Rats!

[nancerama]

We bought a Victorian semi in October. The survey highlighted major damp but we negotiated a price drop and went ahead with the purchase.

We've now got the builders in and the cause of the damp has been identified and rectified and the builders are now replacing the rotten joists and floors.

Today they have discovered the most enormous heap of rat poo under the dining room floor. What should we do?
Won't we end up with stinking corpses under the new floor if we put poison down? The builders see little point in putting poison down as it's a semi and they think the problem lies next door - they prefer to seal up any holes to stop them getting into our house.

Should I get the rat man in anyway? Council charges £200 a call out, so I'd rather save my money if there really isn't any point, but the thought of them scampering under the floor makes me feel ill.

There's no sign they've made it into our house - no droppings in the house and no nibble marks on any of our belongings or food.

Help! I feel so dirty.

[LilMissSunshine9]

My Mum has rats in the attic in her house - thankfully they are gone and one died in the wall cavity so the room stank for a good few weeks so I can offer some advice... is the poo dried out? This will mean there have been no rats for a fair while if they look fresh then they are about.

If you poison down you do run the risk of them dying under the floor and the stink is unbearable - trust me I had my mum turn off the radiator in the room and keep a window open for weeks but it was nasty nasty nasty.

You need to find how they get into that floor, look to find any hole bigger than a quarter of an inch and seal it up you have to use wire wool or wire wool mesh over the hole as they cannot chew through that - otherwise they can chew through anything, inspect every room and cupboards. Check all the walls on the outside of your house as well to identify any gaps.

Best bait to put down are the wooden snap traps with a bit of peanut butter - make sure they are rat specific the mouse ones will not do, then if they are about and they get caught at least you know where they died!

[millymae]

We have had rats in our garden twice and have had the Council out on both occasions free of charge.Where we live is close to a river and according to the 'rat man' virtually every house in the area has been troubled at one time or another. He was able to work out where they were nesting (under the shed) and the routes they used to get to and from it, and based on this he put down poison in places that would cause the minimum harm to other wildlife and was inaccessible to my dd and left us to get rid of the dead ones if we found them before he returned the next week to remove the bait. His view was that the rat poisons you can buy in the shops are next to useless and that the best thing we could do was to block up their access to the nest (which is what your builders are recommending) and water Jeyes Fluid around the shed every fortnight or so - apparently rats are all but blind and find their way to the nest by smelling the urine they continuously drop. The smell of the Jeyes Fluid disorientates them and they move to somewhere new.

So long as the builders are sure they can block up all access to your under floor area and that you are certain they've not made their way into your home then I'm not sure what more you can do. Based on my experience the rat man would only put poison down and you'd have to wait a certain amount of time to ensure that the dead ones could be removed. As you say you don't want them rotting under your floorboards.

Please don't feel dirty - rats are everywhere nowadays. We became quite fond ours and spent more time than we should watching their cute little noses peeping out from under the shed!!

[nancerama]

The poo is definitely fresh, so they are live and well

I suspect this has been an ongoing problem with the house as a number of little holes have been stuffed with wire wool by the previous owners. We've seen no sign of them in the house though - nothing chewed and no droppings, so they are restricted to below floors. For now...

As it's a semi, the space under the floor is shared with next door and the builders think this is where they are coming from. It's an elderly couple living next door and their house isn't in the best state of repair, so this is very possible and eradicating them on my side is never going to fully solve the problem if they are being attracted next door.

The builders will be laying new floors tomorrow and will make sure there are no gaps or holes. They are good builders and have come highly recommended, so I don't think they would suggest anything dodgy to make their lives easier, but part of me wonders if they're reluctant to get the rat man out in case he ruins their schedule.

I don't know what to do for the best - I don't like the idea of dead rats or live ones under the floor, but once the floor is down it needs to stay down.

[nancerama]

We live close to a river, and there's a main sewer running under our garden. I think ensuring they don't get above the floorboards is the best we can achieve in the circumstances.

I'll get a bottle of Jeyes fluid in for the builders to slosh around tomorrow as they lay the floors too. Thanks for the tip!

[PigletJohn]

rats need constant access to water, so if you had a leak or something that might have attracted them.

Once you have them they are hard to get rid of so I wouldn't rule out baits. If their nest is next door they will probably die at home. You can put baits round the house in pet-proof boxes if you don't want bait under the floor.

unless your house is built on a concrete raft, they will be able to tunnel under the subfloor

As well as filling all visible gaps with sand and cement, verify that all the subfloor airbricks are clean, not clogged with cobwebs and dirt, and not cracked or broken.

If you or your neighbours have a rat table bird table it will attract them with its delicious supply of rat food bird food.

You also need bins with lids, never black bags.

They will take pet food from dishes on the floor, and will come in through the back door to steal it.

[PigletJohn]

p.s.

no doubt you wil have electric cables under the floor. It is quite common for rodents to gnaw the pvc insulation

With extra cost and work, the cables can be put in metal conduit which will defeat them. This is common in industrial work and garages, but some domestic electricians may not be used to doing it.

Plastic conduit is very common but not rat-proof.

[nancerama]

We have no pets, and perfect air bricks as they were all fitted on Friday as part of the building work.

My mum has some good bait (council supplied - she lives on a railway line so has regular visitors to her garden). I may head over to her house tonight and collect it. Maybe I should put some down?

I'm just so disappointed. Getting rid of the damp was supposed to be our big job and discovering all this poo is another project I wasn't ready for.

[LilMissSunshine9]

I would just cover the whole floor with wire wool mesh or if not possible definitely where your property joins your neighbours. What will you do if a rat dies under your floor are you prepared to put up with not using the room for 2-3weeks? You might want to see whether floor boards can be taken up so you can remove any dead ones. I would do whatever you can to cover holes etc. it took my parents 5 months before they went away so I cant see you wanting to put your project off for as long as that.

If you have air bricks can you not put some wire mesh infront of it so that it still lets air through but rats cannot chew through it.

I know pigletjohn said to cover all holes with sand and cement but make sure you use wire wool as well - trust me after having to live at my parents with rats in the attic I did plenty of research in order to find ways to get rid of them and rats will eat through sand, cement, brick etc, they ate plenty of insulation up in my parents attic you think that insulation would kill a rat but oh no they ate it up and made nests within it yuk yuk yuk.

Remove the poo and make sure you bleach that area as rats carry nasty germs, plus rats go where they can smell other rats have been even if it is the smell of their poo.

[nancerama]

Today the builders returned bearing gifts from their pest controller friend.

They have some of that poison that dries out the dead rodents - less stinky apparently. They are making the downstairs of my house rodent proof and they have asked the neighbours if it's ok for them to fill in any holes next door too so that they can't come back. They won't be charging the neighbours anything, so hopefully they'll agree.

Builders finish this week and I can get on with the fun stuff - picking colours and fabrics.