Rodent infestation, HELP!

[SoftKittyWarmKittyPurrPurr]

I'm extremely fed up and in tears. We moved into a council house in June and it's been a nightmare ever since. My children have seen mice, I've found constant mice droppings and now very large rat droppings too! I'm disabled and this isn't helping me at all.

The noise in the loft keeps waking me up at night. I've had an private independent pest control company who have excellent reviews come out and also recently my local council pest control (their wait time was 6 weeks so I ended up calling the independent one). They've both put bait down but it's not being eaten! Well the loft one was and for about 3 weeks I heard no activity up there but the last few days it's resumed.

I just stepped on a rat dropping (cur crying) in my hallway below the loft door and I'm in tears. What should have been a wonderful start in our new home has instead been a nightmare. I just called my independent pest control guy in tears and he's coming round in the morning!

I feel like I'm cursed, I'm so unhappy here now and want to leave badly but we have nowhere else to go. Oh also the council pest control guy told me this house has had a constant infestation and he was the person who attended here last. Also majority of room doors are gnawed at the bottom. Surely the council should have never let this property with an infestation still in place, its actually in my tenancy agreement from them so they've broken their own requirement. I do have the housing disrepair team dealing with this complaint. My GP has given me antibiotics and a cream because they get into our clothing and has caused us severe itchiness.

I stuff Steel Wool and sealed with Decorators Chalk around all skirting boards (solid), my independent pest control guy has stuff holes with steel wool & sealed with that foam thing but I don't understand why are they still here. Why are they not eating the poison and dying, I don't care about humane traps now as I'm absolutely fed up!
I got some sticky traps and I will get him to put them down tomorrow. I also got a plug in which is placed in the socket underneath the loft door but that doesn't work. Food is all packed away in sealed containers. I clean and wipe down all kitchen surfaces every morning before the kids wake up. Every single noise makes me jump!

What else can be done?

Sticky traps are horrific, they are not pleasant to see and the screaming is awful. (A friend of mine used them and it was bloody awful).

The poison pest controllers have access to is the most effective way.

Also regarding the loft, it's possible they can get into every part of the house once they have gained access. They don't tend to stay in one area.

Our entry point was outside, at the side of the house by the kitchen wall, but they reached absolutely everywhere.

Wall cavities, under the bath, between floorboards and ceilings, loft. We could hear them scratching and running about in every single room. We saw them running freely in our kitchen too and jumping into gaps above the plinths.

The pest controller we used, used snap traps I think. The sticky ones are theoretically against the law

My DM had rats. She paid a one off fee, for unlimited visits to eradicate them. He found she had plastic coil, rather than soil pipe, inbetween her cavity walls and the rats had nibbled through that. The toilet connection was a plumbers job, but in the meantime, he put some sort of flow trap in my DM's drain, it lets stuff flow down from house, but prevents flood water, rats gaining entry into pipework. I'd really shop around for a decent pest control company who provides the drain service (just in case it's needed) and if they do a one off fee for an unlimited number of visits, so much the better.

pestology were v good for us (I believe they are based in London). They have both pest control and drain expertise. They said that often they come from drains.

@Namenic Pestology was the company I actually wanted to use but they never answered when I called so I ended up using Google to find another pest control company. They eventually called me back a few days later and quoted rodent proofing my house which I couldn't afford at the time but I do plan to get them out to do it.

My independent pest control guy came this morning, went into loft and said yes he can smell very strong urine and saw droppings. He cleaned the loft & put stronger poison down for rats. He again refused to put the sticky traps down but I do feel a bit better since he's been.

Everyone else (sorry too many thanks @) thank you and I really hope this can be sorted but I still plan to move home because we'll never feel comfortable here now

@SoftKittyWarmKittyPurrPurr - try e-mailing Pestology. There is 1 v experienced guy who is in charge. He doesn’t actually do the work, but discusses the findings of the guys on the ground and makes a plan for doing the work (eg what tests to do first). The 1st thing they do is seal the living areas - put wire over all gaps in floorboards so the rats cannot enter the human living area. It was not cheap - but it was a relief and I thought it was a fair price for the work.

Don't be too afraid to speak to the neighbours because you're new. It sounds like they are in the same boat anyway and you'll find it will help your emotional state to have that support and commonality, and perhaps you can approach this as a joint effort - more people complaining might influence more action being taken.

Really feel for you, had this problem in the past and it causes a lot of stress.

You need to find out how they are getting in, I know a guy who is a pest controller he had repeated calls the an address, it took time to work it out, but the rats were coming up the drain, he fitted a device that let the water out but would not allow the rats to come up, it worked really well.

@mumto3boysHE
I live in an end terrace house (last out of five houses) and we had problems with rats. End terrace has been mentioned twice - what is the significance of being end terrace please? Are rats more likely to end up in our house?
First there was a rodent under the kitchen cupboards (behind the plinth) then rats in the loft. We thought they had gone but then heard scratching in the walls. Now I don’t know if the noises I’m hearing are rat related or not - I woke up twice last night after hearing a very loud bang/noise twice even though I’ve been wearing earplugs. I’m so scared

We have similar, only with mice and voles. We've had some success with putting food in a can, with a resealable lid and putting the lid on while they're in there need to be quick though.

Do you have a local hardware shop as they sell the poison that works on in your area as they become immune to some poisons, ours is in blue pellets and we now think they've all gone.

Ours came after our garden was cleared