If you've spotted a rat in your home, you're probably understandably upset. It's frightening to have a rat or even multiple rats living in the home for several reasons. Not only do rats often carry diseases with the ability to spread those diseases throughout the home, but they can and might bite, which could cause an individual to suffer from rat bite fever. Because of their ability to cause serious harm in a number of ways, there are many things you'll need to do to get rid of any rats and keep them away from your home.

Use Food Storage Containers

If you have bags of chips, doughnuts, and other snacks inside the cabinets, on your kitchen table, or even on top of your fridge, place those items in food storage containers. Rats can easily chew through the packaging of these products. If they're hungry enough, they'll be sure to eat through just about any food-related items you have. You should even consider placing your bags of bread inside of a bread box to keep rats from being able to access the bread.

Cutting off the supply of food for the rats is one way to start the pest control process, but it's only one of several steps that should be taken.

Get a Trash Can With a Secure Lid

If you're throwing out scraps of food in a trash bag, the rats may be drawn to the scent of those scraps, and that means they might start chewing through your trash to get food. Cut off this supply of food by placing trash bags inside of a trash can with a secure lid so that the rats aren't able to get into the can to get anything that you've thrown away.

Use a Sealant on Holes

In many instances, rats get into homes by shoving themselves through holes. You may have holes near doors, in the basement, and in other areas of the home that you haven't noticed. Now that you know you're dealing with rat, it's a good time to start looking around for any possible holes. If you find some holes, cover them up by placing steel wool inside of the holes and then using a sealant to cover them completely.

Put Out Traps With Bait

Even if you're preventing new rats from getting into the home, you may still have to deal with the rat you saw inside of your home. It's best to put out some traps with bait on them. If you're not sure how to do this or what type of bait to use, let a pest control technician from companies like Southern Greens Pest Control help you. A professional will focus on placing traps in and around the area where you saw the rat. Certain rodenticides may be used to lure the rat to the trap where it would get caught.

It's not safe to live in a home where rats are present. Even if you've only spotted a single rat, there are still risks of diseases being spread. If you want to get rid of the rat, start by eliminating its food supply using food storage containers and trash cans with secure lids. Seal any holes you can find and contact a pest control company to help you set the traps up.