Rat stuck in Kitchen - help

[SickOfRats]

A bit of background - We have had a rat problem on and off for the past year since lockdown began. We've spent to the tune of 1k on pest control, a drain survey and traps/deterrents. We just haven't been able to get to the bottom of where they are coming in from but now reckon that it may be the kitchen extension roof due to identifying a few holes under some raised tiles. They have only ever been in the kitchen.

We decided it's best to get the whole reroof done. DH contacted over a dozen roofers in the past couple of days and only two answered(!), one said he is booked up until October and the other gave us a quote which was ridiculously high and therefore unaffordable for us. As a temporary measure DH and his friend climbed up onto the roof yesterday and secured chicken wire mesh over the holes. It seems to have worked... except now we have a trapped rat in the kitchen and it's currently sat on the washing machine. Luckily I don't need to go back in there for anything tonight but fucking hell, it's so brazen. I loudly banged on the living room/kitchen door (it has a panel window so have been watching it from that and behind the safety of the closed door), and despite the loud noise it didn't jump, run or even move. The little fucker just stared back unstartled.

DH has set a couple of snap traps (smeared with peanut butter), and there are some sticky boards behind the kickboards (rather pointless as they have never worked for us), but what else can we do? Any ideas welcome.

And please, no cries of the 'traps are so inhumane' - these fuckers have made our lives a misery for the past year. They've given my child anxiety, given me sleepless nights, and we have had to put up with this all lockdown whilst trapped inside the house. I've been unwell on and off past few months with unexplained cramps and vomiting. I can't help wondering if it's because of the rodents. I disinfect all surfaces etc every morning but it's impossible to know where they may have wandered about. I'm very clean, no food ever left out, no trash inside overnight, and no crumbs on the floor/on surfaces. Why tf do they keep coming back? And more urgently, how do I get this one out of my kitchen??

Poison. I know you said the smell, but if all exits sealed
Bait down, pick up body, resume normal life

I don't know your area, but there is probably similar.

Friends had a big rat problem and only thing that got rid of it was a cheap night vision camera from eBay. Turned out they weren't getting in where they thought.

Can you leave the door open and wait until it comes out then run back in and shoe it out the door?

Thanks @MorriseysGladioli I'm very far from London but will do some research and see if there is anything similar available near me.

It does sound hopeful.
Their blurb says their dogs can suss out a sneaky rat and kill it in minutes.
Good luck!

@Japanesejazz the problem is we can't get access to the cavity wall where we reckon it's coming down from because of the kitchen cupboards. Short of ripping out all the kitchen cupboards we can't really seal all exits. I know for a fact with poison it will likely go off to die in the roof. The smell made me ill and then there was the aftermath of maggots and flies.

I had a nasty incident when a neighbour who must have been a scruffy git moved out and a whole zoo worth of creatures arrived in search of food. It stopped pretty quickly with just bucket loads of poison. We had a storage area just for pet food that they began raiding and I haven't seen a single one since. They also chewed through a wall to reach our pantry cupboard. Seriously just lots of poison but be careful if you have pets or young children to make sure it's used safely.

@marbleborough I like the camera suggestion. We have done the flour test in the past which was a total flop as the pae prints were absolutely everywhere and it was impossible to tell anything. I'm not brave enough to open the door and shoe it, nor is DH. He told me they go for the throat if threatened.

Put the washing machine on a boil wash for starters? We got a cat from a farm 15 years ago, she was a good ratter, no problems since, touch wood. Chicken mesh will not do any good, rather you need 6'' steel plate.

I know that for mice, chicken mesh is recommended, with steel wool cemented into the gappy bits of the mesh.
Mice can't chew through that.
I dunno about rats though.

Yes, first thing wild rats will do when cornered is bite you
We’ve got wasps nesting in our walls at the moment, we’ve poisoned them but they will be back in the spring 😢
What a nightmare for you
Can you take all food and water away from them? I know it’s a pain
But if they can’t find anything easily accessible they might go away
And leave some used cat litter around their access points, cat smells deter them

We've got a mice problem that's been making us ill for months too.
Tried to block them out and they've chewed through carpets and the skirting boards.
We use humane traps and release them back into the wild far away.
Somehow they keep coming back though?

