RATS!!!!! Help!!!

[Annieinparis]

Moved house last week after my divorce was finalised. Second night there I hear something in the attic and wall. I tried not to panic and called pest control.

They’ve said its RATS. They’ve put down poison/traps and are coming back in 3 weeks. They couldn’t find the drains (no obvious drain cover) so I need to find our where they are so they can see if that is how they are getting in. Don’t know how to locate the drains though.

I feel broken. This was meant to be a fresh start in a lovely new house, but I can’t stand being here. I can’t eat or sleep. I feel sick.

Does anyone have any positive stories of resolving this. Please help!!!

Thanks for all the messages. I'm really struggling and have hardly slept.

I am going to phone the water company today to find out about getting the drain plan. Any ideas what else I should be doing?

Is it normal for pest control to only come back in 3 weeks? It seems like a long time.

I don't think rats are deterred too much by cats.

They're not even deterred by a terrier with a high kill rate. My lakeland terrier was killing 3+ a week when we had a bad rat problem in the area (which also coincided with 2 neighbours keeping chickens). She didn't stop them from coming into the house and using the space behind my kitchen cupboards as a maternity hospital, either. The rat would disappear for a couple of weeks and then come back to have another litter.

The council's pest control guy worked out where Mummy Rat was getting in, which was a surprisingly small gap where a bit of pointing was missing. The dogs knew when they were there and showed us by trying to dig up the kitchen floor to get to them! When we knew they weren't present, my lovely builder BIL came round and repointed all the bits where there were tiny gaps.

A few years later, we got another one, and it was the same method of entry but in a different place. The rat was going up through the cavity wall and into the loft. That one was trapped.

I really feel for you, OP. I was beside myself, especially with the second one, as I could hear it gnawing away in the loft at night and it kept me awake.

Six houses near me had to have all their drains dug up and relaid because rats had got in them, it cost each household several hundred.

I really hope you get shot of them soon.

Is it normal for pest control to only come back in 3 weeks? It seems like a long time.

I think that was about the interval between visits the first time I had them. It may be the length of a rat pregnancy, because it was about 3 weeks between each time the dogs got very agitated by hearing or smelling them.

my Sister is renting in London the landlord is doing nothing about the rats he says he will but does nothing it’s so frustrating

It doesn’t sound silly at all. I’ve had a problem with rats, don’t know if they’ve gone and have been up all night freaking out over every noise.
My advice would be to be patient. I changed things too much because I wanted them gone and then they ended up in the walls where I can’t even put traps or poison.
Rats are neophobic (they are wary of any change) so it might take a while for them to take poison or get trapped. My first pest controller came back after two weeks (he was rubbish)

We don’t have an inspection chamber at the back of our house so our drain survey wasn’t complete (couldn’t inspect drain at back of house). The pest control company think the solution is to get non return valves in the inspection chambers of other houses in the block and to proof our house

@SarahR71 What do they say needs to be done to proof your house?

Aww bless you, this is all you need and can totally understand why you are broken by this, this is meant to be your new safe haven after 2 years of misery.

I had mice recently in my attic and was down to the eaves not being done properly and birds had been getting in which attracted the mice. If you can hear them in the attic, make sure you get some poison blocks and rat traps.

My pest control came back every week but I think its because one got into the kitchen (kitchen is upstairs near attic) so I made sure all holes behind cupboards were filled (only need size of your thumb to get in). After lots of poison and traps and eaves being done I haven't heard them again.

I live quite rural so again depending on the area you live it's hard to suggest how they are getting in. Maybe your neighbours attract them with rubbish or leaving food out. Do you have a joining attic?

I think rats are everywhere. You just can't see them most of the time.

I have a trap in the garden I bait with peanut butter. It doesn't catch one very often but helps keep the local numbers down.

In clearing the rat from the trap you will have to get close to it and therefore shed your fear of it.

They want to get under the kitchen cupboards (I don’t think it’s physically possible) and put metal stuff around the soil pipe (it’s in a stack) and generally proof under there. Proof bathrooms stacks and garage. They also mentioned other stuff (radiator connectors, doing stuff outside the house). They want to put one way valves in multiple chambers (ones that don’t belong to us). We don’t have an inspection chamber at the back of the house.
Even after all that because there are five structurally interconnected terraced houses with a common subfloor they said they might still need to do some other work after that.
It would take a massive toll financially and mentally (I have health issues and allergies which would make it difficult)

First of all, congratulations on your fresh start. This is a bump in the road and I promise you shall pass. Maybe keep the champagne on ice a wee bit longer ..,

We discovered we had the fuckers in our cavity wall just after Christmas and I won't lie, it's a slow process getting rid of them but you will.

