If you had rats in your house

[NinNinJin]

Sorry for the disgusting topic.
This morning I noticed that half of my bananas were eaten and also a potato had been nibbled on and I suspect a sweet potato has gone missing. I’m terrified of the idea of the size of the creature that attended to my veg/fruit corner. It must have been a v v hungry beast.
We have had mice in the past. So I don't mind them too much, a mouse trap usually sorts the problem in one go.
THIS is a different league! No way would a mouse be able to move a huge heavy potato into the other corner of the kitchen.
And what puzzles me is that there are zero droppings. Literally zero.

Do you think a rat is smart enough to move things? Munch on that about of food and yet not do a single poo🙄 and also take a sweet potato with them?

Could be squirrels?
Am sure there would be droppings if rats?

If it's rats they piss everywhere, but that's a lot of food to have been eaten by something smaller. I'd set traps immediately and don't leave any food out on countertops. We had a rat (thanks to DCat) for a couple of days before we got rid of it, I never found one rat poo, but it pissed all over the carpet

We have had rats very recently (they moved into the house after flooding and while we had the back doors open 24/7 running water pumps to try to clear the cellar out - it's still bloody got 3 inches of water in it but that's another story).

Disgusting level of detail follows:
Poos left in clusters of around 7-10 of them in a pile, about 1/2-3/4 cm long - like slightly scraggy edged dark brown straight pellets.
Nibble marks in fruit cos the little arsehole had done the toddler thing of having a bite out of every fucking apple in the fruit bowl. He rejected the idea of the bananas though totally and would not touch them.
He'd had a nice nibble session through my rolling pin in the kitchen drawer - only one rolling pin out of the 2 in there.
Main thing he went for initially (nest building) was he'd shredded the fuck out of the loo roll in the downstairs loo and the kitchen roll hanging on the kitchen bench.
Oh and the little shitbag had a nibble at the joypads on my Xbox controller as well. He rejected the Playstation controller that was sat next to it - so he obviously has gaming as well as fruit preferences.

As for moving things - ours managed to nick all the poison bait blocks out of the bait traps and moved them all under the kitchen cupboard kkckboards to try to build a house out of rat poison. Either he was stupid, had watched too much Grand Designs with ridiculous architecture, or had no respect for our eviction notices. Bait has worked though as the little arsehole is now dead and gone.

Check under your kitchen kkckboards - that's where we found he'd been partying.

We also discovered that both next door's cats, and our retired greyhound are bloody broken.
Dog saw the fucking thing on the kitchen worktop, raised one ear and then rolled over, stuck her legs in the air, farted and went back to sleep.
You were trained and bred to chase small furry things you stupid mutt!

There will be droppings somewhere.

Have you pulled out the kickboards and looked underneath all the kitchen cupboards.

I feel for you, we had a problem with rats in the loft but also once found droppings all over the house. To this day I don’t know how or where they got through. Moved house in the end 😩

Oh that's hilarious! By the way the sweet potato I'm holding is untouched. The bites are from the one that is missing. That's why I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining it.

I cannot smell anything and the shelf is in decent condition. The mice were so much messier! This one is just a thief

I take my hat off to how calm you are. I would be hysterical.

Rats tend to toilet in particular areas so it's possible to not have found droppings yet. They'll be the shape and size of long grain rice if they are there.

Look under your fridge. We had a problem recently. We live in an end terrace that backed on to an alley way that was filthy and full of rubbish. We had one rat coming and going through a hole it had made in the skirting board. It would take bits of food and stash under the fridge. That's also where we ended up finding it dead.

Never just one rat !

We had one that took apples and full burger buns.

It was hiding under the kickboards too.We left poison and then moved house too.

sorry but this wee bugger has made me laugh. i love all the affectionate names you have for him/her/them! i feel like you have a fab connection to them. welcome to the family Roland x 🤣😂

Yes we had a rat and the first thing we noticed was the smell - their piss STINKS. We didnt notice any droppings for ages until we started moving furniture.

Managed to completely tear apart the downstairs toilet skirting and when we accidentally locked him in there he actually schewed and scratches a hole through the fucking door.

