AIBU?
To have had it with this rodent problem
Feckfeckfeck123 · 07/04/2021 11:51
I'm not sure how much more I can take. We have had a rodent problem on and off since last summer, with them getting into the single storey kitchen extension. We hear them in the roof space and there is also evidence of them getting inside the kitchen (some packets of cereal and pasta tampered with, biscuit and flour test). Called out pest control twice - private companies as council won't help due to Covid. PC put the usual poison down but weren't able to help identify the entry point(s), simply recommended we have a drain survey as it might be a defect in a drain that goes under the building. Spent £££s on a cctv drain survey but turns out drains are fine and the contractor suggested we recheck our roof. The roofer has identified some holes which MAY be the entry point but DH thinks we should have the whole roof redone. There are lots of small holes and raised tiles which can't be nailed down without causing breakage. We have spent close to 1k already and simply can't afford to keep forking out like this.
To make the problem worse, a rat died in the roof space or cavity wall and the smell has been unbearable for weeks. PC came to remove it but failed to locate it. Since last week I've found maggots in the kitchen, which I'm guessing is due to the hidden corpse. My kitchen is always really clean, food put away, no crumbs anywhere like the rest of the house. I have always ensured my house is immaculate. We have a small baby and whilst I should be spending my time enjoying the early months I'm at my wits end constantly worrying about them getting into the rest of the house.
WIBU to torch the place if the problem persists even after we get the roof done next week? 
Am I being unreasonable?
AIBUYou have one vote. All votes are anonymous.
pheasantsinlove · 07/04/2021 12:03
I feel your pain. I get them in the roof every winter. We always manage to get rid by putting poison sachets all around to edge of the loft but it stinks when they die somewhere. Have never been able to trap one and have never seen one, but I've found droppings in the loft and heard scratching in the night. Every year we think yaaay we've solved it... and the next winter the little fuckers find their way back in (obviously not same ones as poison them each year!)
We have no idea how they get in. Can't find any gaps around house perimeter, drain checked no issues found. They're just sneaky bastards who seem to think my loft is their winter retreat! It's embarrassing!
Feckfeckfeck123 · 07/04/2021 12:19
If they remained in the roof space I wouldn't be too fed up. But with them sneaking into the kitchen at night it sickens me to think where they must be going. For a long time I could smell a really pungent smell of urine every morning until I bleached it all. God knows where they've been pissing.
I agree with the embarrassment. Family/friends must think my house is really dirty which is why they suggest I keep on top of the cleaning as a deterrent. My house IS bloody clean! I haven't had visitors because of lockdown but that doesn't mean I've let things slide. Now with the maggots I can't even bring to tell my DM about it.
Retrievemysanity · 07/04/2021 12:34
We have a cat, still have rats though! We managed to get the council out and the bloke said the poison we were using wasn’t very good. He put some of his poison down in the loft and that worked wonders. For the smell, buy neutradol air fresheners off Amazon, seriously they are fantastic.
antidisestablishmentarianism · 07/04/2021 12:37
Better pest control company? We (commercial, rural, near river/chickens/recent building)are very prone to rodents. Have a company come in and put down tracer bait to see where they are and then active bait to kill them, and traps too (baited with Nutella). We are totally on top of it, but they are attracted to us because of food, warmth, shelter, disturbance where they are.
It is literally a game of cat and mouse....but if you stay on top of it you will keep rodents out from the living parts at least. They are expensive because it is an on going contract but worth every penny.
jessycake · 07/04/2021 12:52
I had them at christmas , although it didn't eat through any packets , but gnawed my doors a wooden pan stand etc. You can buy a uv torch and uv food blocks that show where they run . My pest control lady said they usually find away to get in at a lower level then go up . We are hoping it was some small gaps in our brickwork where we took out an outside tap and made a poor job of fiiling the hole in. So far we haven't heard anything for several weeks and some of the bait was taken .
Tal45 · 07/04/2021 13:39
We get mice in the roof quite often and they got into our kitchen one year, we put poison down every few months or as soon as we hear them. How are they getting from the roof space into the kitchen itself? That's what I'd be most concerned about but should be much easier to identify then to work our where they're coming into the roof space.
