Rats Go Wild for the Dumpsters in Sayreville, NJ Community
Challenge
Recently, I was sent to a new Cowleys account, a residential community in Sayreville, NJ, for which we will be handling all of their pest control needs. The community’s property manager had contacted me after some recent complaints about a heavy rat infestation around both dumpster corrals on the property. For obvious reasons, the property manager was quite concerned, and I went out immediately to inspect and start resolving the infestation. I’m always concerned about rat infestations around properties as we enter into fall. As temperatures drop, rodents overwinter inside homes and other structures to escape the hasty outdoor elements. Mice and rats don’t have the fat reserves or ability to hibernate to survive unprotected outdoors, and actively search for warmth and shelter for their survival. Attractants that are encouraging rodents to enter your property must be identified and removed. This is an essential step in any rodent prevention program.
Solution
Upon arrival, I inspected the dumpster corrals. It was obvious that they were a ready source of food and provided harborage for rodents. Unfortunately, in residential community settings that use dumpsters for its residence to hold trash between pick-ups, these areas are prone to insect and rodent infestations. Here, the dumpsters were easily accessible to rodents, and the food debris in the trash provided a steady, dependable source of food and moisture. Even worse, as often happens, the dumpsters were backed up to wooded areas. No one likes looking at dumpsters so they tend to be located in perimeter locations that are often adjacent to wooded areas. This gives rodents an ideal living situation. They can build expansive burrows nearby a never-ending food supply. No wonder this community had an expanding rat population — the condition and set-up of these dumpsters were rodent Shangri-La!
