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Original poster

Can rats climb in through an open window?

22 replies

AmIAStone · 08/04/2020 14:18

So say a standard window with the top 2ft opening out, so maybe 5ft off the ground. Can a rat climb up a wall and come in?
We have a brazen large brown rat that thinks nothing of coming into the garden when you are there and wondering if we have to keep the windows shut now on the ground floor?

OP posts:
Aquamarine1029 · 08/04/2020 14:20

I wouldn't say it's impossible. Rats can pretty much get to wherever they want to. I would be "taking care" of this rat, asap

Raffathebear · 08/04/2020 14:26

Yes they are great climbers and swimmers

handslikecowstits · 08/04/2020 14:26

Yes they can. They're gutsy little bastards. They'll go anywhere they like.

ALongHardWinter · 08/04/2020 16:22

In my experience,rats can get in almost anywhere! I have witnessed them squeezing through a gap that could not have been more than the size of a 10 pence piece.
About 15 years ago,a rat somehow got in behind the panel on our bath. The first we knew of it was a revolting smell. It had died and been in for a week or so. We lived in a second floor flat,so heaven knows how it got in there from the outside. I know it MUST have got in from outside,not the inside,as we had a cat who was a very efficient rat and mouse killer,and I'm certain it wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes if it had been running around the flat!

JasonPollack · 08/04/2020 16:24

Ew yes I think they probably can.

Hit the fecker with a spade.

JasonPollack · 08/04/2020 16:24

Or snap trap off Amazon?

CuriousaboutSamphire · 08/04/2020 16:25

They could, but would prefer to climb up inside something, like a pipe, less exposed.

Chickoletta · 08/04/2020 16:25

Absolutely. And I very much doubt that you’ve got one rat...!

Original poster
AmIAStone · 08/04/2020 17:33

Oh we know there were 2 at one point. We live in an areas where we are only allowed to put out black bin bags for collection, no bins, so the little fuckers think they are in heaven.

Didn’t want to get a plain trap incase it went off and died/got eaten by a neighbours cat. But think will have to get a snap trap. Didn’t want to kill any “cute” mice. But this thing was brazen. Although quite impressive to watch at the same time.

OP posts:
Original poster
AmIAStone · 08/04/2020 17:39

Am reading about the rat posing boxes and they are designed so hedgehogs/birds/squirrels can’t get in them. But would other animals eating the dead rats also die? Like other people’s cats/dogs if they died in the garden? Or would they die quicker in the bait box?

OP posts:
SweetPetrichor · 08/04/2020 17:45

Yep, they definitely could. We had a mouse come in our open bedroom window while I was lying in bed reading a book...and we live in a second floor flat. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it unfold in front of me!

istheresomethingwrongwithme · 08/04/2020 18:17

Absolutely. We had one in the cupboard under the sink for weeks and the only thing that worked was those sticky pads (a bit like fly paper but more industrial). Then DH 'took care of it'.

Original poster
AmIAStone · 08/04/2020 19:01

Rat posing box? Rat poison box!

@SweetPetrichor bloody hell! Do you have a balcony/drain pipe or did it scale a brick wall?

OP posts:
Spam88 · 08/04/2020 19:17

I lived in a student house where rats had dug up through the ground into the space under the kitchen cupboards 😐

Rustyigloo · 08/04/2020 20:28

Rats can jump at least 6ft......
They can also survive pretty much anywhere apart from the arctic circle.

They used to survive on ships by licking the oil off ropes.
Amazing, grubby little things.

Thescrewinthetuna · 08/04/2020 20:30

They’re as hard as nails, they can climb anything

dudsville · 08/04/2020 20:33

They don't like change, as opposed to mice who are very flexible. If you can find their habitat you can move them on by shifting that environment. And yes they can easily climb in to your ho.

SweetPetrichor · 09/04/2020 09:34

@AmIAStone No balcony, no drainpipe...it just came straight up the brick wall!

Original poster
AmIAStone · 09/04/2020 11:09

I may never open the windows again! But the neighbour are happily sitting with their back doors open, maybe they all have cats??

OP posts:
Snaga · 09/04/2020 11:43

Not only can they get in anywhere, but now one of their major food sources...bins from restaurants and takeaways has almost vanished so they'll be foraging elsewhere for food. Now is the perfect time to be a terrier owner!

cosmo30 · 09/04/2020 11:49

I used to live in a flat that was already on raised ground, so the window must have been 20-30ft high. Woke one morning to find the utility room (which window had been left open overnight) trashed, bin upside down and rubbish all over the place, the wooden window frame had been chewed down to absolutely nothing! Still don't know to this day it if was a rat or squirrel! If it was a rat it did a major climb!

Meckity1 · 09/04/2020 11:51

I have those plug in things. Neighbours have been overrrun with rats at times, but it's kept them out of our house so far. (Please let that continue).

Be warned, if you plug them in with the vermin in the house, they don't leave, they just go loopy.

And a rat will easily get into a window.

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