The first sign of a problem could be scratching noises coming from the attic or a chewed bag of seeds or pet food in the garage.
Oh rats.
The known disease carriers are intelligent, nocturnal and reproduce quickly. They are common throughout the South Carolina Lowcountry.
They like to nest in homes, especially attics and crawl spaces, and sometimes in vehicle engine rooms.
“It’s been a pretty big problem lately,” said Brian Medina of Carolina Exterminating.
“Plus, we’ve got more downtown since the COVID thing hit,” he said, suggesting that fewer food-laden restaurant dumpsters have prompted rats to look elsewhere.
Oh, and on the barrier islands too, said Medina.
“The roof rats out there have always been a problem,” he said. “They prefer attics.”
Some people associate rats with filthy conditions, but long-time local residents know that they are a common pest that can attack any home.
An infrared camera shows where an adult rat and two young rats are above the ceiling in a building. Assuming / Mark Marenakos
“I’ve been here my whole life and have had rats in my homes since day one,” said Jimmy Carroll, Mayor of the Isle of Palms.
“So many people have had them in their homes and cars,” he said. “I had two cats and they were rat cats and coyotes have one.”
On the island of Kiawah, rat poison use was blamed for a collapse in the city’s bobcat population in 2020. Hundreds of households and dozens of pest control companies have pledged to stop using certain rodent poisons.
Rat poison can work its way up the food chain, damaging cats, birds of prey and bobcats.
Medina said there is one more reason for homeowners and renters to avoid rat poison.
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“We don’t recommend using rodenticides at all because they (rats) are looking for the darkest, deepest place in your home to die,” he said. “That’ll usually be in a wall and the smell can last for 14 days.”
Mark Marenakos, owner of Advanced Termite and Pest Control, agreed.
“Some people will be tempted to buy a bundle of poison and throw it under, but then there can be odor problems for a long time,” he said.
“The best thing people can do is block off the avenues that they can come in,” said Marenakos. “It’s better than poisons and traps and the like.”
That’s key to preventing or getting rid of rats, pest control experts agree – figure out how they could get in and seal those routes.
And that’s easier said than done. They can rise up, squeeze through small gaps, and enlarge holes by gnawing at them.
“If it’s bigger than a nickel, it will be closed – that’s my threshold,” said Medina.
Garage doors that don’t seal properly and gaps around pipes are common problems, Marenakos said. And houses with ivy or decorative tendrils on the outside walls? He calls these “rodent ladders”.
“You can come through a very small room and you are determined,” he said.
Rats like warm, dark places, but they also look for food and water. They have a tremendous sense of smell – one species has been trained to track down land mines in Africa – so they don’t have to be in a house to know there is food available.
The pipes that drain condensation from HVAC systems can act as fountains of water for rats, Marenakos said, and the solution is to have those condensate pipes drip onto sand or gravel.
Cars that are rarely used are also attractive to rats, who like to get into engine compartments and chew on the wires.
In June 2016, the engine had to be removed from Thom Penney’s Porsche 911 after a rat built a nest in the engine and chewed wires. Provided.
The good news is that after doing the necessary work to keep rats out, clearing up those that have invaded isn’t too difficult. Try a simple $ 2 snap trap from a hardware store baited with peanut butter or some other protein on the inside walls in areas rats have visited.
Check the traps only frequently or the smell will make it clear that a rat has been killed.
“A snap trap? Sure, it will kill a rat, but there will be more later, “Marenakos said when the openings are not sealed.
To reach David Slade at 843-937-5552. Follow him on Twitter @DSladeNews.
