Big massive fuck off rat - please keep me sane

[BrianGlue]

(name changed because I imagine my husband is searching every corner of the internet for advice)

Heard scurrying Christmas Eve - pest control over, poison out. Came back Boxing Day to no noise at night and breathed a sigh of relief.

But turns out this little (huge) bastard is a trickster. Every night since it’s been out and about at night. It was spotted yesterday behind the oven. Last night it chewed through skirting and a bit of door.

This evening it had the audacity to bound up the kitchen steps when I went to get wine. It’s HUGE.

Seriously, what do we do now? Just put my baby to bed and currently sat outside his door ready to spear it if it dares to come close.

Questions:

1. why isn’t the dog putting him off coming in the house?
2. is it likely it’s poisoned if it’s acting weirdly like coming out when the lights are on?
3. should we get traps too?

I want to leave but I also am terrified of how much it could destroy if it’s not poisoned. This is fucking awful.

I had two (I thought it was just one but it wasn't) at Christmas last year. First one took 10 days to die after the poison was taken and we found the 2nd one after 14 days. But they were truly abnormally huge. They had a fantastic stash of Hills dog food which is probably why they were so bloody fit and healthy.

If you can get hold of moth balls then chuck then under floorboards. Or lace cotton wool balls with peppermint essential oil. The thing is to get them out before the poison kicks in. They don't like the smell of either of these. Leave big bowls out water outside, once they have the poison they need a lot of water. Another way to get them out the house. I have a pool so I find them floating when they've gone to get the water and met their demise.

If you aren't seeing any poo or wee they have a nest somewhere. They are so gross they even shit in their own nests.

We did find our temp lodgers nest. It was the most disgusting thing ever. My garage is attached to my house and they have pulled all the foam out of my extra seat for from the car which I don't use (a 7 seater thing ). So I am also extra car chairless now too.

Mine were too smart for traps. The snap kind and the humane kind.

I have moth balls all over now. They seem to be a good deterrent.

All food sources in fridge or containers . Get eucalyptus oil (or peppermint) liberal amount in water and put these water pots around house.

apparently rats can stand the smell and scarper.

or

a neighbour suggested a plastic tube of some sort (that rat can crawl through but not the dog) place bait in it for rat to take .

He told me a home made bait recipe but it is cruel imo so won’t post that suggestion.

I hope this helps

please let us know what works for you .

Definitely better to eliminate all entry routes and remove all food/water sources than to put poison down etc.

If they can still get in then you’ll always have a problem with rats so focus on stopping them from getting in.

You asked if the rat could harm the baby and this is the very first article on Google. It’s proof that it can harm a baby.
18 months is a toddler - it would still cause harm but it’s not a completely defenceless baby.

It answered the question you had; the answer might not be very nice but given the information you gave and the question you asked it answered it, so should have been helpful

@isthismylifenow thanks, all really helpful!!

We've recently had a rat under our floorboards (it never actually came into the living quarters) but we laid poison down and after about a week it never came back. Presumably died from the poison.

If you've put poison down you need to fix it down to prevent it from being carried off. We nailed it to the joist under the floorboards. Rats will hoard food if they can carry it so it will simply take it back to its nest and potentially not eat it for some time, or worse, another animal eats it.

You need to find the point of entry (into your living quarters) in your house and seal that, and then check the perimeter of your home to see where its access point is. This could be a drain or up high so might not be immediately obvious.

Our house is old and we have wisteria climbing up the front. About 3 weeks ago I saw a rat climbing the wisteria!! They are excellent climbers and diggers.

Snap traps are great but notoriously tricky for catching rats. We had multiple snap traps under our floorboards but never caught the rat with them. They are suspicious of anything new so won't go near them.

Rat wee and poo can spread diseases so make sure you clean it up ASAP. I feel for you because it's horrible knowing they're able to get in.

Also Wire wool (think Brillo ) and put in all holes and seal holes or in any potential entry points as it gets stuck in their teeth they can’t knaw it.

