Help with rat removal...nest in lanai soffit??
 

Hi, I need some help / advice. I have 2 citrus trees in the back a grapefruit & orange tree (previous owners planted). I just found my birdseed & sunflower bag chewed through in the garage and a possible rats nest in a garden container I have since cleaned out.

I ended up having a chewed piping that goes to my washing machine probably from rats.

We have set the rat traps several times with peanut butter and the smart little things ate the peanut butter without making the trap go off. Can SOMEBODY EMAIL ME OR POST with suggestions/who to call to eradicate the rats??...:mad:

You need the help of a professional

I hired a pro wasn't cheap approx $700.00 set traps & closed where the varmints were getting in-couple of follow up visits-to make sure

Deans was great for us. Frequent follow up re-setting a traps. When everything was all cleared up we got rid of the traps. We know they still come to the fruit trees next door. Also live in Palm. That is a fact of life in Florida . But have not had a problem in our around the house since

You have correctly identified your problem. Have your citrus trees removed. The rats love to eat the fruit.

Do not know if it will work with rats but with mice gum drop candies work better than peanut butter. More work to get off the trap. More time for the trap to snap.

Pest control
 

Have your pest control people (we have Massey) come and set those black box traps around tour house. We had trouble with rats....we have two fruit trees but they were after the debris on our gas grill which was inside our lanai. They can smell food a mile away. Make sure there is no bird seed, or food of any kind left in your garage, attic or lanai. They will find it and will chew through anything to get to it. They chewed through two of our lanai screens to get to the grill. Once we removed the gas grill from the lanai ( and replace our two largest lanai screens) the rats left us alone. Massey kept the black rat box next to our house to continue to kill any wondering rats. We have been doing our part to control the rat population because they rat poison is often depleted when Massey comes to check it. It is a fact in Florida....you will have or see rats eventually around your home. Good luck......

You can handle this.
 

YOU CAN HANDLE THIS PROBLEM.

I have had great success with rat traps baited with small strips of raw bacon. Tie the bacon onto the trigger with twist ties such as are found on some loaves of bread. The spring required to make a spring trap effective makes the trigger relatively insensitive, so you can't use a soft bait like peanut butter. Use something difficult to remove, like raw bacon.

Actually, I suggest you try the Glue Rat Traps such as those available at Walmart. They are cheap and disposable. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Catchmast...s-2ct/15723807

I recently had great success with a Glue Snake Trap which I bought from Amazon. The paperwork that came with it mentioned that it was effective for rats as well.

I wouldn't use poison. Rats sometimes die in the walls of the house if poisoned, and the smell takes a long time to go away.

I most certainly would not remove my citrus trees. I love both oranges and grapefruit. My late wife used to go out on a cold morning and pick some oranges off the tree, squeeze them, and we would have fresh, cold orange juice with breakfast.

Home Depot has new, unused five gallon plastic pails with lids for a few dollars. They work fine for storing birdseed.

One last word. Squirrels have the same affinity for birdseed as rats do. Your problem may be squirrels. Don't be surprised if you end up with some squirrels in your traps.

Have you tried to google the problem?

Consider stop putting out bird food, as rats and mice love it.

THANK YOU ALL FOR your suggestions.....I will be pulling out my grapefruit tree and replacing it with a bottlebrush....ALSO, I should have shared the Villages is already "OVER pesticidal" and an offer like Dean's to treat with traps and pour liquid insecticide around my house every 3 months is a DEAL BREAKER.....rats don't cause cancer.....pesticides do and my Company is Alliance who uses environmental treatments.....they also wanted $400 to do this....I will be going the route with the alternate traps....THANKS ALL!!

this person was given a good reference recently. Gary Depalma Nuisance Wildlife  
Pest Control Service
Address: Leesburg, FL 34748
Phone: (352) 326-5830

the most important thing that has to be done is to make sure all possible places the rodent can enter are closed. I had rats at my old house. It cost about $600 to get rid of them but I had an expert do it. It was worth it. they close all entrances except one so the rats have to use that entrance. they set traps and check on them routinely until no more are caught, then the final hole is closed. they only need very small openings to get into your house.

They will return as long as you feed them. Bird food is rat food. Citrus is rat food. Your neighbors don't appreciate it, I am sure.

Remove the citrus trees and don't feed the birds. They have plenty to eat and I don't feed them, yet see many from our lanai...just birding around.

For my two cents worth
 

1. I agree with Carl that bacon is a better bait than peanut butter as it is far harder to remove than is peanut butter or cheese.
2. BEWARE of using rat poison. While in the past arsenic has been used but due to other wildlife pets, kids etc it is no longer used. What is used is warferen. Rodents do not vomit. Warfaren is a blood thinner it causes them to bleed internally. The trouble is once they take the poison they seek water which is why your PLASTIC PIPES were chewed.
3. For me, the traps are more humane.
4. HAVE YOU SEEN RATS? Before we moved down south, I had a great peony collection. Something was eating off each flower bud before it opened. I put out rat traps and the traps kept going off and catching nothing. I discovered, it was only a field mouse and the rat traps would miss them unless they were unlucky enough to go in sideways. Citrus Rats are far larger than the common Norway rat. They may simply be too large for your spring traps of the glue traps to work on.
YOU MAY WANT TO ASK AT ONE OF THE FARM SUPPLY PLACES.

HAPPY HUNTING

Here is a natural solution:

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