The process
From the first call to the final check. Six steps, in this order, because the order is what makes the result hold.
Rat control goes wrong in two predictable ways. Someone traps without sealing, so the building keeps refilling from outside. Or someone seals without trapping, so the rats already inside are shut in with your wiring. The sequence below avoids both.
You describe what you are hearing and where. Overhead after dark points to roof rats in the attic. Under a raised floor points to Norway rats in the pier space. Scratching in a kitchen cabinet is often mice. That first detail shapes what gets inspected first, so be as specific as you can about the time of night and the room.
An experienced local exterminator walks the building inside and out. Attic, pier space or slab perimeter, kitchen, laundry and water heater closet, then the full exterior and roofline. They identify the species from droppings and damage, map the entry points and the runways, and check what has already been chewed. You get the findings and the price before anything starts, with no obligation.
Traps go on the active runways, tight against walls, along rafters and top plates, on joists under the house and behind appliances. Placement is most of the job, because rats travel with a surface against their flank and avoid open floor. Tamper-resistant exterior bait stations may be used outside where the situation calls for it.
Openings get closed with materials rats cannot chew: galvanized hardware cloth over vents and open pier bays, sheet metal at soffit and fascia joints, copper mesh packed into pipe penetrations. Climbing routes get cut back too, which in New Orleans usually means limbs off the roof and vines off the walls.
Droppings, nesting material and contaminated insulation come out, handled with protective equipment and a HEPA-filtered vacuum. Surfaces get treated to break up the scent trail, because the smell rats leave behind is what draws the next ones to the same space.
Traps get checked and reset, and the catch count tells you whether the population is clearing. A run of empty traps on live runways is the result you want. A new catch after a quiet stretch usually means one more opening nobody has found, and it gets sealed.
Why the order matters
Close the gaps while rats are still inside and you have not solved anything. You have removed their exit, left them with your insulation and your wiring, and guaranteed that some of them die in a wall void.
The same logic runs the other way. Trapping an attic clean and leaving the soffit open buys you a few quiet weeks. In a city with no winter die-off, the outdoor population does not shrink while you wait, so the next rat finds the same opening and the cycle restarts. Inspection, then trapping, then sealing, then cleanup. That is the whole reason the work is priced as a job rather than a visit.
Questions we get
More than one. Trapping typically runs over one to three weeks with return visits to check and reset, depending on how many rats are in the building. A light problem caught early can close out faster. Sealing the entry points is what stops it repeating.
Someone needs to let the technician into the attic, the pier space and the rooms where you have heard activity, so yes for the inspection at least. Exterior sealing work can often be done without you there.
The inspection tells you. Squirrels, birds and raccoons all make attic noise, and they need completely different handling. You want that identified at the inspection rather than after two weeks of rat traps.
Trapping and exclusion work happen in the attic, the pier space and around the outside of the building. If any rodenticide is used, it goes in tamper-resistant stations and the technician will tell you exactly where it is and how to keep pets and children clear of it.
Talk to someone about it
Describe what you are hearing and where you are hearing it. You get upfront pricing and no obligation before any work starts.
504-395-3296Help available day or night. Serving New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, Chalmette and the surrounding parishes.