Why are rats unhealthy and dangerous? Rats and mice are pests that eat our food and destroy our clothes. They gnaw holes on cabinets and wood.

You can usually tell if you have rodents if:
- You see gnaw marks. Rodents gnaw on wood, both to get around the inside of your house and to sharpen their teeth.
- You see urine and/or droppings. Fresh droppings are soft and moist whereas old droppings, dried and hard. Rodents tend to have toilet areas; little corners of your happy home where they prefer to take a load off. They also void their bladders while running, leaving streaks of urine, which glow under ultraviolet lights.
- You see footprints. If these creatures walked through mud before crawling across your floor, or counter, there may be such evidence. The front footprint is 4-toed and the longer hind print will have 5 toes.
- You see damaged goods. Fruits, cereals, meats in your home with gnaw marks on them, or maybe half a slice of pizza where there was a whole slice before.
- You hear little footsteps. Gnawing behind the walls, and a quiet rustling about the house.

How do you get rid of them? If your infestation is intense enough to warrant mass poisoning, then call an exterminator. We must reiterate, it's a BAD idea to try to use rat poison on your own; a pet could eat the poison (or the dead poisoned rat). However, there are some ways to get rid of rodents without resorting to rat poison:
1. Keep all your food sealed. Most pests are simply looking for a meal. So don't be a slob, clean up spills, and try not to keep foods (such as bananas) just sitting on the countertop.
2. Glue traps are popular nowadays. They're pieces of cardboard or wood coated with very sticky glue. When rodents are trapped there, their fur, legs, and muscles become stuck to the board, and they usually suffocate to death. But these don't work on big rats and big and small rats can learn from the mistakes of others who have fallen for the same trap. In the long run, any kind of mousetrap won't work once every rat is forewarned of the danger.
3. Get some predators. Cats can be used to control a home infestation. Cats will instinctively attack rodents but your problem now would be how to keep your cat from breaking ceramics when he chases rats.
4. Patch up all holes and small openings in the house. Keep food, like rice in cans. Small bits of food and crumbs attract them. These should be swept away. Use rattraps to get rid of rats. A good cat helps to drive rats and mice away.