Rodent Control Newcastle
and Hunter Valley
Professional Rodent Control Services to Protect your Home and Business
Complete Rodent Pest Control Newcastle and Hunter Valley
For rodent pest control in homes, business and rural situations, it’s important to use a professional rodent expert, to ensure the problem is eliminated quickly, taking into account safety and environmental consideration…
Rodents aren’t cute furry creatures. Rats and mice are disease carrying pests that cause damage to food and property.
Rats and mice carry diseases such as dysentery, leptospirosis and typhus fever; can introduce fleas, ticks, lice and mites into your home; spoil food with their urine and droppings; and by chewing through electrical cables rodents are known to be a significant cause of house fires.
If you hear the sound of pattering feet in the roof void, find chewed boxes in the cupboard or droppings in the pantry, you probably have a rodent problem… and you need to deal with it quickly!
How we get rid of rats and mice > Rodent Pest Control
Our rodent programs typically include the use of rodent baits, sometimes in combination with traps.
For safety, rodent baits are always placed in secure bait stations (see below for more information)
The bait stations and traps are placed in strategic locations to deliver maximum performance. It is important that we place sufficient bait at all sites of activity, so the number of bait stations used will depend on the size of the infestation.
Typically this means that bait stations are primarily placed in the roof void and sub-floor, as well as other areas of activity.
Although most residential rodent problems can be eliminated in a single visit, for heavy infestations additional visits may be required.
We will always discuss any safety concerns you may have before carrying out a treatment. We do this over the phone at the time of booking and also carry out an on-site risk assessment before carrying out a treatment.
This is particularly important for rodent control programs, as the rodent baits can be toxic to pets and humans, and traps can cause injury to inquisitive fingers and paws!
To minimise the risk of accidental poisoning, we place all bait in secure bait stations and place them in locations which cannot be accessed by pets and children.
Rodent baits contain a slow acting rodenticides – once the rodent has eaten the bait, it can take 4-7 days for them to die.
The rodents only need to eat a small amount of bait to get a toxic dose, but they will continue to eat until they die.
The rodenticides are actually anticoagulants which cause internal bleeding – the rodents become sluggish before falling unconscious and dying.
Rodenticides can also affect dogs and humans (as well as other mammals and birds) in the same way, but a dog or child would have to eat a lot of rodent bait for it to have any effect. If a child or dog accidentally ingests some bait, you should seek medical or veterinary attention and they will determine if any treatment is necessary.
Although the rodents will die within 4-7 days of eating the bait, the rodents don’t always eat the bait straight away. Although mice are very inquisitive and will often eat a bait at the first visit, rats are neophobic which means they are wary of anything new in their environment. It can take up to a week before rats start to feed on a bait.
Taking into account feeding behaviour, it can take up to 2 weeks to eliminate a rodent problem. However, if there is a significant rodent infestation, follow up visits may be required to top up the baits to make sure all the rodents are eliminated.
It is important that any dead rodents are removed as soon as they are noticed. Put on some gloves, place the rodent in a plastic bag, seal and place in the bin.
We will advise you of any obvious entry points during our visit and will make recommendations on rodent proofing your home to help prevent rodent problems in the future.
Pest Control Mice
Mice are also very inquisitive animals. So, if you place something new in their environment, they are likely to check it out. This makes baiting relatively straight forward. As long as the bait station is place in the correct location, the mice will readily go inside and eat the bait. This allows the bait to get to work quickly and get fast control.
Rat Pest Control
Rat pest control is a little bit more involved than mice control. Firstly, there are two species of pest rat – the roof rat and the Norway rat. The two species have very different behaviours. The roof rat tends to live in trees in the wild and in roofs in buildings, and only occasionally comes down to the ground to feed. In contrast, the Norway rat typically lives in burrows outdoors and in enclosed spaces indoors, spending most of its time foraging on the ground. Knowing which type of rat is present has a big impact on the rat control plan.