Feckfeckfeck123 · 07/04/2021 15:08
The PC companies I used are local, independent ones (I would never bother with Rentokil and the like), and have the best online reviews. The only other decent one is so busy they've stopped doing domestic work. I've been told one reason the rodent problem has massively increased this last year is that councils are not sewer baiting like they used to due to cutbacks and Covid etc. So the rats have multiplied in huge numbers therefore coming out of the sewers and entering properties in the search for food and shelter.
@Tal45 we think they are travelling from the roof down into the cavity wall and entering the kitchen. The rat guy's theory was due to a possible defect in the drain, they have dug up the concrete under the floor and entering kitchen, as well as going up the cavity wall and into the roof. But as I mentioned the drains are fine so the roof must be the entry point. If we get that fixed then hopefully they will stop getting into the kitchen also.
HappyGoPlucky · 07/04/2021 15:18
I know it's huge/expensive but could you replace the roof on the single story extension?
My MIL had same issue with mice and it was only getting the roof ripped off and redone that it went away. Lots of work had been done badly over the years and when they redid the roof they found hundreds of mouse nests up there between the ceiling and the roof. 
I wonder if your single story extension was done poorly or if the roof is starting to fail now?
We had an issue with slugs getting into our crappy old kitchen and it was only resolved when we got new kitchen and had all pointing and plastering done again.
HappyGoPlucky · 07/04/2021 15:24
Sorry - I see from your OP your DH already suggested getting roof fixed. I think he may be right! I was really surprised mice got in through the roof but that was were they were coming from in my MIL's house. PC were absolutely useless.
Hundreds of mouse nests in there, OP! In literally every possible space over decades. My MIL was nearly sick. 
Definitelyrandom · 07/04/2021 15:38
We have mice about the place every two or three years and always use mouse traps (with bits of mars bar and/or nigella seeds on them) which seem to work much better than poison. At the moment we have a least one rat living under the floorboards in one downstairs room. They pop out into the garden through a ventilation space. They are too cunning for traps but we shot one with an air rifle and blocked the ventilation space while the other one was in the garden. That lasted for a couple of weeks but it's just dug its way through the soil under the block. Back to the air rifle........It feels a bit like one of those daft American cartoons from the 1960s.
Lovewinemorethanhusband · 07/04/2021 15:51
We had issues last year with mice and they spread everywhere in the house the last straw was finding one in the cot of my baby when I pulled the covers back to put her in for a nap, it was barbaric but we used poison abd we caught and killed about 25 !!! I then got the house rerendered and all the holes covered up and touch wood we've been clear since but honestly it was hideous!! We had this house from family and they said every year they would get loads of mice but I didn't think it would be so bad ! Hope you get rid of them soon !!.
ceilingsand · 07/04/2021 16:04
Could they be getting in under the floor? We once had a problem in our Victorian house and the council rat team found that they got in under the subfloor 2 houses away, ran down to our house under the shared floor space and gnawed their way up through a tiny hole they created in the floorboard where the radiator pipe came up. They sorted it pronto.
Feckfeckfeck123 · 07/04/2021 16:11
@HappyGoPlucky that made me shudder! The roofer coming next week has been warned there may be a surprise up there when he rips the roof off.
@idontlikealdi he gave us a couple of deodariser pods which helped to some extent but the smells been lingering for weeks. It heightens in hot weather. I will order that neutradol stuff suggested upthread.
Feckfeckfeck123 · 07/04/2021 16:13
@ceilingsand the floor is concrete, I'm not sure if they have space under there to run freely. The PC thought it was a drain defect which they could possibly be entering from but that isn't the case. He checked behind the kickboads etc and there are no holes or debris to suggest where they are coming in from.
WaltzingToWalsingham · 07/04/2021 18:56
Yes, a keen terrier can help a lot!
Where are you, roughly, OP? If you're rural and know of any game keepers, they may be able to come round with a Patterdale terrier, for a small fee.
If you're near London, I can PM you the name of the company we used a couple of years ago. They did a great job.
JumpLeadsForTwo · 07/04/2021 19:10
I get your pain - we have removed 27 rats in the last year. All gone quiet now but it was driving DH mental - didn't want to use poison as when we did initially, one died between ceiling and floor and stank the house out. So traps baited with peanut butter were our way of getting rid of them, along with replacing all the plastic air vents. We have a cat, and the scurrying up walls, along ceiling was driving him bonkers too!! If they are coming into the kitchen, look at all the pipe entries
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