It can be distressing to wake up to rat droppings and chewed items all over your home. Unfortunately, spotting a rat during the day can be difficult as these pests love to stay in out-of-sight places and are nocturnal, which means they are active mostly at night.
Thus, it is probable that rats are nesting in the walls and ceilings, or crawl spaces in your home, away from predators and the elements. Besides, these Northeast Georgia rodents will gnaw on anything that comes their way, causing a lot of damage to your property.
Having rats in the ceiling is an indication that they have already built a nest and started breeding. And as they are capable of reproducing at a very fast rate, it won’t be long before their numbers grow exponentially and become an infestation.
Keep reading to find out if you have rats living in the ceiling and how to deal with the rat infestation, if detected.
How Do Rats Get In The Ceiling?
Rats can enter the ceilings through small holes as they can fit through a half-inch diameter opening. Sometimes they might chew their way through the cracks and crevices in the ceilings and other entry holes. Some species of rats tend to live exclusively on the roof, and you will find them running in high places such as trees or telephone lines, and climbing into the attic and ceiling in your home.
Can Rats Climb On Ceilings?
Considered to be excellent climbers, the rats can climb on surfaces such as ceilings. In fact, rats are able to climb most rough and smooth vertical surfaces, up to 13 inches in height. Thus, they can climb up the walls and find openings in the ceilings. The ability to jump even 20 times their height or walk on pipes, wires, and thin ropes, allows them to easily get up onto the rafters in your home.
Moreover, they can access climbing objects from the outside and use them to climb onto the roof, before entering through openings into the ceilings.
During the dry or cold winters, the rats will look for climbing materials to access the ceiling. When living in the ceiling, they can easily come out and get downstairs at night to find food and water in your house.
They can also stay on your roof and climb up the ceiling during the winter season. As they are warm-blooded animals, they would stay on the roof as long as they are protected from the harsh weather outside.
Can Rats Chew Through The Ceiling?
If a rat has found its way from the outside into your home, it might chew through the ceiling to get into any space in the house. In fact, it happens quite often that a rat that lives in your home to chew through the ceiling.
The chewing often happens in house structures that are made from materials such as drywall. Typically, ceilings and walls are made from drywall. The rats’ sharp front teeth, the incisors, can easily eat through drywall, as well as plaster, wood, and plastic. They will bite through the ceilings when they recognize a food and water source in your home.
Thus, if you hear chewing sounds in your ceiling at night when it’s quiet in the house, it might be best to call a pest and wildlife control expert to investigate. It can be challenging for a homeowner to find the entry spots made by a rat in the ceiling. This is because rats tend to be discreet and won’t chew on the obvious spots in your ceiling. They might chew about a half-inch hole in the ceiling, close to the wall, and find their way into the house by climbing down and up the walls.
These rodents prefer cluttered places in the house, so it would be better to check these spots for rat bites and find ways to exterminate them from your property. What’s worse, the rats might chew on electric cables on the roof, which can lead to a fire hazard, so you should deal with the rats on your roof immediately.
Can You Hear Rats In The Ceiling?
The roof rats can be quite noisy and will make scratching and squeaking sounds when nesting or running in the crawlspace of your ceiling. You can easily distinguish the rat noise from the noises made by the home appliances.
Because rats are very fast, it’s likely that you hear them scurrying quickly around the crawlspaces. They also tend to follow the same runways over time, thus, you may hear noises coming from the same area in your house structure.
In addition, your pets will hear the sounds before you hear them, so you should observe their behavior if you suspect a rat infestation on your property. Your dog might be looking up the ceiling constantly or bark while staring at the roof.
Moreover, apart from hearing animal noises on the roof or ceiling, you can notice rat droppings in your home, and they might host pathogens leading to health issues. Also, if you have fruit trees in your backyard, you might notice half-eaten fruits. If these pests enter your home, you might find that leftover foods in your kitchen are gone. You might be lucky to see the rats climbing the walls up the ceiling if you wake up at night.
If you can hear strange noises on the roof or in the ceiling, especially during the night, you should have a pest control technician inspect it as soon as possible to find out whether there is a rat infestation.
Rats can be really hard to remove once they have entered your house, thus, specialist help is needed. At American Pest Control, we provide homes in Northeast Georgia with reliable and effective pest control services specific to your homes’ needs. So don’t hesitate to contact us today for a quote, a free inspection and to learn more about our residential and commercial pest services in Northeast Georgia!
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