There's a rat in my kitchen what am I gonna do!

[swizzlestix]

He's ran under the cooker and sounds like he's scrabbling up the back of it as I can hear climbing on metal.
It's a built in cooker so he can't get out the top and I've blocked off the bottom of the cooker where he ran in.
Don't know what to do now, kids in bed and we've got a day out booked for today.

Aaarghhh [runs and hides]

If it were me, I would forget the day out and get pest control in straightaway.

Burn the house down. It’s the only solution. 😱😱😱

Pest control and start checking outside walls for holes and filling everything in. We found that there was a hole in our floor under a kitchen cupboard that Roland came up through then could get behind all the cupboards in the kitchen.
Check the loft as well , they like lofts the horrible c.f..

I'd sing. Loudly.

Leave him there today and pick up a trap or some bait and put it down tonight?

My fear would be (and was when we had a mouse) that it would die somewhere inaccessible and then rot and smell and attract flies (I don't know whether it would - was too scared to find out!). I'd leave it with food and water then deal with it after your day out, either yourself or with pest control.

Look up your local pest control company.

You won’t just have a rat. They’re sociable little fuckers.

That's my worry too Jessica. I'll go to the hardware store and get some advice, I don't want a rotting rat behind one of the kitchen units, it's quite unsettling!
Can't cancel the day out, well really don't want to as the kids have been looking forward to it all week and they don't know about the rat yet!! It sounds big! My husband saw it when he got up early but I've only heard him so far!

That's true, there's prob a whole gang of them

Our cats brought a rat in (yeah, I know, they hadn't read the cat manual) which escaped and ran behind the cooker and refused to come out. We bought a humane rat trap and stuck a square of chocolate in it (on vets advice, rather than cheese) and it was in the trap by morning.

Cutesy what did you do with it then? I just read it's illegal to release a rat, don't know what to do!

My grandad was also a firm believer in chocolate for catching rats and mice. However he would not have been a firm believer in a humane trap. Is that really humane anyway? I'm sure the rat would be absolutely terrified of being handled by a human when it was in the humane trap.

Yeah good point.
He's just tripped the electrics by doing something behind the cooker, prob biting the cables ( god knows what damage is like behind there) and I heard a sudden high pitched squeak so may have got an electric shock, I darent look under cooker now to see!

I don't know about about any law forbidding releasing rats (we were living in Spain) so can't comment on that. We took it to the bottom of our land and released it.

@greencat (love the name) it is far more humane as it doesn't kill whatever you catch in it. You don't need to handle it at all.

Lots of people would prefer to kill them, we didn't want to.

You need pest control. You can usually book them.in online with your local authority. Then go out for the day as planned. I have had 2 rats in my kitchen over the years. We are all still alive. The one time we tried to do it ourselves it was horrible. Get a professional.

Ah shit. Yep, he's probably dead and your wiring is now fucked

You need to get rid. He could ruin your whole kitchen electrics

I actually know a guy who had a brand new car and left a chicken burger that he'd bought for lunch on the seats while he went to work (by accident) when he came out of work that day, the car would not work, he brought it to a mechanic and the rats were after biting through the wires/engine to get to the food!

Oh god!! You're right I know!
It's still alive I can hear scratching about.

We had many rats in the garden last year, got a trap from amazon, baited it with peanut butter and chocolate, worked well. If you can’t get someone out today get a trap from b and q and set it up. Close kitchen door, leave place quiet.