It is well known that rats are quite dangerous pests for health and material safety in a home. Indeed, it is advisable not to cohabit with these rodents in order to preserve the integrity of your belongings and then avoid catching infectious diseases related to the dirt they produce. Unfortunately, homes located in large cities like Montreal quickly experienced invasions of these pests. How then to proceed to the deratization of your apartment? We tell you about it.
Identify access to your home
One of the first reflexes to achieve the effective deratization of an apartment is to determine the processes by which pests have access to it. Obviously, we must a priori notice their presence; which does not turn out to be complex, because the smell of urine and scratching will not leave you indifferent. After a few weeks (if no action is taken), you may even start seeing some moving in broad daylight in front of you.
To identify their access points to your home, it is necessary to check if there are breaches in the nooks and crannies of partitions in your apartment, holes in the wooden floor, etc. The expertise of a professional exterminator appears to be adequate to quickly detect flaws.
Be aware that rats never access your apartment from the top of the building. They first pass through the ground floor before gradually climbing to the high-rise dwellings. Thus, measures will be immediately taken by the exterminator to plug the breaches at the bottom of the floor and secure the premises by installing repellents or other effective mechanisms.
Moving to concrete deratization
It is not enough to block the accesses to get rid of rats in your apartment. There are some who have certainly settled and will find ways to recreate breaches in your partitions. It is therefore necessary to think about eliminating them definitively to guarantee a peaceful dwelling. In this context, there are two main techniques of deratization:
Punctual treatment by the use of rat poisons
This technique is best known among individuals, because without much expertise, they manage to use it to kill rodents. The method appears to be simple. It is necessary to target a bait that you are sure that the rats will unload and then poison it with the products traditionally called “rat dead”. These products contain toxic chemicals that kill rodents shortly after ingestion.
The danger in the use of this technique lies in the possibility of self-poisoning or poisoning other animal species. Your pet can for example consume the bait and die from it, touch it and then serve as a vector for spreading the poison in your plates and bowls, etc. The handling of these substances is therefore reserved for professionals for greater safety.
Mechanical and/or connected deratization
This method is also famous among individuals even if it is not really exploited. However, it can be an effective alternative to the use of toxic products. Indeed, it is a question here of setting mechanical traps along the routes of passage of the rats. These will be neutralized by the action of a mechanical lance or by electric discharge if the device is connected.
It goes without saying that for the effectiveness of such a practice, an observation time is required. It is necessary to be able to ensure the route of the rats so that they succumb to these traps. For this purpose, connected devices have the advantage of long-term monitoring equipment for real planning of the operation. They even offer counting tools to certify the complete eradication of previously identified rodents.
If you want to avoid the death of rodents while getting rid of their presence in your home, you can use the cage-shaped mechanical traps. These close on rodents without injuring them. As soon as you have captured them, you will only have to throw them out of your home.
Some precautions to avoid future invasions
Once rid of the rats that infested your apartment, it seems appropriate to take measures to avoid possible new infestations. The use of repellents tops the list of precautions in this area. This technique makes it possible to repel rodents that will no longer be interested in your apartment.
For a more natural process and as effective as the use of repellents, we have the adoption of cat or ferret. These two domestic animals are inherently predators of rats and mice. Their mere presence can frighten rodents who will stay away from your living environment in order to survive.