RATS!!!!! Help!!!

I wouldn’t want an excruciating death for any little animal, pest or not. Our rat man put vents in all the drains on our driveway to stop them swimming into the house. Never had one since.

Thank you so much - I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Just awful. Pleased you’re not in this nightmare anymore.

Hi op- sorry to hear you went through this. I’m in the same boat - they are in my walls. I can’t sleep and I’m so anxious. What did you find to get rid of them?

I'm so sorry OP. This is my worst nightmare and I can totally get why it has upset your fresh start. You have great advice here so just popping along to give a virtual hug and tell you you're doing amazingly. This shall pass

We've lived in this house for 30 years, it's a barn conversion close to fields and we've had rats in the roof on and off forever. It got much worse a couple of years ago and my pest control guy is on speedial.

In the last year he has put poison in the roof. That got rid of a lot.
Two way valve things in drains
Filled holes in the 300 year old walls
Put metal discs along the gutter.
I have blink cameras in my roof and rat traps so if one comes in the pest man will come out same day and get it.
So far it's cost over £1000 and we are not yet sure we are clear. No sign for 4 weeks now.

I know how you feel. DH is sanguine about it but I hate it and woukld cheerfully move house.

Was the flexible hose boxed in or was it visible to you without opening anything up?

@SarahR71

Pest control and we filled all the holes and covered vents. I tried humane traps first (in the loft) which they avoided. Then a bait box but they ignored the poison blocks even when I covered them in peanut butter. You have to find how they are getting in and block if possible which will be difficult with shared walls.

How did you deal with the rats? Our rats were/are in the wall now. I was just in the bathroom and can’t tell if my neighbour is very busy in her bathroom (lots of quick noises coming from that direction) or if there’s something in the walls…

I feel your pain OP, I haven’t had rats (touch wood think they live in the farm barns along the road so hopefully will stay away) but we do get weird mice things or voles not sure what they are but they aren’t house mice, we get them every year only ever in the bathroom and for the first time this year under the floorboards upstairs. I have a peanut butter baited snap trap in the bathroom which is very good at getting rid and had to put poison through the floorboard cracks as couldn’t access otherwise. I think they’ve gone for now and hopefully you will get sorted too

When my Mum had rats, they'd nibbled from a flexible hose attached to toilet.

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Before the entry point for outs was spotted then sealed we had a few days of intense activity in the loft for several nights. Like a pp said at times it sounded like a person up there lopping around. There were definitely some big guys up there.

I woke up one night to hear one of the fuckers gnawing on a flexi pipe that goes from our shower extractor. And it's a very echoey room. The noise was something like a home invasion movie.

> shudders <

OP if you happen to be in or edges of the east mids I can recommend and a very very good PC/drain specialist. He makes it his absolute mission to solve the problem, humanely wherever possible. The stuff he knows is almost scary

@GasPanic absolutely and love that interaction description!

We are looking to get a dog this year and I have been admiring Manchester Terriers for a few years but since our loft visitors my decision has definitely been made.

We had a rat last year that was coming in through the gap between the wall and pipes in the bathroom.
He was caught before we even had a chance to plug the holes.
Mice I can deal with, rats i want nowhere near me thank you!

When my Mum had rats, they'd nibbled from a flexible hose attached to toilet.

If you've purchased your house, solicitor may have sent you a map (if they were given one) which shows the location of drainage between properties and mains water supply in the road. If you've got one, that may help.

Try not to panic, I'm sure it can be sorted. If you can't locate the drainage pipes leading to your property, ask you're neighbours if they've got any drain covers - and which way they flow, that'll give you an idea of roughly where they travel on your boundary at least. My Mum had some kind of trap put in her drains, lets water flow through, but stops things like rats and flood water coming into the house.

We have a cat that is a ratter (not all cats are) and it made no difference when we had rats as it couldn't get at them (in the walls). But do get a cat if you want one!

There is also a good chance that a well fed dog or cat will take one look at it and think don't fancy taking that on that skanky looking thing with massive teeth when my dinner is up in an hour or so.

Some breeds have really strong prey drives though.

Get a rescue cat that's known as a hunter. (Obviously only if you like cats, and after the poison is gone.) They will never come back.

@SarahR71 aww man that sounds really hard to be dealing with.

The cat/dog deterrent thing ... agree it's not always the case especially when food for rats is scarce. They are opportunistic and if hungry will absolutely take a chance even if a cat or dog could be near.

A drain and pest control chap we had said that modern day dog food is often full of such good stuff that when the dog then pops it out rats will often eat it for the high protein it contains as apparently it helps their liver recover from a mild dose of poison. Fascinating and disgusting

First of all, congratulations on your fresh start. This is a bump in the road and I promise you shall pass. Maybe keep the champagne on ice a wee bit longer ..,

We discovered we had the fuckers in our cavity wall just after Christmas and I won't lie, it's a slow process getting rid of them but you will.

Sorry not RTFT but are you renting/buying? Because unless the property has been empty a long while I finding odd that rats are suddenly just there? If you are renting I would speak to the LL.

Get a good drain specialist as soon as you can as they will be able to locate them and will be able to survey your drains pretty quickly. Meantime I'd want to double check ground level perimeter of the house and be absolutely sure the entry point hasn't been missed. Look for runs close to the wall as they are creatures of habit and will use the same routes where possible.

Remove any food and water sorrce and get rid of all clutter so they have less places to hide.

I'm not going to say much about our issue as the details and various fuck ups by out dirty lying neighbour will be outing. We're not yet rid of the problem completely as he has not properly eliminated a food source or filled a hole in his kitchen meaning I suspect the rat still has din dins each evening. Rat is however holed in now so we're hoping he takes bait, ingests poison and dies asap as I want to get the smell and flies part over with before weather gets warmer

Sending a very un MN hug for a temporary yet horrible situation

They want to get under the kitchen cupboards (I don’t think it’s physically possible) and put metal stuff around the soil pipe (it’s in a stack) and generally proof under there. Proof bathrooms stacks and garage. They also mentioned other stuff (radiator connectors, doing stuff outside the house). They want to put one way valves in multiple chambers (ones that don’t belong to us). We don’t have an inspection chamber at the back of the house.
Even after all that because there are five structurally interconnected terraced houses with a common subfloor they said they might still need to do some other work after that.
It would take a massive toll financially and mentally (I have health issues and allergies which would make it difficult)

I think rats are everywhere. You just can't see them most of the time.

I have a trap in the garden I bait with peanut butter. It doesn't catch one very often but helps keep the local numbers down.

In clearing the rat from the trap you will have to get close to it and therefore shed your fear of it.

Aww bless you, this is all you need and can totally understand why you are broken by this, this is meant to be your new safe haven after 2 years of misery.

I had mice recently in my attic and was down to the eaves not being done properly and birds had been getting in which attracted the mice. If you can hear them in the attic, make sure you get some poison blocks and rat traps.

My pest control came back every week but I think its because one got into the kitchen (kitchen is upstairs near attic) so I made sure all holes behind cupboards were filled (only need size of your thumb to get in). After lots of poison and traps and eaves being done I haven't heard them again.

I live quite rural so again depending on the area you live it's hard to suggest how they are getting in. Maybe your neighbours attract them with rubbish or leaving food out. Do you have a joining attic?