Protect your Property from the Seasonal Rat Invasion

Winter is coming – and so are the rats! Boost your rat defences with Ratwall – the effective rat prevention system for homes and property.

There is a noise you definitely don’t want to hear this winter – the patter of tiny feet. Nothing to do with the imminent arrival of a baby, we are talking here about the patter of tiny feet in the loft!

If you are settling down to sleep and hear a scrabbling coming from your loft space then at this time of year it’s pretty likely to be a rat up there and it goes without saying that can be pretty bad news. Apart from the horror of knowing you are sharing your living space with rats they can also a lot of physical damage by gnawing on your stored possessions or chomping through cables. There are even cases of rats causing house fires as a result of chewing off the insulation around electrical cables and causing a short*.

*I have seen this activity for myself – kind of… I was having some work done on an older house I’d bought and was called up to the loft by my electrician who was keen to show me a perfectly preserved rat skeleton with its teeth still clamped on an old electrical cable!

With the approach of winter rats are going to start looking for places to shelter from the cold and especially the wet weather. You can’t blame them – but you definitely want to stop them!

To plan a defence of your property against the rat requires you to understand a bit about rat behaviour.

Rats are good climbers when they need to be and great swimmers. They can also squeeze through holes that appear much smaller than their bodies and are quite adept at making even the smallest hole bigger (the rats’ front teeth grow approx. 12.5 cms each year. Rats keep them short by constantly gnawing anything near them – this includes wood, brick, cement and clay or plastic pipes) so they are pretty formidable opponents. However rats are creatures of habit and will follow the same paths time and again. This can work in your favour – if you prevent rats from gaining entry to your home they will, most likely, ignore your property in favour of a less well defended one.

Prevention in this case is far better than cure and the British Pest Control Association BPCA give some common sense tips on how to reduce the risk of rats invading your home;

• Inspect the exterior of your property carefully and seal any external holes or crevices that could allow rats and access point.
• Remove any potential nesting sites by keeping gardens and back yards clean and tidy.
• Cut back and tidy up any overgrown areas and especially clear and piles of bricks or wood and debris near the house.
• Ensure doors and windows all close properly.
• Keep bins well maintained with their lids closed, dispose of household rubbish carefully and don’t leave leftover food lying around.
• Compost heaps are popular with rodents – keep them covered.
• Areas around bird feeders should be kept clean and pet food bowls should not be left out overnight.

But even after doing all of this is there is still one major potential entry point that you really should consider tackling and that is your drainage systems. Rats are at home in and around water and they have a need to drink regularly which is why, especially in towns and cities, many of them live in the sewers. Many home invasions by rats at this time of year are via the sewer system and especially broken drainage pipes. As all of this is happening underground – out of your sight and your control – you may not even be aware of this.

If you want to prevent rats getting into your home this winter, then the drainage system needs a special focus. There are a number of rat prevention devices on the market but one of the most robust reliable is Ratwall from Metex.

Ratwall is a well designed and highly effective, stainless steel rodent exclusion unit for installation within a pipe or drainage system.

Ratwall Plumbing Protection

It is easy to install and requires no maintenance once in place. Furthermore Ratwall doesn’t impact on the operation of the pipe and is a humane and environmentally friendly rat prevention method – no poison or other form of destruction of the rat.

So if headlines like these in the Daily Mail and The Sun concern you…

“Warning the UK could be overrun with SUPER RATS as wet weather flushes millions of poison-resistant rodents out of sewers”

“WINTER RAT INVASION Brits warned to prepare for an invasion of rats in their homes as the weather gets colder”

…defend your home with Ratwall and you can sleep soundly in your bed at night without any pattering of little feet to be heard!