If there is one type of infestation that is sure to send a shiver down your spine, it is a rat infestation. There are tons of ways to tackle this issue, and one of them is using rat poison. Is rat poison an excellent way to contain the infestation of rats? Or is it dangerous? Before you decide, I want to give you my 5 biggest dangers of using rat poison.
Rat poison is undoubtedly a successful way of dealing with a rat infestation problem, but it is not the only way to do it. There are more ways to skin a cat, as they say.
Whist rat poison is very successful; you also need to know why you should not be using it.
Let’s take a look at them now.
Using Rat Poison – 5 Things You Need To Be Aware Of
1. Kids
Rat poison can be very harmful to kids. When you leave packets of poisoned bait around your home or outside your property, you introduce something new into the environment. You know what kids are like when they see something new. they want to explore, don’t they?
If a child ingests rat poison, they would need an immediate medical intervention! Many brands of rat poison contain Anticoagulants that stop the blood from clotting and result in the rat ‘bleeding out.‘
If you decide that rat poison is your method of choice, I urge you to use child-friendly poison.
2. Pets
Pets will also need immediate medical treatment if they ingest rat poison.
Some folks use rat poison by throwing sachets of the stuff into open areas. They would then leave the rat poison in these open areas for the rats to eat. I was horrified when I saw a professional pest company do this. There was no concern about any pets or any other local wildlife.
Always put the poison in a place where your pets cannot access it.
3. Dying In Walls
Imagine this: A rat strolls around your home (probably searching for food, warmth, and shelter) and stumbles upon a sweet-smelling bag of poison. It’s going to do one thing. The rat is going to eat the poison.
What does the rat do next?
I know, it thinks, ‘I am going to stick around here, there are free food and shelter. I know what, I will use these cavity walls to travel around this house; they will keep me protected.’
You know what happens next, don’t you? That’s right, the rat dies inside your cavity walls.
You don’t know this has happened yet. But you will know. In a few days, if the weather is warm enough (longer if it is cold), you will begin to get a small scent of something terrible. Over the next few days, the odor worsens until it is unavoidable.
When a rat dies inside your cavity walls, there are 2 options:
- Go through the wall and dispose of the dead rat. This is very, very expensive.
- Ride it out. It will take weeks.
It would help if you did all you could to stop a rat from dying in your walls. Prevention is better than a cure.
4. Birds
Rats have one awesome natural predator. Birds of prey!
They circle above, looking out for rodents. As soon as they see one, they swoop down, grab the rodent, and take it away for a feast. Good job! That is one less rat for you to worry about.
What if the rat had just ingested poison? What will happen to the bird?
I’ll tell you, the bird has a high chance of dying. Now you have one less rat (good) but one less predator for rats (very bad). And you have killed a bird.
5. Other Pest Infestations
It is not just rats that carry some terrible diseases; it is other pests too.
Now, imagine a small number of rats dying around your property. What is that going to do? It is going to attract other pests, such as flies and cockroaches.
An infestation of rats is bad enough, but now you have roaches, flies, and tons of other annoying little pests around your home, spreading diseases!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why you should not use rat poison?
I do not like to use rat poison unless you can be 100% sure the rat will be contained once the poison has been ingested. You should not leave the rat to escape and cause further problems.
How long does rat poison take to kill?
Rat poison will usually take less than 3 days to kill a rat. This will depend on what type of poison and how much has been ingested by the rat, though.
Does rat poison cause suffering?
Yes – most rat poison does cause suffering. You should always be careful about which rat poison you will use. I urge you not to use Anticoagulants as this type of poison is not very humane!
Conclusion
When faced with a rat infestation, one of the first questions you will ask is, ‘how do I get rid of them.’ Poison is going to be one of the options. In this post, I have given you 5 dangers of using rat poison for you to consider.
Rat poison can be used if you are responsible when using it.
It would help if you did what you could to contain the rat once it has ingested the poison. When it dies, you will have to be able to dispose of the rat’s body, and you haven’t harmed the local environment.
Rats must be cleared up quickly because they are known to spread all kinds of terrible diseases. It would help if you removed them before they got to you.
If you are now using poison responsibly, well done you!
Good luck
It made a lot of sense to read the part of your article that stated that a rat dying in a wall from poison can cause foul stench down the line. This made me rethink my plan to exterminate the rats already in my home to prepare for the holidays since the idea of having a foul rat stench while hosting a dinner party does not sound very nice. To be on the safe side, I’ll look for a professional pest control service instead and get them to help me.