Last week, after I picked up a friend from the airport, I notice some bites around my waist line that I originally though was mosquito bites. Then a day later my wife and my mother in law had them too, and they started to look like ticks, mites, bed bugs. We wash all the clothes and sheets, wipe down the chairs, vacuum the carpets, and put cushions under the sun. We no longer find cluster of 10 bites anymore, but we still find 2 or 3 bites a day.
Yesterday in the living room, I notice the normal scratching sound in my 1/F ceiling in the 2 story house, then some dripping sound on my couch. I notice some liquid dropped from my air duct vent, and suddenly my wife and I freaked out because we realize what we have in between the floor is really a rodent.
When we first got this house we notice some rat dropping in the attic. We though it is common and most home have it, so we just leave it alone. Then once in a while (every couple of years or so) we would notice dead rat smell somewhere in the garage, and we also leave it.
I called a rodent exclusion contractor to come take a look and he found quite a few entry point into the attic, garage, and exterior walls. He said that most likely what bit us were rodent mites and recommend also to change the attic cellulose insulation due to the amount of rat droppings and likely nests.
The cost is $850 to seal up all the entry points (1 year warranty) and $2350 to replace about 850 sqft of insulation (vacuum and replace with R34). The reason he wants us to replace the insulation is the food in the current nest can last the rat up to 6 months and the process of cleaning will scare them out of their nests. However he claims that he couldn't do anything about what's in between floor as there's no way to access it without tearing out a huge part of the house.
I live in moderate climate and hardly turn on the AC / heater and even if I do the utility bill never goes above $200 (usually $80 when we do turn on heater / AC). From the perspective of getting rid of the rats (and the possibility that our bites were from the rat mites), should I really replace the insulation?
Yesterday in the living room, I notice the normal scratching sound in my 1/F ceiling in the 2 story house, then some dripping sound on my couch. I notice some liquid dropped from my air duct vent, and suddenly my wife and I freaked out because we realize what we have in between the floor is really a rodent.
When we first got this house we notice some rat dropping in the attic. We though it is common and most home have it, so we just leave it alone. Then once in a while (every couple of years or so) we would notice dead rat smell somewhere in the garage, and we also leave it.
I called a rodent exclusion contractor to come take a look and he found quite a few entry point into the attic, garage, and exterior walls. He said that most likely what bit us were rodent mites and recommend also to change the attic cellulose insulation due to the amount of rat droppings and likely nests.
The cost is $850 to seal up all the entry points (1 year warranty) and $2350 to replace about 850 sqft of insulation (vacuum and replace with R34). The reason he wants us to replace the insulation is the food in the current nest can last the rat up to 6 months and the process of cleaning will scare them out of their nests. However he claims that he couldn't do anything about what's in between floor as there's no way to access it without tearing out a huge part of the house.
I live in moderate climate and hardly turn on the AC / heater and even if I do the utility bill never goes above $200 (usually $80 when we do turn on heater / AC). From the perspective of getting rid of the rats (and the possibility that our bites were from the rat mites), should I really replace the insulation?
