Rat Removal in Los Angeles

Eric:  All right. Hello everybody. We’re here with Vic at All City Animal Trapping.  We’re going to be asking him some questions on rat removal in Los Angeles area.  The thing that we’re getting a lot of people asking is, do you offer humane trapping and removal?

Vic:  Yeah, absolutely. So live trapping has been something we’ve done for a long time.  More and more we are getting that question and it’s good to be able to fulfill those wants for people out there who want that sort of removal.  As opposed to stamp traps or something like that.

Eric:  Good.  Do you recommend using poison to remove rats? I don’t, we don’t use it. We’re not licensed to use it, the only reason is because a lot of times we’ll get a call for a dead animal issue. And it was because somebody put poison everywhere. Now they don’t know where the animal is and you’d have to cut it out of the wall or out of the ceiling, out of the floor, go under the house and crawl around and look for him, that sort of thing. 

So when you use poison, they can die anywhere. They might eat it in the attic. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to die in the attic. So when you set traps, you know exactly where they’re going to be, and it makes that part of it a lot easier. You don’t have to deal with a dead animal odor, if that’s what it comes down to.  So I would not recommend, plus it’s not necessarily, that’s not how you solve it. It might put a band-aid on the problem.  That’s not how you solve it completely. 

Eric:  I had something happened recently where I have some beach canopy in my garage and when we opened it up, it seemed like there were some hints of rats having been there.  Is there like something that will keep rats away, like a scent or something that they stay away from?

Vic:  Yeah, are deterrents out there. And some that we use that we’ve found some success with. They’re not permanent solutions unfortunately, but they definitely do help.  Garages can be tough because a lot of people leave them open throughout the day.  Sometimes they leave them crack at night for their dogs or cats or something like that. But that’s just an open invite to any other creature walk in go in the garage.

Eric:  So if I had a problem in my house, a rat problem, and I needed rat removal services, how long does it usually take to get rid of the rats?

Vic:  It depends on the situation.  But I would say anywhere between, sometimes we get we’re lucky enough to get on the same night.  And sometimes it might take a week or two, depending on the situation. How many openings there are, what needs to be done. Cause you might have one small opening, you might have 20.  That’s what we gotta find in order to make sure that we solve the problem completely and not have an ongoing issue for you.

Eric:  Gotcha. And, do you know what rats are scared of?

Vic:  We’re told that they’re scared of everything. Whether you hear the whole time, you’re a lot bigger than it. It’s more scared of you than you are a vet, but our customers don’t want to hear that stuff. You know, they have an issue.  But as far as being scared of something like that, it doesn’t really work that well for reps. Whereas you can put an owl up to scare pigeons away or you can even do some stuff like that for cats  Like water and light sensors for other animals.

But it doesn’t really work for rats.  They couldn’t care less. You know what I mean? They just go about their business. They spend all that hours of the night crawling around your house until I find an opening or find food or find both. And if you have an opening around your house, they’re going to find it. Eventually they have nothing else to do.

You know, I’ve seen an attic, the electronic devices that they sell to keep them away. And rats are running on top of them, you know? So it’s, it’s a little different with rats cause they’re going to be around no matter what you do.  Our job for you is to make sure that they’re not in your house to get them out of your house and keep them out of your house.

Eric:  So what I’m assuming that the big one is food.  But is there anything else that attracts rats to someone’s house?

Vic:  Just food and shelter. So they forage all hours of the night. Looking for food or shelter, and sometimes it might be something as simple as you left the sliding door open and they came in.  Sometimes it’s an opening in your ?Eve near your roof, and now they’re in your attic.

A lot of times you’re just looking for a shelter to either nest or sleep or try and find some food.

Eric:  Gotcha. And if I’m trying to remove the rent myself, what are the odds that the rat’s going to attack me?  I don’t know if they would attack you. They’re usually pretty startled. If they see you, they operate in the shadows and at night and you know, stuff like that.  So you might set a trap and get lucky and catch it. And that might take care of that one, but it got in somehow. So that just means that something else is going to find that opening too. Especially if they left a pheromone or something behind, then other animals can smell that. And that kind of attracts them.  But if you start setting up traps and you have bait, you might start attracting other animals. Now, if you didn’t properly handle every step of the trapping. 

Eric:  So if you have a rat running into the house, it’s somewhere in the attic or whatever, I’m assuming time is of the essence.

Vic:  Yeah, absolutely. Especially if you have AC ducks up there, electrical up there.  Sometimes it can be electrical on top of insulation and they chewed through the wrong wires. That’s all it takes to for something pretty bad to happen. So there’s a lot of potential damage that can be done.

Most people, they just don’t want rats in their property at all. Of course that’s out of that is enough to get us out there to help them out with it.

Eric:  All right. So if someone wants to get in touch with you guys immediately, they go to allcityanimaltrapping.com and all your information. Is there from your social media to your phone number, to everything?

Vic:  Yes, sir. Absolutely.

Eric:  All right. Well thank you, Vic. No problem. Thank you.