets and Children can also be at risk if exposed to the poison, but hopefully you are keeping your kids and your pets out of the rodent-infested areas. Poison is generally very effective in killing rats and mice, but it can take several days after ingesting the poison before death. Also, the dead rodents may decompose in your walls, attic, floorboards, HVAC system, or other difficult-to-reach places, causing a horrific stench that is nearly impossible to remedy. There are many brands of rodent poison available, and you will need a type that is specific for the rodent you are exterminating.
• Safely dispose the dead rodent: The CDC has stated very clearly  how to dispose of dead rodents: using gloves, put the dead rodent and the disposable snap trap in a plastic bag in a sealed garbage can.
• Put on a mask: Ensure you wear a mask o that your mouth, nose, and lungs are not exposed to disease-causing particles.
• Don’t Sweep or vacuum or sweep: Sweeping or Vacuuming rodent droppings or dust contaminated with rodent urine can stir up the disease-causing particles and expose you and your household to disease.
• Clean all hard surfaces with bleach-containing solution: Using gloves and paper-towels, use a wet-method approach to cleaning. Spray all contaminated areas with a cleaning agent that contains bleach or a 1/10 solution of bleach and water. Wipe it down with paper towels.
• Steam-clean all carpets and upholstery or Rent a carpet cleaner and shampoo .It may be hard to use a bleach-containing cleanser on these areas without resulting in damage. Consider a non-bleach antiseptic agent.
• Clean everything you stored in the rodent-infested area: Plush toys, Clothing, and bedding should be washed in a washing machine. Hard surfaces of toys and furniture need to be cleaned with a bleach-containing solution.
• Check your HVAC system: If you had rodents in your cooling and heating ducts, the CDC recommends professional HVAC cleaning and rodent extermination.
• Shower: When you’re done with step 1-9, take a long hot shower and decontaminate yourself. You deserve it. Take a deep breath. You’re done. Keep some extra traps in case you see any more signs of rodents.