Keeping your Plumbing in good shape is essential for proper Rat Prevention. Rats can often enter homes and business’s through the plumbing system. This is typically done in 3 possible scenarios. First, if the home is older (pre 1970 construction), the home probably has cast iron plumbing. This kind of plumbing can rot or rust out and break down over time. Rats can then squeeze through the breaks in the pipes to enter wall voids, attics, and crawlspaces throughout the home. Second, if the home ever had a kitchen, bathroom, or utility room remodeled; the plumbing work could have been done incorrectly. This typically occurs when a “T” coupler is used to extend or connect 2 different pipes in the wall or under the home. A cap or vent is typically installed on the 3rd side of the “T” that is not being used. Sometimes the cap or vent is not installed at all. Rats can then enter the wall void, crawlspace, or attic. Rodents can push the cap or vent off if it is installed improperly.

Third, if the home sits vacant for extended periods of time throughout the year, the toilet bowls can often dry up as a result of evaporation. Rodents can then enter the home’s living space by coming up through the plumbing system and into the toilet bowl itself. When this occurs, the toilet seat, lid, and bowl is often stained with grease trails from the rodents rubbing their bodies against the toilet seat and lid to escape into the bathroom. All three of the above situations can also occur from rodents accessing the city sewer system and coming up through the main drain pipe.

These plumbing stacks are being used by rats to enter the home’s plumbing system. The visible scratch marks inside the plumbing stack illustrate this. Rat Prevention for Plumbing systems is vital to a rat free building.