If your last pest control company put bait stations around the building and called it done, you probably still have rats. Here's why bait alone doesn't hold in San Francisco — and what real rodent control looks like.
Bait kills rats — it doesn't seal the building
Exterior bait stations kill rats that take the bait. They don't address the gap in the foundation, the unsealed gas penetration, or the rusted vent screen those rats used to get to your building in the first place. As long as the entry points stay open, new rats from the next building over move right in.
In San Francisco that next building is usually 18 inches away. Bait alone is a treadmill.
Dead rats in walls are a real problem
Rodenticide doesn't kill instantly. The rat takes the bait outside, makes it back to the warmest, safest spot it knows — usually the wall cavity behind your kitchen — and dies there. The smell lasts two to four weeks and there's no clean way to remove the body without opening the wall.
We use snap traps placed on active travel paths instead. That allows the rat to be removed directly rather than left inside a wall.
Restaurants and apartment buildings need the building closed
Health inspectors don't want to see a row of bait boxes around the perimeter. They want to see that you've identified entry points and sealed them. Real commercial rodent control in SF is trapping plus exclusion — bait stations are at most a small piece of the program, never the whole thing.
Need rat control in San Francisco?
Call or text and we'll handle it the right way.