Sorry not RTFT but are you renting/buying? Because unless the property has been empty a long while I finding odd that rats are suddenly just there? If you are renting I would speak to the LL.

Get a good drain specialist as soon as you can as they will be able to locate them and will be able to survey your drains pretty quickly. Meantime I'd want to double check ground level perimeter of the house and be absolutely sure the entry point hasn't been missed. Look for runs close to the wall as they are creatures of habit and will use the same routes where possible.

Remove any food and water sorrce and get rid of all clutter so they have less places to hide.

I'm not going to say much about our issue as the details and various fuck ups by out dirty lying neighbour will be outing. We're not yet rid of the problem completely as he has not properly eliminated a food source or filled a hole in his kitchen meaning I suspect the rat still has din dins each evening. Rat is however holed in now so we're hoping he takes bait, ingests poison and dies asap as I want to get the smell and flies part over with before weather gets warmer

Sending a very un MN hug for a temporary yet horrible situation

The cat/dog deterrent thing ... agree it's not always the case especially when food for rats is scarce. They are opportunistic and if hungry will absolutely take a chance even if a cat or dog could be near.

A drain and pest control chap we had said that modern day dog food is often full of such good stuff that when the dog then pops it out rats will often eat it for the high protein it contains as apparently it helps their liver recover from a mild dose of poison. Fascinating and disgusting

@SarahR71 aww man that sounds really hard to be dealing with.

Get a rescue cat that's known as a hunter. (Obviously only if you like cats, and after the poison is gone.) They will never come back.

There is also a good chance that a well fed dog or cat will take one look at it and think don't fancy taking that on that skanky looking thing with massive teeth when my dinner is up in an hour or so.

Some breeds have really strong prey drives though.

We have a cat that is a ratter (not all cats are) and it made no difference when we had rats as it couldn't get at them (in the walls). But do get a cat if you want one!

When my Mum had rats, they'd nibbled from a flexible hose attached to toilet.

If you've purchased your house, solicitor may have sent you a map (if they were given one) which shows the location of drainage between properties and mains water supply in the road. If you've got one, that may help.

Try not to panic, I'm sure it can be sorted. If you can't locate the drainage pipes leading to your property, ask you're neighbours if they've got any drain covers - and which way they flow, that'll give you an idea of roughly where they travel on your boundary at least. My Mum had some kind of trap put in her drains, lets water flow through, but stops things like rats and flood water coming into the house.

We had a rat last year that was coming in through the gap between the wall and pipes in the bathroom.
He was caught before we even had a chance to plug the holes.
Mice I can deal with, rats i want nowhere near me thank you!

@GasPanic absolutely and love that interaction description!

We are looking to get a dog this year and I have been admiring Manchester Terriers for a few years but since our loft visitors my decision has definitely been made.

OP if you happen to be in or edges of the east mids I can recommend and a very very good PC/drain specialist. He makes it his absolute mission to solve the problem, humanely wherever possible. The stuff he knows is almost scary

When my Mum had rats, they'd nibbled from a flexible hose attached to toilet.

///

Before the entry point for outs was spotted then sealed we had a few days of intense activity in the loft for several nights. Like a pp said at times it sounded like a person up there lopping around. There were definitely some big guys up there.

I woke up one night to hear one of the fuckers gnawing on a flexi pipe that goes from our shower extractor. And it's a very echoey room. The noise was something like a home invasion movie.

> shudders <

I feel your pain OP, I haven’t had rats (touch wood think they live in the farm barns along the road so hopefully will stay away) but we do get weird mice things or voles not sure what they are but they aren’t house mice, we get them every year only ever in the bathroom and for the first time this year under the floorboards upstairs. I have a peanut butter baited snap trap in the bathroom which is very good at getting rid and had to put poison through the floorboard cracks as couldn’t access otherwise. I think they’ve gone for now and hopefully you will get sorted too

How did you deal with the rats? Our rats were/are in the wall now. I was just in the bathroom and can’t tell if my neighbour is very busy in her bathroom (lots of quick noises coming from that direction) or if there’s something in the walls…

@SarahR71

Pest control and we filled all the holes and covered vents. I tried humane traps first (in the loft) which they avoided. Then a bait box but they ignored the poison blocks even when I covered them in peanut butter. You have to find how they are getting in and block if possible which will be difficult with shared walls.

Was the flexible hose boxed in or was it visible to you without opening anything up?