I have just spoken to a Service Master client with a very common problem and thought you may be interested in case this ever happens to you. She was about to leave home for work and her car wouldn’t start. She opened the bonnet only to discover that overnight rats had chewed through her car’s wiring! So, late for work again, we all know how that feels and now she faces an auto electrician’s bill for thousands. Her car was parked safely inside the garage or so she thought. Hmmm. There are several reasons why rats would do this:
- Modern cars’ wiring is coated with a biodegradable, soy based insulation. Fantastic for the environment as it won’t last forever in landfills, like older plastic wiring, but even more fantastic for hungry rats and mice in your garage. They are literally drawn to it.
- Rats’ front teeth never stop growing, so they chew on hard substances to constantly wear their incisors down and keep them short.
So what can you do? I told her the best thing (until we could get a technician out to her), was to leave her car’s bonnet open when parked at night, and to leave the light on inside the garage. Rats are nocturnal and love a dark enclosed environment – and just think how nice and warm a car’s engine is when parked in the garage after that long drive home. My other advice to her was to pick up her dog’s bowl overnight. She was putting the dog food out in the evening and picking up the half finished dog food bowl in the morning which is literally a Mc’Donald’s walk-through for rats! Also keep any stored pet food, wild bird seed, refuse etc in completely sealed containers. Basically remove any potential food source for rats. Our technician will visit her tomorrow to inspect and place rodenticide safely in strategic places inside her garage. We will give her more advice specifically related to her home and environment after seeing the premises. And then we will follow up again after 2 weeks to check and re-bait, and will even give her a written guarantee to the area treated. You can visit our website at https://servicemaster.co.za/general-pests/rats-mice for more interesting information on safe rodent control in your work or home environment, or contact me anytime you need a free quotation or just some friendly advice…I hope this information is interesting to you – keep it in mind should you ever have a similar problem – at least you will know what to do. Kind Regards
Susan Garbutt
Service Department
0861 22 22 44
customercare@servicemaster.co.za
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