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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think i can leave a decomposing rat in the wall cavity to decompose?

93 replies

Anna1976 · 13/10/2011 08:43

My parents live in a double-brick cavity-wall house, built in about 1905. It's become apparent in the last few days that something is very dead indeed, somewhere quite close to the back of the house.

The stink is appalling today, but the revolting blowflies of the last few days aren't around any more. It took us until yesterday to localise which wall vent they were coming out of, having already checked under the house, the chimney, and pulled up the floor in the loft, to make sure we couldn't find anything emanating flies.

Getting the bloody thing out of the wall cavity would be basically impossible, and the stench should only haunt my parents' house for... um ..not sure how long....

Yuck. Any ideas how long it might go on? or what else to do? I think it would cost less for the parents to move into a hotel for a couple of weeks (or just grin and bear it) than for any attempt to be made to remove the thing.

OP posts:
fastweb · 13/10/2011 12:24

I live on what appears to be a "cunningly disguised with rice fields" bog.

Admittedly no cerabal maleria, but I spend all summer, glowing like a milk bottle, hiding in the house, refusing to leave unless an entire can of "Off" is sprayed all over me first, so I can run to the car, then run from the car to the INDOOR destination.

Fecking mosquitoes, how can Italy have more ferocious mosquitoes (and higher humidity) than Thailand?

And how come they prefer forign food to all other kinds ?

Why didn't I stay in Ilford? Why? WHY! Why?

Or even Norwich, that was fairly nice. Aside from the snotty centre staff. And wildlife free.

Any offers of a house swap for a tiny flat in Basingstoke yet ?

Free Italian husband can be left fitted as is. No extra charge.

fastweb · 13/10/2011 12:25

JOB centre staff, even...

fastweb · 13/10/2011 12:27

How about the suburbs of Stockholm

du är på älskling !

packing now

stealthsquiggle · 13/10/2011 12:55

sorry, couldn't resist

fastweb · 13/10/2011 13:09

Is nowhere safe?

Sad

Horrible, scaly tailed and distressingly ubiquitous bastards.

AhsataN · 13/10/2011 15:16

i have laid traps everywhere right under where they come down onto our kitchen side from the boiler poison all over the garden. the littles bastards can get the bait off the trap without setting it off. poison only works a little while and then they have bred like wild fire and are back with a vengeance.
in the summer my DH put the bin out to our dustbin he left the lid off. we had really heavy rain and when it came to bin day he went to take the bin bag out again and to our horror. the bin had filled about 6 7 inches with rain water, over 5 rats had climbed into the bin after the rubbish and drowned in the bin. that was over the space of a few days thats how bad it is.
my dog also chases them down the garden but shes a great bungling German Shepard who hasn't a hope in hell in catching them.
i don't let my ds play outside its so bad my MIL hasn't done a thing. the most she did was give us one of those crappy sonic sound plug in things.
when we told her a rat was in the kitchen she had a go at us and said well you didn't plug it in. so i plugged it in and the fucking rat came down and sat on top of it. USELESS!

Ormirian · 13/10/2011 15:17

I like rats. Sorry Grin

Well i don';t know that I'd care for hordes of them living in my walls but one or two would be fine.

stealthsquiggle · 13/10/2011 15:21

Can you find anyone locally who would come in with terriers, AnsataN? Our farmer neighbours swear that is the only way to deal with bad infestation - then use poison to keep numbers down.

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 15:24

Ferets are what you need! Add what bait are you using> You need a huge great big glob of peanut butter - and are you using proper rat traps, the big LUCIFER type ones?

thefirstMrsDeVeerie · 13/10/2011 15:27

I dont know about rats but I do know a bit about decomposing mice. You could do a bit of maths and stuff and work out CSI style how long it would take for a rat.

I was doing DD's memory garden on her anniversary last year and I saw a cat across the road with a mouse. I went and rescued it but I knew it was going to kark it. I just couldnt stand the thought of it dying all cold and alone on the green (I was feeling a bit wibbly due to the date).

So I made a sort of mouse hospice thingy with some food and water and cosy leaves.

It died but I sort of forgot about it and once it was a bit mushy I didnt want to touch it so I left it as an experiment.

