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Hiring a Rat Exterminator
Two companies will quote the same job and deliver quite different things. One clears the current rats. The other closes how they got in. The questions below tell you which you’re being sold.
Advertising disclosure: calls are routed to an independent local provider. We’re paid a referral fee for the call. You pay the provider, never us.
The short answer
If the proposal is bait stations serviced quarterly and nothing else, that’s an ongoing charge rather than a solution — the entry point is still open, so the population is replaced as fast as it’s removed. A real contract includes a survey of the building envelope, sealing with materials rodents can’t chew, and interior work that recovers the bodies rather than leaving them in your walls.
Bait-only plan
A subscription
Real fix
Exclusion
Ask
What material do you seal with?
Ask
Where do they die?
Three kinds of proposal
They cost similar amounts and produce quite different outcomes.
Worth buying
Survey, seal, then treat
Time spent outside finding entry points, sealing with mesh and mortar, then interior trapping. Costs more up front and it ends.
Ask more
Treat now, seal later
Legitimate sequencing when there’s an active interior population — you can’t seal animals in. Fine, provided the sealing is scheduled and priced rather than mentioned.
Walk away
Quarterly bait servicing
Stations refilled on a schedule, no survey, no sealing. The population is replaced as fast as it’s removed, indefinitely, at a recurring cost.
The question that reveals everything
Ask: “When a rat takes the bait, where does it die?”
An honest answer is that they die wherever they happen to be, which on a cold night is somewhere warm — a wall void, under insulation, above a ceiling. A company that tells you they leave the building looking for water is repeating a marketing line rather than describing rodent behaviour.
That answer matters practically, because it’s the argument for trapping indoors rather than baiting indoors: you recover the body. And it’s the reason a company that leads with interior bait either hasn’t thought about it or isn’t telling you.
Five questions before you book
You’re listening for whether exclusion is part of the plan or an upsell.
What will you seal, and with what?
Copper mesh, hardware cloth, mortar. If the answer is expanding foam, it isn’t exclusion — rats chew straight through it.
Bait or traps indoors, and why?
Traps recover the body. Bait doesn’t. There are cases for both, but they should be able to say which and why here.
Where do they die?
The honest answer is ‘wherever they are’. Anyone claiming they go outside is quoting a bait advert.
What am I meant to change?
Feeders, bins, compost, woodpiles, ivy. A company that doesn’t raise this is planning to keep visiting.
What happens if they come back?
Return visits included, or a new call-out? For a job that’s supposed to end, that answer matters.
Reading the proposal
Where this stops being a DIY job
Activity inside a wall, ceiling or floor void. Don’t let anyone seal the building while a population is inside it. They die in the cavity, and opening a wall to retrieve one costs more than the whole job.
Contamination in an enclosed space. Droppings and nesting material in a crawl space or loft shouldn’t be dry-swept or vacuumed — there’s a protocol and equipment for it, and it’s the part most worth paying for.
Anticoagulant bait where pets, children or raptors are around. It stays active in the animal that ate it, so a slow poisoned rat is an easy meal for a cat, dog, fox or owl.
Advertising disclosure: calls are routed to an independent local provider. We’re paid a referral fee for the call. You pay the provider, never us.
What a real rat job includes
Surveys
Spends time outside
Ground level and roofline — rats climb. Most of a competent first visit isn’t indoors.
Seals
Names the materials
Mesh, hardware cloth, mortar. Foam alone means it isn’t exclusion.
Ends
Has a finish line
A plan that runs indefinitely by design is a product, not a fix.
Common questions
How much does a rat exterminator cost?
It depends mainly on whether exclusion is included. Bait-only servicing is cheaper per visit and continues indefinitely; survey-and-seal costs more up front and ends.
Do rats leave the house to die after eating bait?
No — treat that as marketing. They die wherever they are, which on a cold night is somewhere warm, usually a wall void.
Should I use traps or bait for rats?
Indoors, traps: you recover the body. Bait has a place in exterior stations, but indoors it leaves you with a decomposing animal you can’t reach.
Why do I still have rats after treatment?
Because the entry point is still open. Treatment without exclusion removes the current population and leaves the vacancy, which is filled within weeks.
Still on a bait contract with no end date?
Clearing food and cover, and sealing what you can reach at ground level, is genuinely yours and it’s the half that lasts. Roofline entry points, an interior population and contamination clean-up are what you should actually be paying for — not stations refilled forever.
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