How to Get Rid of Rats in a Mobile Home

Rats are one of the most common of pest-related problems in urban and rural households. In fact, mobile homes are also regularly infested with rodents, with rats being the most common of perpetrators. Calling upon professional pest control services to get rid of rats can be quite expensive. However, you can use the following information to get rid of rats in an affordable and efficient manner.

Step 1 - Getting Started

Get started by thoroughly examining the exterior and interior of your mobile home. Try to locate any vent or spaces that can act as an entry-point for rats. Look out for spots that have small, rice-sized droppings. Darker and damp areas are more prone to rat infestation.

Step 2 - Covering Possible Entry Points

You need to cover such spaces. For this, using plywood and steel wool is recommended. The larger gaps can be effectively plugged with plywood planks. The plywood is easy-to-nail with basic tools like hammer and nails. Steel wool is useful for plugging smaller holes that are hard-to-access. Rats cannot chew through steel wool as this material slices through their mouth, seriously injuring the rats. Seal all edges of your mobile home with caulk. You can use a caulking gun for this.

Step 3 - Taking Basic Precautions to Get Rid of Rats

Take some basic precautions to prevent rats from being attracted to your mobile home. For instance, store food items in airtight containers. Ensure that the interiors of the mobile home are clean with no traces (debris) of food. Don’t dump kitchen waster near your mobile home. Rats can smell food from a distance and these precautions will help to minimize rats being attracted to your interior space.

Step 4 - Catching Rats with Traps

Buy multiple rat traps. Place the traps along all openings of your mobile home. You can use conventional rat baits like peanut butter or cheese. Various types of rat traps are available at hardware stores. Ensure that you wear rubber gloves when releasing trapped rats or removing dead rats from the traps.

Step 5 - Poisoning Rats

If the combination of the above-listed measures doesn’t prove effective, you need to use rat poison. Instead of using rat poison that can prove injurious to the family members, you can use natural rat poison. This kind of rat poison is available at some hardware and garden stores. These poisons don’t harm humans or pets but are lethal to rats as they are concentrated with Vitamin D3 that induces cardiac failure among many rodents.

Another such aid is boric acid. You can sprinkle boric acid powder across all entrances of the mobile home. Boric acid is not toxic to humans or pets but proves lethal to most pests and deters rats. You can make your own, non-toxic rat poison. Mix one cup of dry Plaster of Paris with an equal quantity of flour and a tablespoon of salt. Sprinkle this mixture around the pre-determined entry points of rats and place small bowls of water around them. Rats that drink water after eating the mixture eventually die as the mixture instantly hardens in their intestines.