Rat are also neophobic, which means they are frightened of new things. As such, when a bait station or new food is placed in their environment, they may avoid it for several days until they get used to it. This means it may take longer before they start eating bait, making rat control a longer process than mouse control.
Rodent Exterminator
When customers search for a rodent exterminator or rat exterminator, they are only thinking that they need to get rid of the rodents as soon as possible – they need to be exterminated! However, to eliminate a rodent problem safely and effectively, and prevent future infestations, takes more than throwing some bait into the roof void. To eliminate a rodent infestation, it’s necessary to correctly identify the species, locate any nests, determine how they are accessing the buildings and determine which food sources they are accessing. This allows a successful rodent treatment program to be developed along with rodent proofing activities to prevent future infestations. This is why, although some customers ask for a rodent exterminator, we see ourselves as rodent management professionals.
What Our Customers Say
What are the signs of a rat infestation or mice infestation?
As rats and mice are nocturnal animals it is very unlikely you will see one during the day. However, they are very active animals so will leave behind a number of tell-tale signs…
- Sounds in the roof – Rats will make quite a lot of noise moving around the roof. Mice are a lot quieter
- Droppings – Rodents will leave clusters of oblong shaped droppings. Rats droppings are up to 19 mm long, mice dropping are a lot thinner and shorter, up to 7 mm
- Damage – chewed boxes or packets of food are an obvious sign. They will also gnaw hard materials to help file down their teeth
- Footprints – in dusty areas it is quite easy to spot their footprints and tail marks.
- Nests – rats and mice will collect soft materials such as insulation, paper and grass to make their nests
- Burrows – rats and mice will dig burrows outside, preferably in raised banks with vegetation for protection
- Odours – with an establish infestation, with the nest nearby, there can be a strong smell of urine
Rub marks – when rodents have been in place for a while they develop runways which they travel along on a regular basis. Where these runways meet the wall, there will be oil rub marks where their fur has contacted the surfaces.
More on the signs of rats and mice in the house…
How to prevent a rodent problem…
To help prevent rodent problems, it’s a good idea to rodent proof your home with these key actions:
Remove food and water sources Prevent easy access to your home Eliminate potential nesting sites For more detailed information on how to rodent proof your home…
Rodent Control FAQ
The Australian regulator authority (APVMA) have updated the regulations regarding the use of rodenticides. The main reason for this was to reduce the risks around secondary poisoning (where predators eat rodents that have consumed rodent bait). These changes to the rodenticide regulations, will make it more difficult for homeowner to carry out DIY rodent treatments. Although professional pest managers can still access these rodenticides, we will also have additional restrictions on use. However, as safety is always our number one priority at Rebel Pest, we were already carry out most of these additional activities (such as always using lockable bait stations).
So if you have a problem with rats or mice, please give us a call. You can have confidence we will get rid of your rodent problem quickly, yet maximise safety for your family, pets and wildlife.
How long rat bait takes to work depends on how long it is before the rat starts eating the bait and the type of bait. Typically it may take a few days before a rat eats the bait – they are very nervous about new things that appear in their environment. For professional rat baits, once the rat has eaten the bait, it can take 4-7 days for the rat to die. Killing mice tends to be a bit quicker as the tend to eat bait straight away (they are very inquisitive) and they are smaller (so die quicker).
Yes, possums will eat rat bait. This is one of the reasons you should never just throw rodent bait into the roof void. It is also one of the reasons that regulatory authorities have brought in new regulations around the use of rodent baits – the options for DIY rodent control are more limited and homeowners must always place the bait in a lockable bait station.
More information on rats and mice…
There are three main pest rodents in Australia, the roof rat, the Norway rat and the house mouse. There are also a number of native rats, as well as other native animals that sometimes get confused with rodents such as antechinus and possums. It’s important to know which are pest animals and which are natives, as harming or killing native animals is illegal. Correctly identifying the pest rodent present is also important as it determines the appropriate treatment program. Click on the button below for more information on the types of pest rodents.
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