Property developer here. I know a few things about rats from unpleasant encounters over the years. The weather won't be helping, as sewers will swell under the rainwater. It won't be one rat, and there will be signs like a bad smell and droppings. Despite five cats and two dogs in residence, I still had trouble until I went to war. My neighbour is a crazy slob who thinks they are God's little creatures and lets them run free in her house. Needless to say, she is on my hit list for the new year as it is revolting. Personally I see them as e-coli on legs. Place all foodstuffs in plastic sealed containers. Peppermint oil everywhere as they hate it. Lift floorboards and look for small holes in bricks etc. I had a few and stuffed them with wire-wool. That stopped them getting in. Look at the roof, go in any loft and check the integrity of the lid to external drains. Don't leave poison in the house with your pets. Take a torch and look for droppings. They cannot move around and not leave droppings. Cats can be scared of rats, and rightly so with that set of knashers. I have one cat who would execute it because he is well-hard, but most of ours would think jikes, and leg it. Remember roland and his pals is getting in through a set route so go around the outside of the house, and then look inside. Plumbing works are one risk, and I dug out a rats nest under a bath (lovely smell). I dug a rats nest out of a loft once as they like dark places. The sink was the source in another house I fixed up. Central heating pipework needs looking at as there maybe a gap between pipes, exhaust and brickwork. When taking your waste out, double bag it and be careful opening the wheelie bin. I had a near miss with a monster sized rat in our bin once. We found two dead in old defunct central heating installed outside a property once (an old oil boiler on the back wall). The mystery of the funny smelling central heating was solved just then. They were attracted to the heat I suppose, but decomposed that was no fun and required bleach to pick up the guts dressed in a hazmat suit. Wear gloves cleaning any contaminated areas as rats are a public health hazard, and can cause a lot of disease burden to us humans.

I read this whole thread even though I am incredibly scared of rats and now I won’t sleep!! I lived in a student flat on a main road next to a takeaway and we always had rats come in who were so smart they couldn’t be caught and landlord wouldn’t sort out the entry points! Even now (20 years later) I can smell rodents a mile off.

I’ve got two cats and they kill small rats, mice, birds (unfortunately). The biggest thing they’ve had is a pigeon but they have never brought home an adult sized rat. I once had a live adult rat in the garden, one of the cats cornered it and it was diving for my cat and scared the cat away. So not convinced that cats would kill your massive rat, although they would definitely eliminate any youngsters.

What type of dog do you have that it's running past you on the stairs and your dog's not going mental? I had my first rat in the house a couple of weeks ago and my dog crumbled parts of the plaster trying to get to it 🙃If you think he'd be at all game for it, you should leave the dog overnight where the rat seems to come out most (living room or kitchen or wherever)

They're immune to alot of poison now afaik and if it works you run the risk of it dying in your walls or floorboards, they're very hesitant and suspicious of snap traps and it could take 1-2 weeks of rat damage before they acclimatise to it in their environment and try it out. Be careful of your dog eating the dead eat if the poison does work depending on what type you use. I've got big rat specific glue traps down incase more come in just because they're less likely to scare a rat like a snap would but you do need quite big ones, they're not cruel if you kill it when you find it stuck, just don't leave the poor thing to dehydrate to death.

As for your snaps, figure out where the rat's natural run is (they like to travel with a wall to their side) and put several traps in the middle of it's runs. You can also make a bucket trap if you want to go all guns blazing, I've had lots of success with mice outside and these but not sure if rats would be too smart for it. You smear peanut butter on the dowel/platform in the middle, google has lots of info, they look like this https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3fb0005c569ff3bf51b73fd66ca80230-lq , but you need to fill the bottom with water or it will just jump out.

Make sure you board up entrances as well as you can, for me this was out because my house is ancient and there are holes I don't even know about. They will also eat dog poo if your dog goes in the garden to do its business.

