AIBU to think I have a monster rat living in my cupboard?

[Dandelionrarrrr]

I have a hole in our food cupboard’s floor boards near a pipe. It’s quite large now.
I have accidentally not locked the cupboard when I left the dog home alone. He destroyed it, rice, cereal flour everywhere! Was not best pleased. I noticed the hole looked a bit bigger. So I stuffed a couple of wire scourers down it. Next day, they weren’t visible. I thought they may have fallen through. So as an experiment I stuffed a tea towel in it to block it. The next day I couldn’t see the tea towel. Thought it was a bit too weird, thought it may have been swept up in the washing or moved unintentionally by the kids. So I thought I’d shove an old apron in it so there was no mistaking the whereabouts.

Well, I wake up the next day and the apron was still there, I lifted it out and I was not prepared for what I saw. The apron was SHREDDED!!!
Ahhhhhhh!!!

I’m so confused though, no sign of poo or wee or any eating of any food in the cupboard. There’s plenty in there. No tiny bite marks. What is going on?!
What do I do?!

Pest control. Now. You won't see rodent wee, they trail it about the place constantly tho. Rodent droppings are small, like little brown grains of rice. And in the meantime perhaps move any food out of there? Dog was probably going crazy about the rats. There's never just one.

I think it's odd you haven't seen poo, rat poo is certainly NOT tiny, it is considerably bigger than grains of rice (even mouse poo is a bit bigger than that).

One way to tell is to leave the cupboard empty but for some bait and sprinkle the cupboard bottom with flour .... then leave it for a good two or three days.

Rats and to a lesser extent, mice, are neophobic, scared of new things and it takes them a few days to trust and overcome that fear of a change in environment.

After a few days, go back and look and if there has been a rat in, you'll see foot prints and the drag marks of their tails.

We’ve had mice in a different house and they ransacked a loaf of bread. You really knew they were there droppings everywhere.

Thanks for the tip about flour. Difficult thing is I have nowhere to put the food! It’s going to take some real thinking. Half of me would prefer it to be a demogorgen from stranger things or something 🤣 rats that don’t eat food and just terrorise a dog and steal tea towels!

We had a little field mouse in the cupboard at our old house. It used to come in the winter to get out of the cold. It never ate anything apart from dog biscuits and we never saw droppings. Knew it was there as we saw it with our own eyes! I got kind of fond of it over the years we lived there. Kinda miss it actually

Can you totally block the hole with wire wool? Apparently it’s the one thing they can’t chew through.
I’ve had the shredded tea towel - it’s grim. I did resort to poison and one died under the floorboards - the smell was the worst thing ever.

Maybe it's goblins? Bit odd you've not seen droppings! I second the flour, or just get pest control out. Hope you get it sorted

Or an escaped hamster...

My pet gerbils escaped once and chewed by brothers Burberry shirt when they were the thing to wear in the 90s. It was a targeted attack, it seemed.

That tea towel is lining a nest full of baby rats, isn’t it? 🤢

Gerbils have taste, clearly.
(I remember those shirts, EURGH)

Stuff it with metal scouers and then use expandable foam to fill the gap. You can cut it down and sand it later.