Rat Control in the Garden District, New Orleans

The Garden District has the grandest housing stock in the city and some of the most complicated rooflines. Double galleries, deep eaves, dormers, rear additions and carriage houses give a roof rat far more junctions to test than a simple gable would, and the mature gardens put it within reach of all of them.

Complex rooflines, more places to fail

Every place two roof planes meet, or a roof meets a wall, or a dormer sits into a slope, is a joint that can open up. On a big Garden District house there are a lot of them, plus the gallery roofs that give a rat a staged climb up the front of the building.

Old houses also move. A century and a half of heat, damp and settling separates soffit boards from fascia and opens gaps behind flashing that were tight when they were built. A roof rat only needs one of them.

The gardens are part of the problem

Live oaks and magnolias with limbs over the roof. Banana clumps, palms and heavy shrubs against the walls. Ivy and jasmine climbing the brick. Fruit on the ground. Bird feeders. Every one of them either feeds rats or carries them up to the building.

Trimming back is the highest-value thing an owner can do here, and it is worth doing thoughtfully. Cutting the limbs that touch the roof and clearing the growth that touches the walls closes most of the routes without changing the look of the garden.

Care with historic buildings

Exclusion on a historic house has to be done so it holds and so it does not look like a patch job. That means metal and hardware cloth fitted neatly and color-matched where it shows, not expanding foam smeared across a soffit. Work on the roofline gets done with the age and finish of the building in mind.

Carriage houses, outbuildings and the slow start

Rat problems on large Garden District lots often begin away from the main house. A carriage house, a garden store, a pool house or a garage gets occupied first, because it is quiet, undisturbed and often has softer construction than the main building.

From there it is a short move. A structure twenty feet from the house with a rat population in it is a permanent supply, and the animals will test the main building nightly. Any serious inspection here covers the outbuildings, not just the house.

Stored material makes it worse. Boxes, lumber, garden furniture and old furniture stacked against a wall provide exactly the cover a rat wants. Lifting storage off the floor and away from the walls is one of the cheapest improvements available on a property like this.

What the work covers in Garden District

The service is the same wherever you are in the metro, and the emphasis shifts with the building. On a raised house it leans toward the pier space and the floor penetrations. On a slab house it leans toward the slab edge, the garage door and the roofline. Either way it starts with an inspection and ends with the building sealed.

• Rat Removal: Trapping and removal for an active rat problem, from the first inspection through the last check of the traps.
• Rat Prevention & Exclusion: Sealing the gaps rats use to get in, from the roofline down to the pier space, so the problem does not repeat.
• Infestation Treatment: A full plan for an established infestation: heavy trapping, sealing, sanitation and follow-up until the building is quiet.
• Roof Rat Control: The climbing rat that gets into New Orleans attics from tree limbs, palms and power lines. Handled from the roofline down.
• Rat Inspection: Finding the species, the entry points and the runways, so the work that follows is aimed at the right places.
• Rat Trapping: Traps placed where rats actually travel, then checked and reset on a schedule until the building goes quiet.

Get a rat problem in Garden District looked at

Call 504-395-3296 and describe what you are hearing and where you are hearing it. Overhead after dark points one way, under the floor points another, and that changes what gets inspected first. You get upfront pricing and no obligation before any work starts.