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Original poster

Dead rat

53 replies

Unusualusernames · 15/09/2021 17:28

Sorry to any animal lovers. I saw a giant rat in my kitchen the size of a kitten last week and put down poison. Now my whole kitchen reeks of fetid rotting rat. I assume it's dead under the floor boards. Taking them up is not an option. Does anyone have any advice????

Not sure where else to put this. I know I am BU but the smell is driving me mental and I'm working from home Sad

OP posts:
Maneandfeathers · 15/09/2021 18:04

We had this at work once and it was horrific!
We had to get pest control to come and move the body as nobody would work in that room.

In future I would use a snap trap, much more humane plus you can remove it once it’s dead. Poison is a grim way to go, even for a rat Sad

foreverchangingmyname · 15/09/2021 18:12

@VeganVeal

There's a rat in me kitchen what am I goin' do?
😂😂😂.

I do not envy you op, we had one in work once, was first assumed to be a gas leak. That was nearly 10 years ago and I still get nausea flashbacks 🤢.

I prefer oust over fabreeze as it seems to clear the smell a bit more. And if you see any spiders, leave them be. You'll be thankful of them when the flies start

Glssr195726113493 · 15/09/2021 18:14

Meh, you reap what you sow. You killed him horribly, he’s stinking out your house.

41sunnydays · 15/09/2021 18:17

@BleachEyes

Kinda serves you right for poisoning it rather than trapping to release. Horrible, painful death.
Have you had rats before ?
PhoboPhobia · 15/09/2021 18:18

@StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind

You are brave . I think I would have moved out.

I'd have burnt the house down! Aaargh! This is the stuff of nightmares for me.

Me too. It makes my palms sweat just thinking about it Shock
VaguelyInteresting · 15/09/2021 18:21

Oh this happened to me. Landlord wouldn’t believe me that the smell was as bad as it was, but after I came into the kitchen one morning to find thousands of blue bottles flying up through the backs of the cupboards... he had to come out and take a look.

He walked in, gagged at the smell and then took the floor up to find a dead rat on a heating pipe, clearly cooking every time the heating went on. It was the size of a small cat (not an exaggeration) and heaving with maggots.

I moved out a month later and it still stunk.

I’d just knock the house down personally.

DismantledKing · 15/09/2021 18:22

@Frogsonglue

Yep you've just got to ride it out, it's grim. And as pp said, you're not allowed to trap and release rats, and it would be a shit thing to do on all sorts of levels (for the rat and for other people). So poison is your only option really unless you're good with a shotgun.
I now have a mental image of the OP letting loose with a shotgun in her kitchen
DontStepOnTheMomeRathz · 15/09/2021 18:29

Oh this happened to us with a mouse. Got stuck under the floor in the hall and the smell was awful.

Think it subsided in 7-10 days but we never noticed flies?

LimitIsUp · 15/09/2021 20:08

Same as above, 7-10 days and I didn't notice flies either. Think ours was in cavity wall

SweetBabyCheeses99 · 15/09/2021 20:19

Hmm I used to live in an apartment block where the management company made the mistake of putting down rat poison. The smell was horrific and lasted for a good couple of months. They were really apologetic though and admitted it was the wrong strategy. Think we got £450 of John Lewis vouchers to try to make up for it!

BFCfairy · 15/09/2021 20:32

You will get loads of flies and maggots so I would do what other suggest and see if you can find it behind cabinets.

If not tape up with tape all round the floor and kick board walls skirting etc like you were putting a border round it. I used frog tape and gorilla tape depending on surface.

This might not help the smell loads but will help with the maggots.

They might even get into your cabinets.

I had dead rats behind our wall and this is from experience. Maggots can also climb...

For smell try the bin fresheners and neutordor(??) The stuff that attempts to absorb smell.

Won't be great but will help.

PixieLaLa · 15/09/2021 22:51

There’s never just one rat….

VaguelyInteresting · 15/09/2021 23:51

A rat is a lot bigger than a mouse. There’s not enough in a mouse to get a real colony of flies/maggots going. A dead animal roughly the size of a cat though? Yeah. They develop a ducking ecosystem of their own.

DontStepOnTheMomeRathz · 16/09/2021 00:18

🤢

NiceGerbil · 16/09/2021 00:23

Get a kitchen fitter to have a look as they will know where the gaps are?

That's all I can suggest.

And apart from that. I was talking to DH about rats the other day. We know they are very successful and all over the place. There were a couple at a pond the other day I mean so what.

However. I think it's more than reasonable to kill a rat in your house! What if it's pregnant and you don't catch it in time to re-home? If it knows how to get in then unless you go miles it'll just come back.

I always wonder where the line is with killing other creatures. I'm sure everyone has one. Some have it in a different place. And rat in house is really not good.

Fraine · 16/09/2021 00:24

You should have used poison that has dessicant in it, that mummifies and dries out the rat so there is no smell.

mummaelle · 16/09/2021 00:33

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steff13 · 16/09/2021 00:35

@Frogsonglue

Yep you've just got to ride it out, it's grim. And as pp said, you're not allowed to trap and release rats, and it would be a shit thing to do on all sorts of levels (for the rat and for other people). So poison is your only option really unless you're good with a shotgun.
Are you all not allowed to use snap traps?
StoneofDestiny · 16/09/2021 00:42

I agree - there is never just one rat!

As for 'releasing them' 😱 Ridiculous - like releasing bed bugs and cockroaches.

DontStepOnTheMomeRathz · 16/09/2021 00:44

My seven year old shamed me out of buying fly spray the other day. “You can’t kill living creatures, that’s wrong!”.

I put the damn spray back.

But I’m sorry, rats and mice? There’s no real alternative.

PiratePetespajamas · 16/09/2021 00:45

We moved 🤷🏻‍♀️

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 16/09/2021 00:51

We had this. It takes 6 weeks to go and you need Oust spray which helps.

Ijustknowitstimetogo · 16/09/2021 00:56

You have my sympathies. It’s happened to me a couple of times. Utterly shocking at first.

Ideally find it and remove it. But if you can’t (and you probably won’t):

It will gradually get worse each day and reach a crescendo of sickening stench. If it’s a big rat the smell will last up to 6 weeks, but that’s all.

Then the smell will suddenly disappear virtually over night.

You’ll wonder how you’re going to cope with the smell, but you will eventually. You’ll learn to live with it for a few weeks.

You need a an industrial odour counteractant (or 2). They’re the only thing that will put a dent in the smell. I use PX19 or PX17.
You can get them from some pest control suppliers websites.

Best of luck.

Fatya · 16/09/2021 02:34

I love rats - amazing little creatures, but having had rodent infestations in the past, sometimes you have no real choice but to kill them.

However, snap traps or similar are better. Poisoning rodents not only means a slow and painful death for them, but also for any wildlife or pets that eat them.

Also, as you now know, you end up with smelly, rotting animals in your home.

Using poison is just stupid and irresponsible.

Doingtheboxerbeat · 16/09/2021 03:03

Does the smell actually go or do you just get used to it 😳?