How Do I Get Rats Out Of a Wall Cavity?

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There are a few approaches you could choose to take when faced with a rats-in-the-wall situation:



1 - You could ignore the problem and hope it goes away by itself. (This won't happen.)
2 - You could throw some poison around your home and hope for the best. (This won't kill off the rats because they're displaying high immunity to rodenticide.)
3 - You could send your cat in after the rodents and keep your fingers crossed that the pet does what nature suggests it should. (Your cat might get injured badly as a result of the conflict, or come into contact with fleas, ticks, mites, or other parasites/bacteria/viruses.)
4 - You could use various repellents, all of which promise to get rid of rats really quickly, with very little effort, as if by magic. (This magic solution doesn't exist. It certainly doesn't lie with repellents.)
5 - You could use live cage traps to capture rats, with the intention of releasing them back into the wild later on. (Trapped-and-released rats learn from the experience and tend to avoid traps of all kinds from that points onwards. You probably won't travel far enough away from your building to ensure the rat doesn't come back, too.)
6 - You could use snap traps strategically placed around your home, all the while sealing up every nook and cranny that let them in in the first place, and removing all sources of food.

We bet that you can guess (quite easily) which approach is the right approach.

That's right - number 6. You will need to use snap traps that have been strategically places around the building, along with sealing methods, and food removal steps. If rats have died or are still alive but stuck in the wall cavities, these may need to be removed by hand. If you are lucky, you will be able to reach down from the attic, into the wall cavity below, using a snare pole or similar to help with those difficult-to-reach spots. Sadly, not everyone will be that lucky and cutting out of a square in the wall is essential. You can't leave the rats in the wall cavity because the carcass(es) will decompose and attract maggots, flies, other rats and mice, and potentially other scavengers too.

Go back to the Rat Removal page, or learn tips to do it yourself with my How to Get Rid of Rats guide.

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