A rat is a clever creature. This hasn’t been the generally received perspective on rodents for many years, but science is beginning to catch up to reality. Consider phrenology. Phrenology is a study that has been shown to be a pseudo-science which once posited that the size of the brain has a direct relation to intelligence. This isn’t true.
One of the greatest proofs phrenology was a pseudo-science comes in the form of a different “pest”, the raven. Hooded ravens rank among chimps and dolphins in their intelligence. How big are their brains? The size of a walnut, or a ping-pong ball? The point here is that though a rat is small in cranial stature, that doesn’t actually pose any kind of limit on its intelligence.
Rats can tell whether or not something is poisoned; they’ll send in a weaker member of the group to test if bait has been compromised by some sort of pesticide. They mark their territory, they breed more quickly than rabbits, and they follow humans wherever humans go. Rats may not be raven/chimp/dolphin smart, but they are very intelligent.
When it comes to an infestation, you’re dealing with an organism whose intelligence compounds at a rate that is very nearly exponential. You can get thousands of rats from an original pair breeding within a year’s time. If you’ve got a property that isn’t regularly maintained, has a point of entry, and some form of rat sustenance, you’re compromised.
Imagine thousands of rats in the walls of your property. And they don’t stop at gnawing through sheetrock or making ventilation shafts stink. They’ll get in the floor, setting up nests between the girders. A rat nest is a breeding ground for disease and parasites. Rats today still carry black plague, did you know that?
Lost Structural Integrity
Not only do pests like rats make your property unhygienic, but they compromise its structural stability gradually over time. They can gnaw through most substances—steel wool being one of the few they can’t quite get through, as it is analogous in terms of gnawing to the pain we feel when someone runs their nails down a chalkboard. Rats won’t gnaw steel wool willingly.
The thing is, they’re clever enough to find additional means of entry if they can detect a food source. But rats are bottom feeders, they ingest refuse—hence their multiple parasites. So they naturally multiply where there is already a high level of degradation. Decay, disrepair, neglect, and garbage—these are the things which draw rats.
Your attic is a great place for them to congregate, as it is slowly falling apart, filled with decaying junk, and relatively isolated from the rest of your property. It represents a great home base for rodents to breed, then forage in the night. As they breed, from the top-down they diminish the structural integrity of your property. This lowers property value.
You’re going to need a professional solution to get this kind of infestation problem under control. A rodent control company is going to use many methods to find the pests and eliminate them, one of the first steps being, as GreenRatControl.com says, “A thorough inspection of the home to identify rodent entry points.”
Beyond identifying where rats gain access, they must be substantively eliminated, and the area where they were infesting cleaned. You’ve got to sterilize and make hygienic that which was under decay, or risk further infestation. If you want to preserve your property’s value and integrity, you may need requisite pest control.