Roof Rats: How You Can Keep Them off Your Home

It can be a little nerve-racking when you hear something moving around or skittering across your roof. In most cases, it's a critter of some kind that's found its way up there. One potential critter that could be causing all that fuss and possible damage to your home is a roof rat.

What is a Roof Rat?

The roof rat is your typical long-tailed rat that's also often called a black rat or ship rat. They typically have soft, smooth brown fur with white spots, and they're omnivores. These rodents often find sanctuary in high places, where they'll gnaw the roofing material and invade food stores. These rats can also be a vector for disease.

How Do Roof Rats Gain Access to Your Roof?

Roof rats have a couple of ways of scampering onto your roof. If your home sits close to a power line, they can climb up utility poles and scurry across power lines, easily gaining access to your roof. Roof rats can also drop onto your roof from nearby tree branches.

Ways to Prevent Roof Rats

With their ability to cause a lot of high dollar damage, you’ll want to stop these pests from getting onto your roof. A few ways to prevent them from gaining access to your roof include:

• Trim tree limbs - You can hire a landscaping company or trim back the tree branches yourself. Trimming tree limbs can also keep your roof safe from damage during a storm.
• Install Critter Guard’s Line Guard and Pole Guard Systems – Our Line Guard and Pole Guard products are designed to keep roof rats from gaining access to your roof through utility poles and power lines.
• Set traps - If you already have roof rats, you can set traps to catch and remove them.

At Critter Guard, we understand how unsettling it is to have rats on your roof, knowing the prospect of damage to your home is significant. For more information about our products and how they can keep your roof protected, contact us today!