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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Rats

15 replies

marilynmonroe · 29/02/2012 15:02

Ivthink we have them in the house. Dh is going to freak out. What's the best way to get rid of them? Through the council or a commercial company?

OP posts:

vixsatis · 29/02/2012 15:08

Bad luck- horrible creatures.

Council may be free- ours was (Powys).

Once they have gone put in one of those high pitched deterrent devices

valiumredhead · 29/02/2012 16:48

Start off with the council if it's free - we had 3 visits that were free. Why do you think they are rats and not just mice?

countessbabycham · 29/02/2012 17:13

I thought the Council charges now - maybe different councils are different.

Original poster

marilynmonroe · 29/02/2012 17:43

called the council and they charge £85 for 3 visits. to put up the traps and then to take the dead bodies away.

Valium - the droppings are bigger and i heard one running over the living room floor boards and it was way louder than a mouse. also a nightbour told me today that the previous owners had a massive problem with them and did rat proof the house. It's obviously not worked but we have had drain problems recently so they might have arrived due to that.

it's making me feel sick and have not told DH yet, he is going to freak out big time!

OP posts:

countessbabycham · 29/02/2012 17:54

Stop worrying about it! Just arrange to have them dealt with ASAP and aside from that there's little you can do really apart from vigilant cleaning and putting all food away in containers etc.We had rats a couple of times and the key is to act fast before it gets a big problem.
Are you sure the council is cheapest - may be worth ringing around.

valiumredhead · 29/02/2012 17:54

This is what we did because dh has no problem with dead rat bodies - we bought 3 big Lucifer rat traps and baited them with peanut butter and put them in the loft as that's where we heard the noises. We also put loads of ROBAN poison down which we bought on line - it's far stronger than anything you can buy in the shops.

Check the traps every day and use plastic gloves when handling dead rats. Also check the poison. We had a big problem over the summer and caught 5 of the horrible little fuckers. It took 6 weeks in total.

They were coming in through an open drain - as soon as that was covered properly and the ones inside were caught the problem ended. They can only come on below or at ground level so you need to see where that are getting in.

The companies will do no more than what I have described above it's just wether you can cope with removing the bodies from the traps as that's all you are paying for.

countessbabycham · 29/02/2012 17:57

We did it ourselves with poison then had to put up with the horrendous stink from bodies inside the cavity walls (and then the flies)! But it was better than the live version!

valiumredhead · 29/02/2012 17:59

Luckily, and we were luck considering how many we had, we never had one die in a wall or anywhere else.

Panadbois · 29/02/2012 18:03

My parents have this problem, again, after sorting it out two years ago. They only found out that the rats were back when their electricity went out last night, and the electrician found the chewed through wires! Yuck!

My DF is going to get some ferret poo and leave it in the attic, that' supposed to work. I'll let you know....

CointreauVersial · 29/02/2012 18:09

We had the council in - it was free for rats but not mice, but that was 10 years ago. He worked out where it was getting in, and bated the hole - job done.

I quite like rats, but not when they're carrying the contents of the fruitbowl across the living room and pooing on the kitchen table.

countessbabycham · 29/02/2012 18:16

I had pet rats Cointreau so I've found it a bit sad when I've had to kill them. They are lovely - but like you say,its no fun to find the little buggers have eaten a hole through your carpet and floorboards,and the food trail leads to the hole!

valiumredhead · 01/03/2012 08:35

I was up late last night - guess what I heard in the attic! Ffs!

Bossybritches22 · 01/03/2012 08:41

Worth getting the council people in as they'll do a thorough job & you won't have to handle the dead feckers.

When I moved in here they had been living in the loft & had damaged the wiring so badly when the pest controller went up there ,bare wires were sparking! gulp

Get a cat or borrow someones, we've not had a problem since we cleared the loft & got the kitties. (we were getting them anyway)

Second being careful with food waste & scraps. Bird tables are a prime attraction.

throckenholt · 01/03/2012 08:43

Council - we had a rat in our attic and I think it cost £30 - they came back over succeeding weeks to check if bait was being taken.

We put traps out and an infrared camera (we called it rat cam). It was amazing to watch them sniff round the traps and back off. They were very very wary. And very healthy looking too. They obviously thought they had found a nice new home.

throckenholt · 01/03/2012 08:46

By the way we never found any bodies, and have had no smell (we must be lucky). The locally available rat poison we had put down prior to the council man coming did absolutely nothing. They happily munched it up might after night !

The stuff that worked was aniseed flavoured - apparently rats can't resist it. Ours were certainly keen on it.

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