Elalmanya BiologyHomes and businessesSame day, any governorate
Rats and mice don't appear out of nowhere. They come in through a gap around a pipe, a floor drain or the space under a door, and as long as that gap stays open, poison kills the ones inside and new ones take their place. So we start with the entry points, then put traps and locked bait stations on their route.
In short
Rat and mice control starts by identifying the species, its route and its way in. We seal the gaps, then place traps or locked, numbered bait stations along its path, away from children and pets. We check every station at each visit, and the inspection decides how many visits the site needs, depending on how far the infestation has spread.
Signs
The clearest sign is droppings, small black pellets along the wall, in cupboards and under the sink. If you find some, clean the spot well and look again the next day. Fresh droppings mean a rodent still uses that route. Their size also tells us whether it's a mouse or a rat, which decides the traps we use and where.
House mouse droppings are 3 to 6 mm long, about the size of a grain of rice. Roof rat droppings are about 1.3 cm, and Norway rat droppings 2 to 2.5 cm. You find them in drawers, behind the fridge and under the kitchen sink, mostly along the wall, because rodents run with their bodies pressed against it.
Torn bags of bread and rice, a chewed edge on a cupboard door. A single tooth mark is 1 to 2 mm wide for a mouse and about 4 mm for a Norway rat. The most dangerous sign is stripped electrical wire, because a chewed cable can short-circuit and start a fire.
Running or scratching in a false ceiling, a storage loft or inside a wall, mostly at night once the house goes quiet. Sounds from above tell us to check the high places first, because roof rats are good climbers and like to nest up there.
A Norway rat takes the same route every day, and its fur leaves dark, greasy smudges on walls, pipes and beams. Those marks show us its exact path, and that is where the traps or bait stations go.
Mice build their nests from paper or fabric torn into small pieces, in an old drawer or behind stacked boxes. In a heavy infestation you notice a heavy, musty smell in the room or storeroom, especially in closed spaces.
Found one of these signs? Take a photo and send it to us, and we will tell you whether it is rats and mice or something else before any visit.
Send the photoIn Egyptian Arabic, one word covers just about anything with a tail that scurries. In practice, three species get into homes and warehouses, and each one needs a different approach:
Which one you have changes the work. With a house mouse we work in a small area around its nest, and the traps go close together. A Norway rat may travel 30 to 150 meters to feed, which means monitoring starts outside the building. A roof rat means sealing the high openings too, not just the ones at floor level.
A house mouse can get through a gap 6 mm wide, about the width of a pencil. A young Norway rat can squeeze under a door with a gap of about 1.3 cm. If you can fit a finger into a crack, a rodent can use it.
The entry points we find most often in Egyptian homes are the gap around the sink or washing machine pipe, a floor drain with a broken or missing cover, the space behind the fridge and the cooker, and the gap under the front door or the air shaft door. Norway rats can also come up through a bathroom floor drain or a broken waste pipe, because they swim through the sewers. Roof rats climb the pipes on the front of the building and the satellite dish cables, then get in through the air shaft window or the air conditioner opening.
Sealing a gap has to be done properly. Coarse steel wool blocks a small gap, but on its own it rusts over time, so we fix it in place with filler or foam. Larger gaps need wire mesh, sheet metal or cement, because rodents gnaw through wood and plastic and widen the hole themselves.
Many people start with poison from the herbalist or glue traps from the supermarket, and that may catch one or two rodents. The trouble is what happens next. Bait takes several days to work, and in that time the rat may die under a wardrobe or above the ceiling and leave a smell nobody can trace. Bait left loose on the floor can also end up in a child’s hand or a cat’s mouth.
A wooden snap trap works well when it is set correctly: flush against the wall, on the rodent’s route, baited with a piece of the food it is actually eating in your home. With Norway rats, leave the trap baited but unset until the rat has eaten from it a few times, so it gets used to the trap before it catches anything. Bait belongs inside a locked station on the rodent’s route, not in the middle of the kitchen. Our guide on how to get rid of mice and rats in the house covers what you can do yourself before a visit.
If you keep finding fresh droppings after you have cleaned, hear sounds in the ceiling on more than one night, or see gnaw marks on electrical wiring, the rodent has settled in and isn’t just passing through. The same goes for any restaurant or food store, because droppings in food make it unfit to eat, and that can ruin an entire stock. Send us a photo of the signs and where you found them on WhatsApp at +201007892200, and we visit the same day in any governorate.
Why it comes back
Poison kills the rodent that eats it, but the gap it came through is still open and the food it came for is still there. A female mouse can breed when she is 5 or 6 weeks old and can give birth 5 to 10 times a year. If the entry point stays open, another rodent soon takes its place.
The number shows how fast some rodents breed in the right conditions. Cutting off food sources and sealing entry points are a core part of any control plan.
Source: UC IPMThe most effective and longest-lasting way to deal with rodents is to stop them getting in at all. Bait lowers the number inside, but as long as there is a gap around a pipe or under a door, rats from the air shaft and the street will find their way in.
A Norway rat notices anything new on its route and keeps away from it, food or trap, sometimes for the first few days. Poison thrown in the middle of the kitchen may be left alone, and a trap removed after one day never had a chance to work. So we set traps on its route and leave them until it gets used to them.
Bait takes several days to work. Often the rat dies somewhere hard to reach, behind a wardrobe or above a false ceiling, and leaves a smell whose source is hard to find. A trap catches it in a known spot you can clear it from.
Treatment
The work follows 5 steps, and the inspection matters most, because it tells us the species, its route and its entry points. Without it, any bait is guesswork. We explain each step before we start it and tell you what to do between visits, so you don't open a new route for the rodents without noticing.