3 week - nothing left. Not a whisker. All disintegrated.

But it was outside (it was in a cat carrier so it wasnt eaten).

So if you calculate the size difference, add in the various factors e.g. environment, temperature etc

You should be able to work out how long it will take for your rat to disappear.

Hope this helps

Grin
valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 15:31

LOL Grin Ha! That was funny ( well obviously not about your dd but the rest)

fastweb · 13/10/2011 15:36

I just couldnt stand the thought of it dying all cold and alone on the green (I was feeling a bit wibbly due to the date

Oh love. One small mouse, lots of large emotions.

((((((Big Fat Hug)))))))

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 15:39

I didnt want to touch it so I left it as an experiment That is something my 10 year old would do, and made me snort my tea in an unladylike fashion!

thefirstMrsDeVeerie · 13/10/2011 15:39

Thanks Smile

I knew it was mad when I was doing it and the cat was furious

thefirstMrsDeVeerie · 13/10/2011 15:40

I thought the boys might be interested valium but they didnt want to know!

The youth of today tut tut

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 15:41

Not mad at all completely understandable given the circumstances.

AhsataN · 13/10/2011 15:51

yeh we need a visit from a terrier. its a bludy joke we live on a main road and there are that many we see them squashed on the road. its not just with the problem this whole row of house is infested because we live near canals.
im just using the snap traps the pest man left, they look a chocolate id squashed on top and didnt set it off.

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 15:55

The great thing about peanut butter is that it can't be whipped off quickly, they love the flavour and go back for more!

stealthsquiggle · 13/10/2011 16:13

AhsataN - ferrets + terriers + old fashioned rat-man. Is that out of the question? Popular opinion here would agree that traps are almost entirely useless - the agricultural merchants wouldn't even sell them to me.

AhsataN · 13/10/2011 16:17

thing is their rat holes aren't in our garden they are living 3 doors down in some wankers overgrown garden, they just use our garden as a run. I'm going to definitely give the peanut butter a go and we are going away for the weekend so i will lay shed loads of poison down.
if i could get hold of a terrier i would give it a go.

fastweb · 13/10/2011 16:21

Has anybody tried the glue traps?

The agricultural store only sells that kind, but I'm leery about having to deal with a live rat who is as mad as hell his feet have been glued fast.

What am I supposed to with it ?

Leave it to die of starvation or thirst ?

I hate the things but just couldn't be that mean even to creatures I loathe due to their constant stalking of me.

And I couldn't hit it on the head with a spade.

Am a wimp.

But a wimp in a state of panic after this thread, convinced rats are in the attic nibbling on my electrics as we speak.

I'm not keen on using poisen, what if one of my cats or dogs catches and snacks on a poisened rat ?

NDN's girl doggie died after eating poisen left for rodents, it was awful, she was in agony and emergency vet took hours to arrive. Too late, much too late.

So that leave the unattractive idea of glue traps and peanut butter. Trust rats to have expensive tastes in costly imported foods. Bastards.

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 16:29

Traps are fantastic - quick and work well ime.

I would not use a glue trap, they can chew their legs off to get away. I would not use a 'humane' trap either nothing humane about them at all.

stealthsquiggle · 13/10/2011 16:29

I had the same reservations as you about glue traps, fastweb so no, we didn't try them - but they were the next resort had the poison not worked.

The latest poisons claim not to affect things further up the food chain, but I would definitely read the small print. It's not nice, TBH - poisoned rats would wander out in broad daylight and then just keel over / curl up and "go to sleep" - DH bopped one on the head with a spade when it was wandering across the drive, another decided to die right in the middle of the doorway to the chicken run (cue hysterical chickens until we moved it) but I think cats, on the whole, have more sense than to eat things they find dead - they smell wrong. Dogs possibly not so fussy sensible though. Poison/bait might work best for you, AhsataN - there are some which are intended to make them take it back to the nest and therefore take out a whole colony rather than just the individual.

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 16:30

Poison in gardens should be left out in 'stations' so pets can't get at them ( like a box with a hole on the side)

valiumredhead · 13/10/2011 16:31

ROBAN is the best poison ime. Worked better than the stuff the council put down. We bought it on line.

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