URGENT - mouse/rat in my home

[Cocacolathanks]

I feel like I’m going to throw up but I’ve just seen a massive rat/mouse run across my living room floor and into the storeroom.

I quickly did a house check and noticed a bag of new flour has been eaten into from the bottom (it was in the store room) + some fresh bread has been eaten BUT that bread was in my kitchen cupboard (bottom row).

I think I might just pass out. I only moved into this house a year ago and I’m not exactly unhygienic although I have 3 kids who can make a mess.

what the hell can I do?

how do I get rid of mice/rats?

i am not joking this is actually making me have a panic attack. I’m scared and disgusted.

Should say we also found where they were coming in and filled in the holes with a mix of cement and broken glass as pest control told us rats can eat through cement!

I'm terrified of them so feel your pain!
Best thing I found was the sticky pads from Amazon, my house was like a assault course the amount I had down! They are really effective though.

We used to get a lot of rats, it is horrible we lived in a crappy rented flat between a river and an restaurant that left food in open bins outside. The landlord didn't help, even though there was a vent broken by previous tenants that rats came through. Council will come out though.
Rats tend to make more mess, pee on things, have thick straighter tails and will take massive bites out of stuff. We came out to find one a good third of a way through a cantalope once. Everything edible needs to go in big thick tupperwares- that cantalope had been in a bag inside a cupboard and they still got it.

Rats chew through anything they chewed a big hole in the corner on our door plus through the bin so pretty sure you would know if it was a rat, get some traps down you'll catch it in no time, be warned tho there is probably more than 1.

Amazon traps with peanut butter.

While I get that snap traps are effective, I am so freaked out by rats and mice I couldn't bear to empty the traps, urgh.

I've heard they don't like Cayenne Pepper, does anyone know if those sonic repellents are any good?

Exterminator is expensive and all they do is put down traps and poison boxes that you can buy for a fraction of the cost on Amazon really. Ideally you need to find where it's getting in (check any holes in the walls around extractor fans etc-that's where they got in our house) and stuff them up with anti rodent wire wool (also Amazon or B and Q)

It doesn't mean you're unhygienic - just means you've got a gap somewhere.

Fill in gaps and get a cat. You need to make sure it’s a good cat; my naughty one brings live mice in to play with before she kills them.

In our rental property I saw something run under the broken vent under the oven. I shit myself. I am petrified of mice/rats.

Got the letting agents to contact pest control immediately. He came out the same day noticed a massive hole behind the kitchen cupboards on the kitchen wall. He then checked the loft and found droppings there too. He laid bait and came back within a couple of days and filled the hole, replaced the vent but left the bait down.

I don't think the OP is on the right frame of mind for that!

I don’t think I’d pick one up as it might bite and give me a disease

Rentokil for the short term. Cat for medium/long term.

Get a pest controller out who firstly will get rid of the problem and secondly fill in any entry points. Drains are a big source apparently. Oh and we’ve got a cat, likes killing mice outside but not inside, outrageous really.

It’s nothing to do with hygiene, just opportunity.

Ask UB40

Remove their food source and they will look elsewhere. Keep everything in airtight tins, not plastic boxes as they can eat through those. Block up any obvious entry holes and if possible borrow a Jack Russell or Border Terrier for back up. Job done. Seriously though, they aren't there for your company they are there because there's available food.

Call the council and pay for their pest controller. Ours was about £30-35 I think. They came several times last winter and put plenty of poison down.
Our cat was no use whatsoever.

You have my sympathy it's the most horrendous problem to have with your home. It feels like an invasion and it's disgusting and terrifying.

We had a huge rat infestation and used an independent pest controller as we own our home, the council services we could pay for were useless and slow.

The company used industrial strength controlled substances to poison them, they ate it and died in the walls and under the floorboards. When this happens the smell is absolutely horrific it smells like what you'd expect rotting bodies to smell like. But it does pass in about 2 weeks once they have all died.

