Am I cohabiting with rats??

[rattymcratrat]

Sorry- posting in AIBU for traffic and as I don't really know where else fits.

We live rurally, there is a river close and a pheasant shoot locally (so food bins dotted around the fields) -we have a few chicken about 100m from the house, and historically (20years ago) dogs were bred by the NDNs.

My cat killed a few young rats in the summer, outdoors. And I assume attracted by the chickens.

It has been very cold the last few days and on 2 occasions we have seen a young rat in the house.

Now everyone says 'there is never just one rat' and I am waiting for pest control to ring me back, but I'm quite worried- is it possible that these 2 rats have been 'passing through' (driven in by the cold) or am I actually completely oblivious to the fact that my house is probably overrun with rats?? (not envy-obvs)

We are quite a large household and there is someone here, making noise all day, 3 cats.

Did the cats catch the rats in the daytime? Rats generally come out at night. When the population gets so large that food is scarce the young rats come out in the day to feed as at night they get chased off by the adults. Rats out in the daytime is a sign the population is really quite large.

If you have wooden floors downstairs on joists it's quite likely there's rats under the floors, and you wouldn't necessarily hear them like you would if they were under the upstairs floors.

Quite likely because you've seen rats, not because rats under floors is inevitable! Sorry, I read that back and it was a bit ambiguous!

Hmm...the rats prev caught by cat were 'found' by me in morning, probably killed overnight.

Solid floors downstairs, mainly solid wall building but old and draughty! Lots of tiny little holes no doubt.

That is interesting info, thank you, all all that have been seen/found are young so definitely a large population

Hopefully the pest controllers sort them out. Rats can be difficult to control because they're quite cautious, the opposite to mice which are curious, so you really need a professional to deal with rats.

Is there any strange smell that you can’t explain? I know someone who thought her young child or dog had wet the floor somewhere but could never find the spot but could smell wee - turned out later that rats were living in the walls and they were soaked with wee and she’d been looking on the floor for the source of the smell! Take a torch and look into any crawl spaces/under floors/in loft/at back of cupboards for any signs of chewing or droppings.

No strange smell and I have been super vigilant with vacuuming and mopping everywhere before we go to bed, ensuring there are no crumbs or appealing tidbits left around,

I found mice droppings in a kitchen cupboard but it was definitely a rat that was seen!!

Bloody hell, you're very relaxed about this, OP. I would honestly have to move out. Once I saw a rat running through my garden in the day time and that had me on the phone straight away to the council.

Haha I'm not relaxed, I'm clutching a cat everywhere I go!

Do you have a cat flap? They could have brought the rats in, or maybe the rats used the cat flap on their own to escape the cold.

Also is it common for a cat to kill a rat? I thought rats were fierce and can give cats a run for their money, although my cat is a wimp anyway. Haha.

We had a cat that was a ratter - bloody thing brought them in to play with - I became an expert at catching them by the tail and chucking them out the window at 4am..... we live by countryside as well ... you get used to it, if you didn't you'd have a nervous breakdown.

Yes we have a cat flap, but there is a solid door between porch and kitchen, so nothing that comes in the cat flap should be able to get into the rest of the house.

Lots of cats will catch rats- we have one adopted old girl who was a fierce ratter in her day and 2 big soft boys who wouldn't know what to do if confronted with a bumble bee.