Send a photo of the droppings or gnaw marks, and tell us where you saw the rodent and when you hear it. We also ask about children, cats and dogs in the home, because that decides whether we use traps only or bait stations too, and where they go.
The technician checks behind the fridge and the cooker, under the sink, the floor drains and pipe openings, the air shaft, the balcony and the storage loft. They look for droppings, grease marks and gnawing to work out where the rodent gets in and which way it travels.
We pack small gaps with coarse steel wool and hold it in place with filler or foam. Larger gaps get wire mesh, sheet metal or cement. We focus on the spaces around pipes, under doors and around drains, because Norway rats swim well and can come up through a broken drain.
Traps go flush against the wall where there is activity, no more than about 3 meters apart. Bait goes inside locked, numbered stations, never loose on the floor, in places a child's hand or a cat's mouth can't reach.
At every visit we check each station by its number to see whether bait has been eaten and where fresh droppings have appeared. A station nothing has touched moves to a busier spot, and we make sure every sealed entry point is still sealed.
Ready for the first step? Tell us what you saw.
Safety
Yes. Any rodent bait can harm a child or a cat that reaches it. That's why bait goes inside locked stations, traps stay out of children's reach, and we ask who lives at home before the visit. If a child puts bait in their mouth, call the ambulance on 123 at once; if a pet eats some, see a vet.
Locked stations are built so a small child's hand can't reach the bait inside, and we place them behind appliances and away from where children play. If you think a child has swallowed something, don't wait for symptoms. Call the ambulance on 123 and take the pack or the product name with you.
A cat or dog can be poisoned by eating a dead rodent that had eaten bait, even without touching the bait itself. Remove any dead rodent you find quickly, and tell us on the first call if you have pets, so we can decide where the stations go and which type to use.
Throw away any open food with droppings or gnaw marks near it. Keep bread, rice, sugar and flour in containers with tight lids, cover the trash can, and put the cat's food away at night so the rodents find nothing to eat.
Don't sweep or vacuum droppings. Open the windows for half an hour before you clean, put on gloves, spray the droppings with household disinfectant and leave it for 5 minutes, then pick them up with paper towels and throw them out in a sealed bag. Never pick up a dead rodent with bare hands.
Who it is for
Rats and mice settle anywhere with food and a place to hide, such as a ground-floor apartment, a restaurant or a grain store. What changes is the size of the site, the number of traps and stations, how far around the building we need to monitor, and how the follow-up works after the first visit.
Homes and apartments
In an apartment we start with the floor drain, the gaps around the kitchen and bathroom pipes, and the air shaft and balcony if you live on the ground or first floor. The work centers on the kitchen and a few other spots, and sealing two or three gaps makes a big difference. Send us a photo of the droppings and where you found them, and we'll tell you the next step.
Send details of your homeBusinesses and offices
Restaurants, warehouses, factories and food stores need a program, not a single visit. Stations go around the outside of the building and at the entrances inside, and each one has a number and a fixed spot and is checked at every visit. A Norway rat can travel up to 150 meters to feed, so monitoring starts at the boundary wall, not in the kitchen.
Ask for a business quotePrice
No single price fits every case. An apartment with one infested room is not the same as a whole apartment, and a home is not the same as a business. The cost depends on these four factors, and we explain it in detail before you confirm the booking, with no surprise charges after the visit.
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Coverage
We cover all 27 governorates of Egypt with same-day visits. Send your area and the problem on WhatsApp or call us, and we will set a visit time for your home or business. The groups below show the main cities and districts in each region we reach.
Questions
These are the questions people in Egypt ask most about rats and mice, with answers from our daily work. If yours is not here, type it in the box below. It lands in our WhatsApp, and one of the team replies about your exact situation.
Seal the entry points first, because keeping rodents out is the fix that lasts longest. Then set traps flush against the wall along their route, and add bait in locked stations if the infestation is large. Keep food in tightly closed containers and cover the trash so they find nothing to eat.
Usually it comes down to easy food, a hidden spot close by and an open gap. A house mouse doesn't need to drink water; the moisture in its food is enough. It can live in a cupboard or behind the fridge without ever coming out, and with a steady food supply it breeds all year. The numbers rise fast.
Ultrasonic devices don't work for driving out rats and mice, according to the University of California's pest management program (UC IPM). A rodent may be startled by the sound at first, but it gets used to any sound that repeats. Spend that money on sealing gaps and good traps instead.
No smell has been shown to solve a rodent problem for more than a short time. Peppermint or chili may keep a mouse out of one corner for a while, then it gets used to it and comes back. A rodent that has food and shelter in your home won't leave because of a smell, so the fix is sealing the way in.
We don't recommend any poison by name, and speed isn't what solves the problem. Most rodent baits take several days to work, and Norway rats avoid new food at first. A rat killed by poison may die inside a wall, and the gap it came through stays open for the next one.
Glue traps aren't the best choice. A trapped rodent panics and urinates, which spreads germs, so the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends snap traps instead. If you do use one, put a little of the food the rodent is already eating on it, place it against the wall on its route, and check it every day.
Close the door of the room where you saw it, block the gap under the door with a towel, put away any open food, and don't try to catch it by hand. Then photograph any droppings behind the fridge and under the sink and send the photos to us, so we can tell a mouse from a rat and plan the next step.
Yes. Rodents spread diseases such as leptospirosis and salmonella, and food their droppings fall into is no longer fit to eat. Throw away any food a rodent has been near, and clean droppings with disinfectant instead of sweeping them. If someone at home is bitten by a rodent or falls ill, see a doctor.