Rats will chew through chicken wire. You need to use wire wool to block any holes.

Jeez. You don't happen to have a back door in your kitchen and leave it open so the rat can get out?

We had a rat problem. The bastards ate a whole packet of bourbons in one night. Unbelievable. Yours sound terrifying btw...

If you're in the north east I've seen on Facebook there's a lad that goes ratting with his two Jack russells and I have seen a company that does the same but somewhere else in the country.

You have 2 options:
Pack your family up, abandon the house, and let the rats have it for their new Rodent Kingdom. Or;
Burn it all to the ground.

That rat catching service! Unbelievable

Use basic cheap brillo pads to block holes & before you block them stuff loads of cheap poison pellets down. I had a mouse problem & the expensive rentokil stuff didn't work so I bought two drums of the cheap stuff from a 24 hour mini Market & was mouse free within 48 hours. Check all your outside walla for missing pointing or holes for sky or TV aerial cables, block any holes with cement. If you have any long grass or wasteland near your home it would pay you to get it cut down as this often attracts rats & mice.

@SickOfRats I can whole hearted agree with a terrier! We paid a company 300 to put massive snap traps down and they caught 4 then the bait killed 3? But our dog killed 9 and I have to say he got the job done very quickly. He did want to bring them to me though that was grim! 14 year old mongrel with a lot of terrier! Never seen him so energised!

@SickOfRats go on Facebook and search insert your town here rat packs and ignore all band options! There are people with working terriers who will flush them out for probably £50

I feel for you op. I have had around 4 rats in my house. A couple have been young rats.
One was like the size of a cat. There was one in my garden yesterday during the day when the kids were playing . My dog attacked it. We have had mice as well. Sadly my kids think it's as normal as having a spider in the house
I had to pull out kitchen base units to fill holes with wire wool and expanding foam. The only place I can't get to us where the sink is as I cant pull it out. But sounds gross but I did use a tiny bit of used cat litter i put it near where the water pipes run. It was not enough for people to smell just a really small amount. I seemed to have stopped getting them now

@elephantoverthehill it was sat on top of the washing machine, not inside? So I can't boil it to death. Unless you are suggesting it may scarper due to the sound/vibrations of the machine running but it has nowhere to run to.

The first PC company we called out used really strong chicken wire (repeatedly folded so no holes) before cementing over it. He told me that's what they use now and it's effective. The chicken wire DH used is the same really strong stuff. I'm hoping it will work until we can find a proper solution to the roofing.

@chorizoTapas I had the back door open during the day. It didn't leave. I can't leave door open in the evening as we have a HUGE rat population in the area, worsened since lockdown, and our crap council won't do anything about it. We have seen huge holes in the tarmac outside made by rats.

Smoke it out. Can you make some smoke with something (it would of course make the kitchen grimy and smelly but this might be worth it) so smoke wafted up the holes to the roof, rat comes down, more smoke in kitchen with the door open. Rat runs out. There used to be smoke makers for testing chimneys, not sure if you can still get them.

Few years back we had a rat in our living room wall by our sofa, it would thrash about every night inside the walls, really freaked us out.
We plugged in a big cheese sonic repellent into the wall socket, pressed the test button down on long continuous bursts every so often over a few hours that first night then leaving it plugged in and the rat actually went!! My tenant had the same problem in their bedroom wall.(we’re in London btw) Sent them one, plugged it in did the same and again gone! Thankful I didn’t have to open up walls both times.

Reading the reviews I see it doesn’t work for everyone but it did for us, twice! Worth a try if you haven’t already, maybe get a couple!

Hope you get it sorted soon, sounds awful!

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000QF1FJO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_8K49G1Q7WPWN1T4KHMPZ?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Have you spoken to your local council, my council will come out free of charge to deal with a rats. Don’t bother buying an ultrasonic device, they don’t work. You need to find out how they are getting in, I would expect from the drain. If so you need to have installed a device that will let the water drain but will not open the other way to let the rats enter. I used to know a pest controller, he knew every trick in the book! Good luck OP.