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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be freaking out about a RAT

68 replies

Sastra · 06/08/2012 08:40

Yesterday I heard a rustling in my kitchen and when I went to investigate I saw a rat slink off down the side of my washing machine.

This is in my new purchased flat, first floor flat. I've called the council but they can't come until 10am tomorrow. I spoke to the neighbours and they reckon its wandered up the stairs from the allotments out the back (front door's been open a lot).

I'm stuck in the flat until 3pm as I'm waiting for our sofas to be delivered.

I'm absolutely freaking out. I'm terrified at the best of times. I'm 28 weeks pregnant and I'm sure this isn't good. Not too weeks ago our office at work was discovered to have an infestation. Its like some cruel cruel joke.

I don't know what to do. DH has gone to work. I can't even get a drink from the kitchen Sad

OP posts:
Original poster
Sastra · 06/08/2012 09:37

I'm actually really ashamed. I thought you only got them in hovels.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sastra · 06/08/2012 09:38

And I live on THE FIRST FLOOR!!!!!

OP posts:
jojane · 06/08/2012 09:38

One evening I went into kitchen to make a cup of tea and something huge scuttled across the floor to the corner were we discovered a small hole. Next day incidentally enough we found a huge dead rat in our outside bin. Called out council man who put child proof poison traps out side and inside. Defenatly more of them as one died in the wall somewhere cue 3 weeks of an awful stench :-(. We scrubbed everything and threw away anything open and made sure anything was put away in Tupperware etc after that. felt so dirty for having rats. Still paranoid about it
Top tips - use Tupperware/ jars etc o store open food. Go round and us expanding foam to fill in any holes around pipes etc, rats can get in a space as small as a pencil.
Also don't go on holiday an leave rubbish outside as that's when it happened, they were attracted by the rubbish bags - ripped them open then just found a weak spot to come ini the house

happylittlebear · 06/08/2012 09:39

Happy2bhomely I will not be able to go to the toilet all day now! That is the worst thing I've ever heard.

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 06/08/2012 09:39

I don't live in a hovel! Grin

Rats are everywhere and it doesn't take much for them to come into the house to seek out food/warmth/shelter.

laudinum · 06/08/2012 09:39

Naaa, even Buck palace will have rats.

They are really prolific this year for some odd reason.

valiumredhead · 06/08/2012 09:40

No, my house is neat as a pin and very clean and we had an infestation last year - they were coming from a neighbour's house.

Throw out all food that's not in an air tight container, and bleach your kitchen floor and work tops.

I would pull out the washing machine and I bet there is a hole behind it where they are coming in.

They usually only come in where there is food - remove the food.

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 06/08/2012 09:40

I have watched a rat scale a vertical wall with ease and squeeze in through a gap you'd never think any living creature could get through, much less one the size of a rat.

Original poster
Sastra · 06/08/2012 09:40

Yup, definitely sure it wasn't a mouse. Mice are tiny things, and this was much bigger, plus it didn't scurry like a mouse. But more convincingly was how the packets have been ravaged. DH said there's no way a mouse could have made that mess - he's from the country side and not bothered about such things, and he knows how frightened of them I am and wouldn't have said it unless he was convinced.

OP posts:
Megatron · 06/08/2012 09:42

God, don't be ashamed Sastra rats can get in anywhere.

valiumredhead · 06/08/2012 09:43

Last year my dh caught one a day for over a week in our loft - I was ready to move out! One was about albs, it was HUGE!

laudinum · 06/08/2012 09:43

Their sphincters do not close so they pee everywhere.
Ask dh to disinfect everything once the rat has been caught. Get him to pull washing machine etc out from the wall to see where it got in.

Original poster
Sastra · 06/08/2012 09:44

Sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate that anyone lived in a hovel! But I just thought that rats were something that you only got when a place was pretty unkempt.

I miss my cat. This shit would never had happened with her around.

Seriously though, should I put the radio on?

I'm going to get zero work done today. My phone just vibrated and I've basically just wet myself in fright.

OP posts:
valiumredhead · 06/08/2012 09:45

YY obviously when I said 'you' should disinfect and pull out machine I meant 'your dh' Wink

jojane · 06/08/2012 09:45

Rats like to live in attics too!!! If you have an attic check it as a certain type of rat will climb along phone wires etc and get IMO the house through the roof!
(can you tell I have googled EVERYTHING I can about rats!!!
You really need to do 3 things
Get rid of whatever is attracting them
Block up how they are getting in
Get rid of any still in or around the property

Pest man thinks our were living in the plot of land behind us which has just been dug out and foundations for a house put in, that coupled with the fact our house was empty at the time while on holiday (do no big humans to scare them away) an some manky rubbish bins (thanks council for fortnightly collections)

Havnt seen any signs since (and always looking!!!) so fingers crossed sorted it out.

valiumredhead · 06/08/2012 09:53

What colour was the rat OP? Grey ones are babies, brown are the adults according to my rat man!

