Finding rat droppings in your home can be alarming, as it indicates the presence of these unwanted pests. It’s important to take immediate action to address the problem and prevent further damage. Unless you have pet rats, most people do not want to share a room with their real-life rodent counterparts. Here are the five steps you should take immediately if you find rat droppings in your home.

How to discover if you have a mouse or rat in your house

Do you have a mouse in the house? If you find rat droppings in your kids’ room, it could be your first sign of a much bigger problem that can seriously affect you and your little ones. It is a bit easier if you find a dead rodent since you would have a better understanding of the rodent issue quicker. The rodent poop could mean you have a house mouse or a rat lurking in the darkness. If you think a little rat dropping or rat poo is no big deal? Think again, it is!

What do rat droppings look like?

Rat drooping, also known as rat fecal or rat poop, are a dark colour. Like dark brown or black. The rat droppings resemble the shape of a grain of cooked rice but dark in colour. Depending on the rat species, the rat feces can change in shape, size, shape, or colour. View the image to see a visual picture of rat pop.

Can I detect rodent urine?

With a rodent infestation, the rodent urine has a strong musky odor. You should be able to smell the strong odour and with a black light you can see the urine patches on the wall or floors.

Mouse droppings

Mouse poop are a visual sign that you have a mouse problem. Other visual clues can include gnawed mouse holes. These mouse holes can be very tiny to find, mice can squeeze through tiny openings for wires and pipes.

What is the difference between rat poop and mouse poop?

Rat poop is a bit larger than mouse poop. Rat poop are longer ovals, shiny black while mouse droppings are smooth and short with pointed ends. They look similar to an untrained eye.

What to do when you discover rat droppings?

#1- Identify the extent of the rat infestation.

Before taking any action, it’s important to determine the extent of the rat infestation. Look for additional signs of rats, such as gnaw marks on furniture or walls, urine stains, or nests. If you only find a few droppings, it may be a minor infestation that you can handle on your own.

However, if you find a large number of rat droppings or other signs of rats, it’s best to call a professional pest control company to assess the situation and develop a plan of action.

#2- Clean up the rat feces safely and thoroughly.

When cleaning up rat droppings, it’s important to take precautions to avoid exposure to harmful bacteria and viruses that may be present. Mice and rats carry diseases. Be sure to wear gloves and a mask to protect yourself, and use a disinfectant spray or solution to thoroughly clean the affected area.

Avoid sweeping or vacuuming the droppings, as this can release harmful particles into the air. Instead, use a damp cloth or paper towel to pick up the droppings and dispose of them in a sealed plastic bag.

 #3- Seal up any entry points to prevent further access.

Once you have cleaned up the rat droppings, it’s important to take steps to prevent further infestation. Use rubber gloves to start by sealing up any entry points that rats may be using to access your home. This could include finding the dark areas in your home, filling the gaps around doors and windows, reducing nesting materials in holes in walls or floors, seal pet food up, remove food and water sources with tight lids.

Use common sense and do your best to discourage rat reproduction efforts by closing the openings around pipes or vents. Use caulk, steel wool, or other materials to seal up these pipes, wires, and gaps to prevent rats from getting inside your home. You may also want to consider setting up traps or hiring a professional exterminator to address the problem more thoroughly.

#4- Set traps or use other methods to eliminate the rats.

Once you have discovered rat droppings in your home, it’s important to take action to eliminate the rats. One effective method is to set traps in areas where you have seen the droppings. Remember to wear rubber gloves and a dust mask to protect yourself from rodent viruses and deter your scent on a trap. There are many different types of traps available, including snap traps, glue traps, and live traps.

You may also want to consider using bait or other methods to lure the rats into the traps. If you are not comfortable setting traps yourself, or if the infestation is particularly severe, you may want to consider hiring a professional exterminator to address the problem.

#5- Take steps to prevent future infestations from rats and mice.

Once you have successfully eliminated the rats from your home, it’s important to take steps to prevent future infestations. This includes sealing up any holes or gaps in your home’s exterior that could allow rats to enter, keeping your home clean and free of clutter, and storing food in sealed containers.

Regularly inspecting your home for signs of rats, such as droppings or gnaw marks, can also help you catch any potential infestations early and address them before they become a bigger problem.

Do you know about Mouse & Rat Diseases?

Mouse poop is a disease-ridden time bomb just waiting to go off, posing serious health hazards to your children. Believe it or not, rodents can carry at least 25 diseases that can spread through their feces and urine, including Hantavirus syndrome, Rat-bite fever, Salmonellosis, Bordetellosis, Pseudorabies, Leptospirosis, and Lymphocytic, to name only a few.

Is rat poop dangerous?

Many of these diseases are transmitted from droppings by touch or as an airborne pathogen. So, any areas where your children sleep, dishes or surfaces they eat off, or even toys they play with are possible breeding grounds for rodent-borne diseases. These diseases can cause a host of symptoms, including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, chill, respiratory problems that can lead to hemorrhagic fever.

If you think your child’s illness or yourself may be rodent-related because you have found rodent droppings recently, take your child to your family doctor or the emergency ward as soon as possible.

Allergies

The myriad of diseases found in mice poop is not the only thing that can put your kids’ health at risk. If your child suffers from asthma or allergies, mice feces and urine also contain allergens, making symptoms even worse. Even just one mouse can leave 9000 droppings each year. Failing to address a rodent infestation can trigger some major allergies throughout your entire home.

Clean up the mess

To help protect your family from the dangers of rat poop, immediately clean up any droppings.  When you see rodent feces protect yourself with gloves and a mask and clean it up with a wet rag to prevent releasing particles into the air. Avoid coming in direct contact with rodents and rat dropping when possible. Always make sure to disinfect the affected afterward too.

What to do when you find dead rodents?

Use caution when near urine and droppings or dead rodents:

• Wear rubber gloves and a dust mask during cleanup.
• Dampen droppings and debris with a solution of bleach and water before wiping up.
• Wear gloves to dispose of dead rats and mice.
• Double bag the bodies of dead rats and mice in plastic bags, and put in a garbage bin with a secure lid.
• Wash hands and exposed clothing thoroughly after clean-up, and separate from other laundry.
• Never sweep or vacuum dry droppings. The dust that is raised can cause illness. Source

Top 2 Ways to rid yourself of Mice and Rats

Buy a rat trap online and have it shipped to you quickly

You can go to the store and purchase a variety of rat traps but the pest control pros recommend these 2 options for rat traps and mouse traps.  For DIY purposes, you can order them online now and have a rodent traps shipped out to you immediately too!

Remember if you are doing the DIY rat trap method, be sure that rat poison is not located near children or pets. This can cause serious harm to their health.

Pest control pros recommend these specific rat traps for you!

Buy rat traps online now!

Call Local Pest Control Exterminators for Rat Removal 

When it comes to protecting yourself and your precious young ones from rodents and rats, you’ll want to do everything you can to keep them out of harm’s way. If you have a mouse or rat infestation, get help from professional rat control services. They will inspect, trap, and remove rodents, fast, helping you sleep better at night, knowing your family and yourself are safe and sound.

Did you find mouse droppings in your house?  Take Action now, Contact Solutions Pest Control today for professional and quick exterminator response times!

Call us toll-free at 1-855-858-9776 or Learn more about our variety of Rodent Control Services across Metro Vancouver and to Whistler in BC.

Experts in Pest Control Rat Exterminator Services

Trust Solutions Pest Control to eliminate a wide variety of common pests from your home or property. We are your local pest control expert. Our friendly pest control techs live and work in your neighbourhood. We are very familiar with the local pest issues and are ready to help.