Rats under the floor

[Banana1979]

I live in a new build complex in London, and recently I can hear very very loud gnawing under the floorboards
I touched the floor where the sound was all I could feel the gnawing vibrations .so it’s close
I can literally hear the wood being chewed a loud biting cracking sound
there is no way that is mice it’s definitely so loud that you can only be a very big rat or rats and I am absolutely fucking beside myself. I’ve been crying every night. It’s been happening nearly two weeks now It’s also keeping me up -it’s loud so it wakes me
I am so terrified that it’s going to make a hole and enter in my flat. I have a nine-year-old daughter here as well so I’m just terrified
I have called the housin Association who seem to think someone will contact me in five days time . 5 days??
we have underfloor heating, so it must be running along the pipes . I am on the fourth floor, quite high up so no idea how it if they got up here
I am literally ready to give up my flat . It hasn’t made a hole or anything in the floor yet but I am terrified. That’s what they are working on trying to do
I’ve invested in wire wool just in case and rat poison I am so stressed out because of this
I have a cat who is intently pacing up and down at the sound. God knows what he will do if he sees a rat. He is an indoor cat and has never seen a rat before so I can’t rely on him to be able to kill it although I’m hoping he will if one was to come out of the floor, I have lino down
if I had the money, I would lay down some marble flooring, so rat wouldn’t be able to come out
I’m not even sure what pest control could even do because the rat is not actually in the flat yet
I desperately want to bash a hole in the wall to shove some poison down there but that would mean a space for the rats to get out
I hear them working away at my floor for 4 or 5 times a day late at night and early in the morning
when I bash the floor with a rolling pin or my fist, the sound stops
I think I am going to leave the flat and just pitch down at the council but they may think I’ve made myself. Intentionally homeless I just can’t cope anymore I find it difficult to cope with these things I am autistic and I just really I’m fed up and so upset and feel so alone in this

Your landlord has a legal obligation to deal with rats, at no charge to yourself. With the rate they breed, it is an urgent matter and shouldn't be left that long, especially with a resident child.

Please call Shelter today for further advice, and Environmental Health at your local council.

Best of luck. 💐

I am so sorry to hear this, rats are absolutely awful and the problem needs to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later as they breed quickly and eventually find a way into the home.

During the pandemic and up until summer 2023 I had an almighty battle with rats. A whole family of them would come into my garden from my neighbour's overgrown jungle of a garden. The fence that separates our gardens was old and pathetic. I killed that entire family off using carefully laid rat poison but after a quiet few months there was more activity.

Fast forward six months of killing them whenever I saw activity, they finally stopped and I had a year of peace. And then came the punch to the gut, the fuckers got into my kitchen somehow. There I was about to make breakfast and the loaf of bread had bite marks all along the bottom. I literally froze and felt like my legs were made out of the heaviest material in the universe.

Fortunately we had a kitchen extension done which totally destroyed their entry point and after months of trial and error I finally worked out where they were coming from in the garden and put in measures to kill any remaining rats and seal off their entry point.

It all stemmed from the frankly awful waste collection method put in place by our idiotic council. Communal bins for a street full of idiots who kept chucking rubbish bags half open on the floor next to the bin even if it wasn't full.

With your issue, I would hire pest control, because the noise is under ground and you're not on the ground floor, they need to find the root cause and then they will ensure there's no entry point and/or will place rat poison traps where appropriate

Not necessarily. Check your tenancy.

I would get exterminators in ASAP. Rats are the worst, I hope you get it sorted soon.

Thanks so much for ur advice
they are saying five days for someone to come round, and I’m still terrified

We had a massive rat problem because our stupid neighbours kept putting food out so I feel your pain. Thankfully they didn't get inside.

One ran over my foot sitting in the garden on a sunny day.

We put down those locked bait boxes but somehow some of it came out and my dog hold of it. Emergency vet trip and thankfully he was fine but it was very scary.

In the end we sent ddog to my mums for a couple of weeks, put the bait back down and also bait powder under the deck which is of course a perfect rat habitat.

Activity lessened but they were still around. Got new neighbours with a cat and not a sniff of a rat since.

That was a really long winded way of saying I get it, they're awful and I hope you get it sorted asap.

Don't be terrified - the rats will be in no hurry to meet you. If it's a new-build it is less likely they will find a way in, and even if they do, you won't ever see them.

And it might not even BE rats, as squirrels and mice make a similar amount of noise.

But it does need sorting, so keep pushing your housing association.

OP, can you afford to get a private pest control company in? Could you put it on a credit card even.

DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR TENANCY - that would be complete self-sabotage and a far greater catastrophe for your daughter than a rat.

Honestly I feel for you - I'm phobic about rats. But they can be dealt with very quickly honestly, and unlike mice it is likely to be only one.

OP I totally get you! I am absolutely terrified of all rodents, and years ago, while my DH was working away, I came home from work, and as I walked to the back door, saw a rat in my garden, I was TERRIFIED, and that was just in the garden. I went to a friend's to sleep that night, and next day phoned the Council, who used to deal with them in those days, the guy said, 'Sorry love, I can't come out for a couple of days I'm afraid', at which point I burst into tears, and literally begged him, telling him that I couldn't possibly go home until it had been dealt with. Thankfully, he understood how scared I was, and agreed that he'd be out there within the hour. I've never been so relieved in all my life, so I really hope you can get it dealt with sooner rather than later.