To think this may not be a rat?

[mickyinthekitchen]

My sister called me this evening for a catch up and she told me she has a mouse in the kitchen and said she heard it scurrying in the kitchen one day.

She then said it had eaten 2 and a half hot dog buns. Can’t be a mouse right?

I had a problem with mice last year and had some traps which coincidentally fell to bits as soon as I took them up tonight, so can’t use them. She said there’s been no droppings anywhere and the area where her bread is kept is on a breakfast bar and I can’t reasonably think a rat or a mouse could get to that height. There’s nothing to climb on ? She does have two breakfast stools though.

I took this picture of some footprints I found but I think it’s too big to be a rat. Any ideas?

She’s going to get the exterminator round but she also showed me the door where it’s chewed it. Do rats do this? Does she have another type of uninvited guest?

It’s probably a rat. Have you seen the size of their back feet?

They can also climb up walls so breakfast bar wouldn’t be a problem.

I sadly had a problem with them last year!

Get rat traps put out ASAP!

Please don’t tell me that is it’s tail at the top left of the photos? 😭

Could be a squirrel?

Just put snap traps down, The big cheese ones are great. if no mice caught in a week, order a rat one. Rats are more cautious.

Rats can be huge

Heavens no! I had to have another look then haha!

What baffles me is that there are no droppings, we even pulled the appliances, checked the cupboards and not one dropping where.

There’s a small opening in her cupboard where boiler is and the pipes are which is the most likely place to be allowing entry but just baffles me about not having droppings present anywhere at all. She’s really clean and tidy as well (as much as you can be with a 2 year old) doesn’t leave food on the work tops, washing up is always done. Bin emptied regularly never leaves dirty nappies in the house or on the floor. Don’t know if this makes a difference.

Can you get squirrels in the home?

Ah didn’t know they are more cautious. I didn’t think they would be intelligent mammals

Rats are super intelligent

The no droppings is weird. Could the 2yr old be having a midnight snack?

Can you borrow one of these from a friend?

Gratuitous Cat Photo - (he hasn't caught anything more than a feather) but look at the claws on this baby

Honestly they are very cautious.

I also have a very clean house that i moved into last year. A week after moving there it became apparent there were rats in the walls. They then broke through to under the kick boards in the kitchen. We trapped six in total and one was absolutely huge. There were never any droppings though!

After months and months environmental health spoke to our horrid neighbours and put pressure on them to sort the problem out as they were the cause.

Rats can take ages to trust a trap. Mice are more "yay! foood!"

We only get mice in the house in the dead of winter - they're happy with the bird food when they're not freezing their nuts off.

Rats CAN chew through anything though....
I’d see what exterminator thinks.
On the hot dog buns....a rat would chew through the plastic bag around the buns. WAS the bag chewed through?

True stealth cat, 70

Cats truly are best home defence against rodents.

Mice chew through bags, too. My first inkling was a box of dorset muesli that I'd not moved out of the hall immediately a delivery - hole in the bottom of the plastic bag, overnight. Little bastard!

Put candles on the floor for a couple of nights, big ones, mice love eating candles for some reason, that's how I figured out we had a couple. There was a big candle on the bottom of my fire place in a glass jar and one day I noticed tiny droppings and scratch marks on the top of it.

That cat is a beauty. Majestic creature!

I’m not sure on the wrapper she didn’t say and it’s too late to ask her now but imagine that eating 2 bloody hot dog buns. I’d be asking for money! I can laugh about it because it’s not my home but I remember when I had mice I wanted to walk round on stilts.

I did think it could be an issue from the neighbours but she lives in an end of terrace house and her neighbours have 2 tinamous dogs and they are quite vicious.

She mentioned under her kitchen it’s like a massive hollow space (she mentioned her neighbour had turned his into some kind of cellar, for an idea of size)

It must be terrifying having rats, it was bad enough with mice! Think the exterminator caught about 6 with us and they were Reasonably sized themselves!

She also said if the rat could get on the breakfast bar why has her galaxy hot chocolate powder not being touched? Might be a Cadbury kinda rat? Jokes but can they smell through a plastic pouch like that?

What do you think about the chewing of the door?

As much as someone is going to go mental about it: electric rat traps from Amazon. It’s the only thing that works for them and mice unless you want to do glue paper which I think is a thousand times worse. You load them up with about eight zillion batteries and they kill them instantly.

No one will go mental, user, except people who haven't thought about it properly. Quick death is the kindest.

@PickAChew exactly. It isn’t nice but it’s the only thing that gets them out of the house...