JennerOSity · 06/08/2012 09:53

Anyone saying you have to get close contact to get disease from (wild) rats isn't fully informed. Rats do carry disease and bacteria aplenty. They also have no bladder control whatsoever and wee continually as they go so leave a wee trail wherever they have walked like a slug does with slime. They carry Weils disease (Leptospirosis) which can be fatal, is passed on through urine, and close contact is not required. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis

Unlike mice, rats tend to prefer to live outside and usually only venture inside to visit food stores. They can shin up drainpipes etc very easily so 1st floor flat is no problem. They are usually initially attracted by some food supply of some sort and then once they learn that it is available they keep coming back, rats like a food supply they trust so keep returning to one they have found.

As it is flats it could easily be a neighbour who first attracted them by not keeping food stored properly, or if the bins outside are not kept tidy etc

The pest control person should be looking outside to find the base camp and then access point and be controlling both these. No good if they just try to manage from within your flat alone.

Personally I would use the council as private can be stupid money and the problem is unlikely to be just you, but will probably include the neighbours as well. If checking the neighbours isn't done it could affect the efficacy of the control measures and hamper efforts to eradicate. The council are in a better position to try to enrol the cooperation of the neighbours and you shouldn't be bearing the cost alone when it is highly unlikely to be exclusively your problem.

JennerOSity · 06/08/2012 09:57

The radio may well discourage an appearance temporarily so it wouldn't hurt to put it on. Rats are shy so won't approach you so don't be jumpy. It is the hygiene that is the greatest concern. They can gnaw through some tough food containers and you don't want that so getting rid is the only option really.

It could be that it is not an established infestation, if a colony has been disturbed or outgrown itself, rats will seek new territory so it could be that rather than a well established long standing thing.

JumpingThroughHoops · 06/08/2012 09:59

The amount of rain has forced sewers to flood and it's forcing rats out into the wider community. You are never more than 6 foot from a rat.

rats, anything, cannot come up a toilet bowl either, they have traps in the back to prevent that.

Thymeout · 06/08/2012 09:59

Squeaky
Can't believe you're so casual about the rats under your neighbour's decking.

You've got to do something. Remove the bird-feeder for a start. Call environmental health.

By the time I found a few droppings in my garage, they were well and truly dug in. Burrows all over my neighbour's garden. Decking had to be dismantled. There was another nest under a different neighbour's shed. They were climbing up trellises, copulating on the dustbins in broad daylight. I couldn't even have the upstairs windows open.

The ratcatcher put down poison in pet-proof containers. Seriously, they get in the sewers and climb up the pipes. You have to do something.

laudinum · 06/08/2012 10:04

Squeaky - if you know anyone with terriers, Jack Russels or ferrets, they are the most efficient rat killing machines and can squeeze into small spaces.

wannabedomesticgoddess · 06/08/2012 10:07

When I had a lone mouse in my living room I camped out in the bedroom for a week.

If I had a rat I would be moving out.

I feel for you OP. I hope it gets sorted asap!!

I used to have an awful fear of a rat coming up the toilet. Got over it. Now Im not so sure....

CharminglyOdd · 06/08/2012 10:08

jumping are you absolutely sure about the traps thing? I just had to go to the loo after reading this thread and it was mildly traumatising to say the least. OP you have my full sympathy, for all the good it does!

MaryPoppinsBagsGold · 06/08/2012 10:12

We have something in our loft- sounds too big to be a mouse.

It is doing my head in! It wakes me up at night running along the top if plasterboard ceilings underneath the insulation.

Then it tries to get out of the loft hatch and you can hear it pulling at the insulation on top of the hatch.

We have also had one in the kitchen cupboard (mouse though I reckon).
It got in through the holes for the kitchen drainage. From our garage/ utility room.

Apparently I heard on the news that due TI the weather they are taking shelter inside houses.
Also our neighbours got rid of their chickens so possibly their habitat has been removed.

We have baited and set traps. But it is a persistent little begger!

MaryPoppinsBagsGold · 06/08/2012 10:14

BTW they are talking about rats on The Right Stuff this morning. Must've read your thread!