Rat droppings – What to Look Out for

Rat droppings are one of the few obvious signs of a rat infestation. They are a physical sign the rats are there, and they give you an idea as to the severity of the problem. But what should you look for? Here are the key things to look out for when you’re searching for rat droppings.

Rat droppings

Location

Rats may live in your walls or furniture. That’s why we tend to hear scurrying in the attic or scratching in the walls at night. However, they’re going to leave their home to eliminate their waste. They choose relatively protected space for this process. This tends to be behind boxes, under appliances and furniture and other places that you and predators won’t see them in the open. If you see droppings on shelfs or the wall itself, you probably have roaches, not rats, though that warrants its own call to pest control.

Size

Rat droppings are around half an inch long and a quarter an inch wide. They’ll have rounded or pinched ends. Mouse droppings are a little smaller. Note that young rat droppings will look like mouse droppings. You’ll know if you have rats if there are larger droppings mixed in the smaller ones. And mice and rats aren’t going to be using the same corner of the storage room or area behind the toilet as their latrine.

Color/Appearance

Rat droppings tend to be dark brown or black when fresh. They’ll be grey when dried out. You can tell how fresh they are by touching it with a pencil to see if it is soft enough to deform. If so, there are living rats nearby that need to be addressed. Contact a pest control company like Ames Group to deal with them.

Roach droppings will be small, black and resemble dark rice. However, they’ll be much more numerous than rat droppings, and they’ll be found in many more places. For example, a lot of little black pieces of poo on the wall behind the toilet and sink are from roaches, whereas the mice and rats will only use a small space behind the toilet. The rodents will use a corner of the wardrobe, while roaches will use all of it. On the other hand, rats living in your attic will leave droppings there, and you may not see it. However, you may smell it and the urine they leave behind.

Other Marks

Rats will leave other physical signs of their presence. Holes gnawed in the wall are one sign. This is similar to the burrows they’ll naturally live in outside. Chewed up newspaper and bags are another sign. They’ll love to nest in insulation, cloth and cardboard. They may leave dark streaks on walls and other things they run between as they pass. Know that this may appear in the holes that they’ve gnawed or the gaps in your woodwork. This is because they’re rubbing off the grease and dirt in their fur onto the surfaces. They may leave tail marks and footprints in dusty areas.

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