Rat Control and Rat Exterminator Service in Akron

Rat control is a regular call in Akron, and rats can be dealt with. Call, tell us where you're seeing them, and the rat exterminator who comes out on the service visit will find the burrows and the route into the house.

The rat here is the Norway rat, the big brown one people sometimes call a sewer rat. It digs. Burrows show up as fist-sized holes along garage slabs, under concrete steps, beside fence posts and in creek banks. Rats in Akron rarely start inside the house. They start in the yard or the alley and move in when the cold sets in or the food runs short.

If you want to get rid of rats for good, the work has to happen outside as much as in. Trapping the one in the basement doesn't help much if there's a colony under the shed.

Rats in Akron alleys and along the Little Cuyahoga

Older parts of Akron have alleys, detached garages and back fences that have been there since the 1920s. That's a lot of soil against concrete, and a lot of quiet spots behind trash carts. Rats burrow under the garage floor, run the fence line at night and feed on whatever the block leaves out: birdseed under the feeder, a compost pile, dog food on the porch, the tomato patch in August. Calls cluster in places like North Hill backyards and Kenmore's narrow lots, where lots are narrow and garages sit at the back.

Water matters too. Homes near the Little Cuyahoga, Summit Lake and the old canal corridor see rats along the banks, and older sewer lines in poor repair give them another road. Summit County Public Health takes rat complaints, investigates, and can place bait in problem areas when it finds signs of rats. It's worth reporting a block-wide problem to them. For trash and junk piling up on a neighboring property inside the city, Akron's 311 line handles housing and nuisance complaints.

Signs it's a rat and not a mouse

Rats are heavier and bolder than mice, and they leave bigger clues. If you've got two or three of these, you're probably dealing with rats:

• Droppings about the size of a raisin, blunt at the ends
• Round holes two to four inches across by the garage, fence or foundation
• Smooth, packed paths through the grass along a wall
• Gnawed corners on the garage door or the bottom of a shed door
• Heavier thumping in a ceiling or wall, not light scratching
• Dark greasy marks where they squeeze past a beam or pipe
• Dog food or birdseed disappearing overnight

What a rat exterminator does on the first visit

Most rat jobs start outside. The tech walks the lot and counts burrows, follows the runways and checks where the rats are eating and drinking. Then the house: foundation cracks, gaps under the garage door, the space around the sewer cleanout, the hole where the gas line comes in. In older homes with stone basements, the sill line gets a long look.

Treatment usually means locked, tamper-resistant bait stations set along the fence and foundation outside, snap traps inside where kids and pets can't reach, and a plan to close the gaps with hardware cloth, concrete patch and metal flashing. Sealing the openings rats use is the part that keeps it from starting over. If the colony lives under a shed or a detached garage, that building needs work too, which is covered on the garage and shed rodent page.

Expect follow-up visits. Rats are cautious around new objects, and it can take a couple of weeks before they take to the stations. The price comes from the company and depends on how many burrows there are, how much sealing the house and garage need, and how many return trips it takes.

Before anyone gets there

Take the bird feeder down for a few weeks. Put trash in carts with lids that close, and bring the dog's bowl in at night. Don't fill burrows with gasoline or pour poison down the hole. And please don't sweep up rat droppings dry. Put on gloves, spray them with a disinfectant or a bleach and water mix, let them soak, then wipe up with paper towels and bag it.

Not sure what you have? The rat or mouse guide shows how to tell from droppings alone. Then give us a call and describe what you're seeing.

Related: Rodent Exclusion and Sealing, Garage, Shed and Outbuilding Rodents, Basement and Crawl Space Rodents

Serving Highland Square and West Akron, Firestone Park, Goodyear Heights, Kenmore, North Hill, Ellet, Merriman Valley, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Barberton.