Need rat removal in your hometown? We service over 500 USA locations! Click here to hire us in your town and check prices - updated for year 2020.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that rats
do indeed chew on wires. And due to this
interesting habit of theirs, they can cause major
damage to a house or place of business – exposed
electrical wires which are near wooden structures
or insulating materials can pose a high fire
hazard, and there are plenty of instances where
that was the cause of a fire. Furthermore, this
habit of theirs can completely destroy appliances
big or small, cause huge material damages, and in
the very least, be a big inconvenience for the
residents of that location. What’s more, there are
a lot of good reasons to handle rat infestations
early on, as most homeowners insurance policies
will not cover damage done by rats, nor will the
state or county take responsibility for what
happens on your property, even though rats are
wild animals and pests.
But why do they like wires, and why do they chew
them? Rats don’t like wires specifically. They
don’t go around finding your electrical wiring and
destroying it on purpose. The reason for their
chewing is an interesting one, actually – they
need to grind their teeth regularly to prevent
them from overgrowing. Yes, rat teeth continually
grow throughout the rat’s lifetime, and they’re
apt at grinding them as not to allow them to
overgrow. Overgrown teeth will prevent them from
feeding, and they’ll actually die of starvation.
For the most part, rats can manage grinding their
teeth with no exterior help, like chewing on any
materials they can come across. It’s when their
teeth suffer from certain medical conditions or
need to maximize the grinding that they actually
target anything around them to chew on.
We can help answer: What property modifications will keep down rodent populations?
Rats view wires as particularly attractive,
because they are usually easy to access, easy to
hold while chewing, and the insulation is neither
too hard, nor too soft as not to have an effect.
Remember that rats can chew through wood,
insulation, plastic, carboard and even concrete –
but all these materials are often found in pretty
dense shapes, so it’s kind of hard for their teeth
to manage to chew them. Wires, especially exposed
ones, make for an easy-to-access nibbling source,
and they’re commonly found all around. Exterior
rats have been found quite often to inhabit parked
cars and focus on chewing on the wires inside the
car. They’ll do the same thing in attics where
wires abound, and behind drywalls where again,
they find a hefty amount of easy-to-reach chewable
wires.
Find out if a pest control company remove a rodent
So, no, rats don’t have a personal feud with you
and your electrical wiring. They chew through most
stuff they find lying around, and the best thing
you can do is find a local wildlife removal
professional, give them a call and have them solve
the rat problem before it gets out of hand and
ends up costing you a pretty penny on repairs.
Alternatively, you can try dealing with the issue
yourself, but be sure that you’re prepared to
properly take on this meticulous and risky task.
For more information, you may want to click on one
of these guides that I wrote:
How much
does rat removal cost? - get the lowdown on
prices.
How
to get rid of rats - my main rat removal
info guide.
Example
rat trapping photographs - get
do-it-yourself ideas.
Rat
job blog - learn from great examples of rat
jobs I've done.