So you’ve just discovered that you have a rat infestation in your home, and the first thing you want to do is get rid of them as fast as possible. But just how long does it take to get an infestation under control? Let’s find out.

Rat control using traps

Traps are very efficient devices, and they can help make short work of a rat infestation. However, they can only be used when the rats are small in number. Rats have the capacity to learn from other rats’ mistakes, so if one rat sees another rat die in a trap, it will avoid the trap in the future. With that being said, it can take up to a week to clear up a small infestation using traps, with some traps working faster than others. For example, if you use live-animal traps, which capture the rats alive so they can be released, it can take much longer.

Rat control using poisons

Poisons are generally used when dealing with large infestations, when they are the most effective. The problem with poisons is that you have to keep in mind that you will need to find and remove the dead rats yourself.

You can never know where the rats will be knocked out. It could be somewhere in the middle of the living room as they try to travel at night, or it might be inside a wall void in their nest. This means that the clean up process can get complicated. Luckily, some pest control companies offer cleanup services after they use poisons to remove an infestation.

With that being said, when you use poisons, it can take a bit over a week to clear out an infestation. Of course, several other factors will come into play, such as the extent of the infestation and the size of the building.

So traps can get rid of small infestations fast, while poisons can be used to make short work of a large infestation. However, these two methods have to be employed by a pro in order to speed up the process as much as possible, because when they are used DIY, the infestation is generally not removed completely, and this will extend the duration of the control process.

For more information on the rat control process, or if you have an infestation in your home that has to be removed, contact us today.