Rat Exterminator in Los Angeles

As a licensed professional rat exterminator for over 37 years working in Los Angeles, I have seen almost all scenarios of rodent infestations inside homes, business and even on the exterior of structures. I have seen situations where a person simply left their front door open for 10 minutes and a rat just walks in and then gets trapped inside, to the extreme where the homeowner is feeding and raising the rats like they were their pets. Now the latter is rare, but it does happen.

Rodent Entry Points into the Structure

Most of the time it’s a situation where the home has a broken foundation vent or an old pipe hole and a wondering rat walking by discovers the opening and then exploits it and makes their way into the structure. Once the rat has found the random hole or access into the home, it’s usually there to stay, the rodent will use that hole to leave at night for food then return to their nest in your attic space.

Rats Living in the Attic Space

When a rat has made its way into the home it will eventually make its way to the attic space, the way a rat finds a pathway to the attic space is through the walls in the kitchen and bathrooms, these walls have pipes running through them from the sub-area to the attic. Rats use these pipes as ladders to climb up and down. Rodents love the attic space of your home because the attic provides shelter from the elements and predators and your attic is a warm, dark area, perfect to build a nest and raise their young.

Rodents Carry Rat Fleas & Tropical Rat Mites

Fleas and rat mites are small insects that feed on host animals to obtain a blood meal, but only a certain amount of these parasite insect can live on a rat at any given time, so when the flea or rat mite are not on the animal, they are living in the nest of the rat. At any given time approximately 5 percent of the total flea or rat mite population is ever on the animal feeding on blood, and the rest are either in the nest of the rat or in other parts of your attic space.

Rat Flea

The Rat flea is like the normal flea you may find on your cat or dog, but this flea prefers rodents because they readily feed off the young rats while still in the nest. Rat fleas will gladly feed off you and your pet to obtain a free blood meal.

Tropical Rat Mite

The tropical rat mite is a small insect that is very difficult to see with the naked eye and kind of looks like a spider. This parasite is the most common insect parasite found on rodents and are easily transferred from rodent to rodent and will attack humans for a blood meal

Rat Mites and Fleas Need Blood for Food

When the rodent leaves the nest and goes looking for food they may not come back to the nest because the rat was killed outside by a predator or some other reason, but if the rat does not return to the nest the rat mites and fleas will get hungry and then begin to migrate away from the nest looking for a blood meal.

RAT EXTERMINATOR FOR RATS IN YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS

Rat Exterminator Technicians From American Rat Control Inc.®

when rats are in your attic space, or down in the crawl space below your floor, they are technicaly in your home.  Because the way most houses are constructed, rats have access to the attic space and the sub-crawl space bellow your feet.

The most common way rats travel from the attic space to the sub-area is in the wet walls of your home, meaning the walls behind your sinks, your bathtub, and any walls where water and sewer pipes travel through.  To a rat it is like a ladder, they climb up and down to get to the attic space and sub-crawl space, sometimes you may hear them in walls.

Rats In The Walls are Still Inside

Rat Exterminator from American Rat Control Inc.®

If rats are in the walls they are in your home, and if not handled in a trimly manner they will eventually make their way into the living space of your home, such as the kitchen, or even into your bedroom while you are sleeping.

Just because you may not see them, and only hear them, does not mean they are harmless, in fact, they are doing great harm, they are in the walls and ceiling chewing on wires, insulation and your A/C ducting and leaving virus, bacteria, that may get you and your family sick.

RATS CARRY FLEAS AND MITES

Rat Exterminators Can Eliminate Fleas & Mites

Rats are well known carriers of fleas and rat mites, when rats build a nest in your attic space or walls, they are living in a nest full of fleas and mites and these parasite insects are happily feeding off the rats and their young.

At any given time, 90% of the rat mites or rat flease are in the nesting material, the other 10% are on the rat feeding.  When rats leave the nest, they are leaving a lot of hungry parasites behind, eventually the parasites will migrate away from the nest looking for a blood meal.

Rat mites and rat fleas will crawl through the attic space looking for a new host, and if they get to close to a ceiling penetration such as a recessed light fixture or ceiling fan they will fall through and become airborne in the living space of your home, they may land on your bed, your couch or even food prep areas.

They are floating around looking for a blood meal, they will feed off of adults, children and pets.