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Rat & Mice Control

Discovering rats, mice or other rodents in your home and crawl spaces can be a daunting thing. Rats and Mice are abundant in the Portland Oregon area and are active year round, but especially like to seek shelter when it is cold out. By the time you have noticed their presence, they have likely been around for a while. They can be filthy, diseased, and destructive so it’s hard to stay calm when they find their way inside. In their relentless search for food and habitation, rats, mice, and rodents will invade crawl spaces. This can cause contamination and damage to the vapor barrier, insulation, heating ducts, electrical wiring, and plumbing. Fortunately, the technicians at Upper Left Pest are experts at spotting, removing, and preventing these unwelcomed visitors. Keeping your home the way it should be – pest free!

Using Thermal Imaging

Using Thermal Imaging we can determine if you have Rats, Mice or Rodents and identify what parts of the house they are located in.

Lost Keys?

Rat, Mice or Rodents in your crawl space can leave quite a mess. We may also find some things from your house that have gone missing.

Whether you’re in a spacious rural area or a densely populated city, it’s likely rats are a valid concern. Most home and/or business owners have had a run in with these pesky pests. With thousands of recorded rat bites in the U.S. per year, keeping the proper distance between yourself, your loved ones, your property, and a disease-ridden colony of rats becomes of the utmost priority.

Norway Rat

Norway Rat

In the U.S. there are two common types of rats – the Roof Rat and the Norway Rat. The Roof rat, also known as the black rat, is the smaller and sleeker of the two species with tails that stretch longer than their heads and bodies combined. This long tail provides the Roof Rat with the balance needed to traverse fences, tall tree branches, cable lines, overgrown shrubbery, and like their name suggests, roofs. Once inside your home or building, they prefer high up places like ceilings, attics, walls, and cabinets.

The Norway Rat, better known as the Brown Sewer Rat, is bulkier than his Roof Rat cousin and has coarse brown fur with a lighter underbelly. These rats thrive in large human populations such as densely populated urban areas. They can be found lower to the ground in such places as crawl spaces, sewers, basements, along building foundations, under woodpiles and most other dark, moisture-rich places.

Where rats are disease and filth are not far behind. Rats leave an abundant supply of droppings (fecal matter) and urine, and we can become exposed to contaminated dust particles of infected rats which is a risk to our health. If your crawl space or attic becomes contaminated it can create an unhealthy environment in the rest of the home or building. Rats are a sponge for pathogens, diseases, and bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, Salmonellosis, Plague, Rat Bite Fever, Weils Disease, Hantavirus, and Leptospirosis. All of which can cause serious health problems, and in some case, death.

In addition to the health risks, rats gnaw to keep their teeth sharp so structural damage is an immediate threat. Rats gnaw on wood and electrical wires increasing the risk of fire in your home and/or building.

Here are some of the most common signs that rats have made their way inside:

  • Scratching, clawing or scurrying sounds in your attic, walls, ceilings, and/or floorboards
  • Droppings – generally ranging in size of half an inch to an inch
  • Footmarks, tail marks, or grease stains along base moldings or dusty areas
  • Claw, tear or visible bite marks in wiring or wood
  • Burrows around or under gardens, sheds and compost piles
  • Nests made from shredded materials in dark areas

If you think you have a rat infestation, please do not hesitate to call the professional rat control technicians at Upper Left Pest.

Mice, like rats, will attempt to make their way into your home or place of business when the weather turns wet or cold. Seeking a warm, quiet shelter, they will take up residence in places such as garages, attics, basements, interior walls and crawl spaces. Even barns, sheds or large storage spaces.

Common House Mouse

The two most common mice in the Pacific Northwest are the common house mouse and the deer mouse. And also like rats, mice are not just inconvenient, they pose a severe health risk to humans and animals. House mice, for example, are rife with disease and bacteria such as Salmonella and more than 200 other pathogens.  Deer mice tend to carry the SNV strand of the Hantavirus. The Hantavirus is most commonly spread through contact with the mice’s urine, droppings or nests and can be fatal if left untreated. Deer mice are also the primary carriers of Lyme disease which can be contracted through contaminated tick bites.

If you suspect a mouse infestation, check for the following:

  • Scratching, clawing or scurrying sounds in your attic, walls, ceilings, and/or floorboards
  • Droppings/urine patches – generally brown or black, the shape and size of a grain of rice. Urine patches have a distinctive ammonia smell and follow marked trails
  • Footmarks, tail marks, or grease stains along base moldings or dusty areas
  • Claw, tear or visible bite marks in wiring, wood or food storages

If you think you have a rat infestation, please do not hesitate to call the professional mice control technicians at Upper Left Pest.