Sorry for the long post, I hunt and having a rat in my house recently made me go all out warfare 😂Here's a video I stumbled on during my recent rat paranoia that might cheer you up a bit (or make you worry more)

We had a rat wonder in through an open patio door! Luckily it seems it left of its own accord after we left the kitchen window open (we trapped it in there). We had pest control out anyway and they said rats often avoid new things so it might not have eaten the poison yet?

You need ferrets. Find someone local who is willing to get the rat/rats with ferrets.

Find someone who likes ratting as sport to come and hunt them out. Night vision air rifle or using a terrier.

Thanks for such a detailed post! She’s an old collie, she’s very on edge now she’s seen it.

Sounds like it’s going to be impossible to get rid of. My house is over 500yrs old, there are gaps and old wells and all sorts - it’s a miracle we’ve not had them before now!

You can buy a non-poisonous rat poison. Yes, seriously. I
It's to leave in attics etc as a back up plan. Rats come along, think it's great, eat it and it slowly dessicated them so they die and because they're already dessicated don't smell much. If a pet gets the not-poison, it might eat it but just need to drink a lot for a while after. Its sold on amazon, and well worth putting under floorboards and in attics. We're rural and ger regular rats. Our naked little Chinese crested and our border collie have learned to hunt them very effectively so we don't really need to worry any more. We had trap doors put in our floors so we could lay mouse traps under the floors all year round - that's worked very well too.

Oh - regarding poison. That stuff is bloody lethal in tiny doses to anything that gets it. Get snap traps, humane traps, whatever - but try to avoid poison. Its so high risk with pets and babies. It just takes one slip up such as the rat chewing it free and dragging it out for pets and kids to take. Rats do move food all over the place.

I have had rats twice, both times just one rat.

i bought a humane trap (from Amazon) and baited it with peanut butter

first rat took around a week to catch, second was two or three days

(I live on the ground floor in a city with a large rat population, both “visitors” were opportunists and came through the back door in the summer)

Rats are a bit much for most cats and they can easily bite a cat.

What you need is a Jack Russell Terrier. Rat is dead in seconds.

Well this is a thing of nightmares!
There is only one answer. You pack your bags and abandon the house to the rat and its squillions of family members. Immediately. Then put more poison down, or traps, or cats or Jack fricken Russels or a brave farmer with a shot gun. Or all of the above. Then you sell the house because rats pee when on the move, especially in new places, to make a trail for them to get back from whence they came. Disgusting fucking things.
We had one in a military house we were in. I saw it at 11pm, and I had moved all 5 of us in to a Premier Inn within the hour. We only went back to the house to empty it and move to a less rodenty place.

I live in a similar house and have had rats and mice a few times. Every year when the farmer cuts the fields we get loads of them running over.

We got a cat and have had no problems since. He catches rats and mice daily (as well as rabbits, sadly) I might have just got a really brave one but it definitely helps. He's nothing special, just a bog standard small moggie.

My dogs are useless too, wouldn’t kill a rat if their lives depended on it.

I wouldn’t use a glue trap, I can understand killing them if they are in your house but there’s no need to be barbaric.

We live rurally and our issue is mice so we’ve always got traps down. We’ve had rats twice thanks to our neighbour continually leaving a food source. They also have a water source. We had pest control out. They laid traps and poison and few were caught. I am not sure what pest control did as some were alive. Drowned them I think in the neighbours pond. Second time, pest control reported neighbours to the council. We’ve not had them again thankfully.

In the end we used glue traps - put them everywhere one night. They were avoiding the poison and humane traps and we weren’t prepared to have them in the house any longer. It’s not the nicest option but was the best way to get rid of them

Did they work? What did you do with them? Are they alive or does it kill them?

No it just traps them unfortunately and it’s not very nice at all (really last resort. They were getting into food etc and we had no luck with other methods even professional pest control - they just either avoided the poison as had enough elsewhere to eat or were immune to it). The trap fold in half you have to once they are trapped either leave them or as quickly as possible finish them off.