The issue is finding the entry points and securing your home so no more can get in.

If you can find a nest then you need to leave it well alone so they don't realise they are being watched, just leave poison nearby. Nests usually contain bits of litter and torn up bits of plastic/paper.

Ours was an easy fix, there was a hole outside next to the kitchen wall where the concrete path had broken and they were going underground and finding a way in under the floorboards. We had it all refilled and filled all entry points in with concrete.

We had the drains checked with a camera to ensure there were no holes where they could enter through the sewers. Thankfully all our pipes were secure. It could have been a very expensive problem if we'd had to rip up all the garden patio to fix something underground.

If you have a good pest controller I promise it will get sorted. It was a long journey for us from finding the first droppings to feeling like our home was ours again, but 3 years on there hasn't been a single sign of a rodent in our house.

I wouldn't faff about with amateur rat traps and peppermint and whatever else, I would get a professional in asap and get it eradicated quickly.

We had rats. I hate killing stuff ( please don't use sticky pads they're really cruel). I took away/ put in metal boxes every scrap of food. Disinfected everything and got a plug in thing that makes a noise rodents don't like. No problems since. That was 8 years ago. I confess I would have got pest control in if that hadn't worked.

Given the choice would you take your chances of making a new life for yourself or take instant death by a huge metal pole cutting your body in two? I know what I’d go for, give the guy a chance 🤷🏼‍♀️

I do sympathise with you- I’m ok with spiders but I find mice and especially rats absolutely disgusting and frightening. I’ve encountered them back in my flatsharing days. Some of the messiest flat shares I lived didnt have them and some of the cleanest ones did . Go figure!

As pps have said it’s really about opportunity although they are more likely to hang about if they can find stray crumbs everywhere or clutter to hide in.

Personally I’d get a professional exterminator in straight away, they need to lay the traps or poison and also later seal the holes . That’s what happened in my last flatshare. I didn’t care what happens to them -as in live or die - as long as I don’t need to see them in my house and I don’t need to watch them dying.

A friend of mine used the glue pads and said she would wake up and see them trapped on the pad and then have to take them outside her flat and bash them to death. That sounds horrific to me although according to her it was very effective.

Get a cat.
Mine flushes out any rodent basically down our whole road. Plus frogs occasionally.

You need to find the droppings to see if it's a rat or mouse. Check near the flour. You can also find entry points and block them by looking for the droppings.

In addition to the earlier suggestions, put flour, bread and all other food in a rodent proof container and get scrupulous about cleaning and keeping every bit of food in a sealed container.

Was this meant to be funny?

I mean supposing the OP had lightning fast reactions to do this, and got a good grip and the rat didn't leap out of her hands and disappear at warp speed, they would be bitten pretty severely and likely be in need of a tetanus jab if they actually succeeded. Panicking rats bite hard and they produce deep and very dirty puncture wounds that are perfect homes for nasty infections.

OP, forget it for now.

Tomorrow, call a pest controller, in the meantime, rats want cover/shelter, food and water, and access to outdoors too, particularly if any of these are scarce.

Move all the potential food sources (including as much paper/plastic as they will eat these and use them as nest materials).

Store things in metal tins if they must be at floor level or in floor cupboards (or glass/ceramic jars).

Before you start moving stuff to remove cover, provide a clear exit from the house by opening the nearest exit door, and try not to get between rat and exit if at all possible.

Then remove as much clutter/stuff as possible to limit hiding places and shelter.

Check for any potential water sources and remove those too but do NOT block up any exit points you might find to outdoors or to wall/floor spaces... pest control will need to see those and may need to access them.

Rats are scared of new stuff and changes to their environment so they will not leave a safe space if all around has changed, unless absolutely desperate (probably for water) so it is unlikely to go wandering around your home aimlessly... as long as your bedroom is not where it is finding food/water (unlikely!!) you should not meet it again tonight!