If you live near a creek, pond or lake, you may have more trouble with wild life

Recently I was in a Silicon Valley neighborhood forum where someone asked what to do about a mouse (“or something”) in the wall of a house.  For better or worse, I have a fair amount of experience with this both personally and professionally: birds in chimneys, mice and rats in homes (inside plus in the attics, walls, crawlspaces, and heating ducts) and even a bat that got into first an attic and then into the living area itself – that last story goes with the photo from a backyard in Campbell of a townhouse I sold some years ago.

Sometimes this can be a do-it-yourself project but often it’s better if you leave it to the professionals: a good termite & pest control company is normally going to be your best bet for removing rodents and other unwanted visitors and keeping them out.

What happens if you hire someone to get rid of your mouse, rat, bat, bird or other invading animal?

Usually it’s a 3-4 visit process over 3-4 weeks to catch the house guest, then do “exclusion work”, which means finding how it got in and making sure that or any other access points are cut off, then rechecking another time or two to make sure that the problem is taken care of.  (What you do not want to do is get a dead rat or mouse stuck in your wall, so the pros will usually use traps where they can retrieve them rather than poison in the house’s attic or crawl space.)  The cost is often a few hundred dollars for this multi-visit process. (more…)

Pet rats – the kind you buy at the pet store – can make the most adorable friends. Pookie was our daughter’s pet and a close family member for years.

But rats in the roof, attic, crawl space, walls and landscaping are not so adorable. They wreck havoc and can cause damage to home and health. Wild rats gnaw on wood and wires, and they carry fleas that can spread disease. Bubonic plague is not an issue in Santa Clara County now, but it is in Tahoe and other areas, so it’s a risk to take seriously.

What kind of rats exist here, in The Valley of Hearts Delight?

In Silicon Valley, the predominent type of wild rat is the Roof Rat (also known as the Black Rat or Tree Rat). The Roof Rat’s eat ivy, fruit, pet food, nuts and other goodies found in neighborhoods. They are identifiable because their tail is longer than the head and body together.

A lesser seen rat in the San Jose area is the Norway Rat (also called the Wharf Rat, the Sewer Rat, or the Brown Rat). This rat has a shorter tail and is usually seen in less developed areas, creekbeds, and farm areas, which are rapidly disappearing here in the South Bay.

Recently a neighbor of ours found a dead rat in his yard, and he called The Santa Clara County Vector Control District office to come out and help him identify if there was a problem with rats getting into his home or not, and to shed light on the issue of why this critter recently appeared in his home. The officer came out and performed this service for free, enlightening my neighbor as to access points and providing a helpful brochure about rats and what attracts them.

I’d heard that Italian Cypress trees, juniper and ivy were all bad – that is, that they attracted rats. What I did not realize is how many other things do too.
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