####RATS#####

[Iamtheoneandonly2018]

Warning this might freak you out. ( I am soooooo freaking out).
Heard ( scratching )noises in loft and had a bar of vanish soap completely eaten under sink last month - presumed mice but have cat so rang pest control. They came out today - said my loft stinks ( apparently strong pungent urine smelll) and big pile of rat droppings in corners of loft. Pest control put bait down but there are another 2 visits - 1to check drains / sewers but they are busy and may be after Xmas. Reassuring replies needed please.

It will be just fine OP, pest control will know what they are doing. (As much as I love my pet rats wild rats make me feel a bit grossed out if they find themselves indoors)

Pest control will get rid of them. Just ensure food is kept safe - put your cereal in lidded boxes, make sure the food bin is emptied before bed that sort of thing and it won’t encourage them to come down from the loft. They are only interested in potential food at the end of the day. No easy access to house food will encourage them take the bait.

Once they have nibbled the bait they have no chance of living (it’s not a very nice way for them to go).

They don’t seem to be causing many problems in your main house and I doubt they will start now especially if you do what you can to discourage them.

I'm another that likes pet rats. I don't mind wild ones either but obviously not in my house.

But I think you're overreacting. You weren't too bothered when you thought it was mice and there really isn't that much of a difference. Both are unwelcome, unsanitary guests - rats just have more stigma attached.

Keep food secure and let pest control do their thing.

Thanks for the reply. Just hope I can sleep tonight knowing they are above me!

Do be aware that if one dies in the walls/under the floorboards it will stink to high heaven for a bit. Doesn’t last forever but not nice while it’s decomposing.

We have been having a nightmare with rats for over 18 months. Initially they were in the loft, then somehow they got into house and kitchen. Husband saw one run across kitchen floor. Discovered they had come up from underneath the kitchen floor. They had pooed over kitchen work surfaces, in living room, behind computer desk, absolutely gross Called pest control, who just put bait and traps everywhere in loft and under floor. Managed to catch a few in traps. Pest control will only kill the rats, you need to work out how the blighters are getting in. They are in our cavity walls and underneath the ground floor, we have suspended floors throughout most of the ground floor. We have had all manhole covers up outside, new guttering fitted with chicken wire inside. Floor boards up in living room. Next step in new year is to have whole of downstairs flooring up to try and see where they are getting in. They have not had a food source in the house since we blocked all holes in floors but they still keep coming back into the cavity walls. We think there must be a cracked pipe leading into sewer system somewhere underneath the house. They have chewed through a heating pipe (plastic) leading to boiler packing up temporarily, chewed through cables under floor on landing (accessed via cavity wall) chewed through the ducting for the extractor fan in kitchen. I am contemplating burning the bloody house down to be honest. I would like to say that pest control will sort but in our experience they can help control an infestation but the rats will keep coming back due to them leaving scent trails. I can smell a distinct fusty stench whenever floorboards are up. We have checked all possible entry points from the outside and have bait boxes stationed in garden but never seen one there. Good luck with getting rid of them.They are very persistent!

Pest control are going to send someone to check where they are getting in ( pipes ) so will probably be a house insurance claim! FFS!

You also need to check if neighbours are being cavalier with piles of rubbish. Common near takaways

NDN has a dog ( I've not seen it being walked in months ) and let's it out on the street and is not in any hurry to clean up after it. He is heavily into keeping fit ( weights ) and there are flies around his bin in summer due to him only eating egg yolks and putting g the whites into the bin ( or is it the other way around?). Anyway suffice to say he's not the cleanest person I know. Do you think that could be the reason ( or a factor )? I live in a mid town house.

Hope this is a random coincidence btw- look what ads are popping up!

It's unusual but they can come in via your toilet so keep lid down and maybe something heavy on it incase you get a Rambo rat visiting you. They climb up drainpipes to get into the attic and are very nifty at entering through doors or windows left open. Even if you have a cat this doesn't stop mice/rats. They are incontinent which is why they come back.

Op if you haven't already done it you need to get your loft emptied of mess and any items up there that are affected out. They will keep coming back.

That ad won't be a co-incidence OP. It will be because you have been googling pest control.

Do those high pitched plug in things work on rats does anyone know? They are pretty good for mice to stop them coming back. Maybe you can try one in the loft?