Under the kitchen cupboards is where they found most of the evidence and we paid a shitload of money for an exterminator with fancy UV poison to try and track them but in the end it died getting caught in an old mouse trap.....

I’d get the bait straight under the kickboards that’s likely there the dropping will be too or in draws 🤢.

We had rats that got in through vents. It took weeks to get rid of them because we used the shit big Pest services who might be good at wasp nests etc, but were hopeless with the rats. When we gave up on them and phoned the local small pest person with lots of glowing google reviews, she got rid of them in a few days. They got fucking everywhere. They ate superglue, paracetamol, iboprofen [I mean, lethal doses that just did not kill them!], the bloody high-pitched electrical devices meant to deter them and they just would not touch the bait laid down by the big company. But the smaller company hung up poisoned treats on threads and got them that way. We cleaned the whole kitchen down every night, but we would come down in the morning to find things smashed on the floor. It took me months to get over it, so I feel your pain.

You need rat traps - bid strong snap traps. The plastic ones are easier to set. Bait it and set it on the "rat run".

Look under your cupboards, near any pipe runs or air bricks that go the walls. We had one that squeezed along side the kitchen sink waste pipe into the cupboard and made a hole in the kickboard..
You can tell where they have been by the dirty greasy marks they leave.

Once you have places the traps, wait. Rats are clever and will ignore a trap at first.

Also - look all round outside to see if you can see where they are getting in- ours had chewed through an airbrick,climbed up the cavity and got into the loft.
Another through a hole at the side of the kitchen waste pipe, and another climbed the pergola and got in through a hole in the soffit behind the gutter.

We had the council rat man out in the end- the dairy farm next door had had a rat population explosion so they spread out!
The joys of living in a rural area!

Rats are phobic of new items so traps will take a couple of days, they're incredibly intelligent and do stash food so will probably have taken the sweet potato for later.
They can get in through any hole 50p size or bigger you need to fill them with steel wool or they will just come back now they have found a source of food.

We had a couple of rats who had the audacity to die in a roof space; the smell of decomposing rat is appalling. We had several visits from pest controllers and it was eventually discovered that the buggers had got in through redundant pipes that weren't capped off when we had an extension built. I hope you find the culprits!

Could be worse OP.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4913479-oh-the-most-vile-thing-just-happened?page=10&reply=129972961

I have a least 1 rat atm. I only know I have a rat in my house because it ran up me when I was asleep downstairs on the sofa due to dhs snoring which is all on camera 🤮 I've been leaving the back door open for the puppy to toilet...not anymore lol

Earliest pest control can come out is Thursday 😭

I had rats in the loft and under the house but only found evidence of them making it into the house once - when the fruit bowl was attacked. Never saw droppings. I think it came, ate and went back to the loft.
Eventually managed to get rid of them. Have had multiple mice issues but they aren't as obvious or loud.

@MegaClutterSlut No way! I think I'd scream the house down!

We had rats very recently, never saw them but in the evening the scratching in the walls would start. Horrible sound, like finger nails down a blackboard and so loud!. Well it sounded like scratching in the walls but actually the waste pipe runs under the floor of the extension, so I think there's a ledge where the old pipes were and they were gnawing on that. Called out the council who said it will be rats running up from the man sewer in the road. They recommended a one-way valve to put in the inspection chamber nearest the property boundary.. It allows poo and stuff to flow down the pipes but prevents rats coming up the pipes. Wasn't cheap - over £50 on Amazon - but so far so good.

Been checking the cameras every night and it comes out about 2.30am. Can't find it anywhere though so I don't know where its hiding but I ain't bloody sleeping downstairs anymore lol

@MegaClutterSlut gosh that is not a real picture is it? And that's not a person under that red bit??

I have a baby camera and wanted to use it tonight but cannot find the plug.

I have got two mouse traps. Not sure whether to set them straight away or to wait for the rat one that is arriving tomorrow. Also whether to move things a bit around the kitchen or leave it all as if we are not aware. Which card to play😅

Do you remember an old film the Mousehunt? That's me tonight 😎

I'm sure it has been caused by flooding. These buggers are looking for a cosy place to get dry and ours has a very easy access