Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Rats to Get Desperate and Aggressive

Even though California has been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic since the very beginning, the ripple effect is working its way through the state very slowly. While other states with a smaller footprint peaked and saw a drastic reduction in numbers through April and May, parts of California, including Sacramento, are still seeing record numbers of cases. Due to these cases, social distancing rules are being extended and reimplemented. Businesses that had previously reopened are once again closing down.

Rats Have Lost a Major Source of Food

We had talked about the law of unintended consequences with the shut down of restaurants, catering halls, and other businesses in the food and catering industry. With their dumpsters empty, the primary food source for rats is gone. Rats, however, are resilient pests, and they are not going to sit back and wait for the food to come to them, they are going to go out in search of food.

To add to the problem of scavenging rats, the longer it takes for them to find a food source, the more desperate they will become. When hunger turns to desperation, rats will invade areas they would have previously ignored.
In many cities, the rats and the people have come to a very tenuous, yet unofficial agreement. It is a “you don’t bother us, and we won’t bother you” thing. As long as the rats have food they were able to get to, they left people alone. Well, that unofficial agreement has been violated, leaving the rats to fend for themselves. As hunger and desperation sets in, they are venturing closer to places that most rats wouldn’t usually approach—your home.

Rats Can Get into Your Home Through the Tiniest of Openings

Rats do not need a huge opening to get into your home. Mice can fit through space the size of a dime, and rats can fit through the size of a quarter. When it comes to rodent control in our area, the vast majority of rats we see are roof rats that can be found on higher floors and in attics. However, Sacramento also has Norway rats, which are not climbers and can be found on lower floors and in basements.

If you have a rat infestation, contact Pinnacle Pest Control so we can evaluate the infestation and get rid of the rats before they breed or before they attract more rats from the outside.

Contact Pinnacle Pest Control and Ask About our Rodent Exclusion Services

The best bet is to allow us to come to you to do a Rodent Exclusion inspection. With Exclusion services, we come out and look at your property and building, looking for the small cracks, crevices, and openings that a rat can use to gain access to your home. As they say in baseball, the best defense is a good offense. Don’t wait for the infestation to figure out you have a problem. Take the fight to the rats and figure out how they would get in. Once you resolve the issues and understand what to look for, the chances of getting a rat infestation become drastically reduced.