We had a persistent rat problem in our loft for four years. Didn’t know how they were getting in but wasted thousands trying to find out/block entry points. But without the cooperation of neighbours it was next to impossible to fix. We sold up in the end. I thought I was going to have a breakdown, jumping out of my skin every time I heard the tell tale noises above our bed at night.

Like Ginormarse says, it’s usually to do with cracked sewer pipes. Rats need a source of water and don’t pitch up somewhere without a water source nearby.

I really, really hope you get rid of them quickly.

We had a rat problem last year; we found two very dead bodies in the roof space of the downstairs toilet when we were investigating a vile smell, and one in a wall space. It was awful. The cloakroom was in an extension and the rat/s we’re getting in through an old pipe which hadn’t been capped when the new pipe work went live - a common problem with extensions, apparently. We had a CCTV drain survey to find the problem and a ‘thing’ fitted (can’t remember what it was called) to stop them getting in.

Good luck in getting rid.

I haven't googled ( I darent - freaking out as it is )

Do those high pitched plug in things work on rats does anyone know?

No, they don't. We got them when we had mice, and they worked a treat.

Then rats decided to use the space under the kitchen floor as a maternity hospital. They weren't deterred in the slightest by the ultrasonic thingies.

Council rat man was brilliant, showed me exactly where they were getting in (a tiny bit of mortar missing in the outside wall) and explained that they were coming in to have their babies because it was so cold outside (winter of 2010). He told me that once the ratlings were big enough, they would leave.

My terriers had alerted me to their presence by their determination to dig up my kitchen floor to get at the fuckers. I might never have known otherwise. The rat man explained that the dogs would also let me know when they had buggered off again, and we could then repoint the entry point and stop them returning. He put poisoned bait in the loft, in case they'd got up there, but they hadn't.

His advice was sound and they've never come back, although we find a dead one in the garden every now and again, courtesy of surviving dog. He was also very reassuring, and told me that there was hardly a house in the area that hadn't had a rat problem and that it was no reflection on the cleanliness of my house.

One story he told freaked me out a bit though. (Nervous MNers should stop reading here!)

He'd been to a house that had clear evidence of rat infestation, but he couldn't find where the rats were nesting. He asked the owners if he could bring his own dog (border terrier) round to see if she could sniff them out.

She quickly homed in on where they were. They had nested behind a built-in cabin bed in a child's bedroom, inches from where the child had been sleeping!

Rats need a source of water and don’t pitch up somewhere without a water source nearby.

I sometimes see a rat scampering across our garden and going through to next door. I've wondered if it's because next door have a small pond.

They also have chickens, so there's grain lying around for rats to eat as well.

Urgh, I had pest control round today for the same thing. In our cavity wall, under the floor, and in the loft. All in the (single-storey) extension. I suspect they are in the drains and that is the problem. We shall see.

We had a rat come into the house last year. I am pretty certain he came in from the living room French doors. (DH had a bad habit of not closing them properly when he goes into the garden at night for a quick smoke).

Anyway rats are generally very noisy and make their presence known. Ours was darting here and there but from sitting room to kitchen. Eventually he was caught (in a box) and DH tossed it outside. But it kept comint back into the garden and trying to get in. The cheek!

I called pest control out to be on the safe side as I was so freaked out. They didn't find any more but gave some great advice. Not to leave food out.
Use plastic containers etc for cereals and all other such foods.
If you can avoid keeping food in the lower kitchen cupboards then its best to do so (tinned stuff is fine).
Empty kitchen bin daily.
Bleach and disinfect everything regularly. No crumbs on floor, countertops.
Don't let bits of food down the sink plughole. It makes it's way down and rats feed off it. It's making them fatter and multiply more.
Keeping the rest of the house crumb free and clean.

We’ve had recurrent ‘visitors’ in our cavity walls and floors for several years. We try to convince ourselves it’s mice but the noise they make were not so sure. We put down poison and it rids them for a while but eventually more take their place. Let’s hope your pest control people find the dead bodies if they’re baiting because if you think the urine smell is bad, wait until you have a dead rodent rotting away. That will be followed a week or two later by the flies......

Pest control guy told us nine times out of ten it's rats that enter homes, not mice. Even if they look small.

shudder