RATS!!!!!!

[fordfiesta]

ok we live in the countryside close to a river.... I know we are going to get rats. I just cant cope with them in my Kitchen roof space!
The rat man keeps coming to put traps down.... which they ignore. I wont let him put poison down (mainly due to an unfortunate experience with a dead rat in the cavity wall space..... not pleasant!) and i bought two big cats in the hope they might scare them off (yeah right!).
anyone got any ideas? Has anybody tried those ultra sonic rodent deterant things,do they work.
Am getting desperate now, can hear them running around as i type!
urghhh

Rats are really clever.
I think poison is the only way to go.
I agree they smell revolting - we had one decompose under the floor boards.
And of course you have removed all temptations (cat food, fruit etc) and blocked every hole known to rats with concrete mixed with ground glass...

Erm all temptation out of reach definately, i think they get in under the roof but there are soooo many holes i think i would need a new roof to fix that problem! Have blocked the drainpipe with chicken wire. Concrete and glass...... ?

I have an electronic rat-zapper. That is an actual brand make, but there are several clone products about, try Ebay. You have to cope with corpses, but it seemed like most humane approach, least likely to unintentionally kill wrong animals.

lljkk.... it does work then!?.... what do you use for bait?

There was something on Radio 4 recently about how rats in certain areas are now immune to certain poisons, even in very high doses.

Dunno what the answer is but hope you get it sorted!

We've got a sonic repellant thingy. We were infested with mice. One ran down my dad's leg whilst he was dozing in the living room. Eeek. But since installing this, we've not seen any of them. I don't know about it working on rats mind but I'd rather this than trying to deal with dead rat bodies all the time.

I think electronic killers work, yes. Although we only bothered to catch one animal that had moved into our garage , but I have the zapper handy if needed.

Peanut butter is the recommended bait, but anything smelly they like. My pet rats love cheese and chocolate -- this article also recommends those as bait.
There was a newspaper article by someone whose house was over-run and he said the rat zapper was the only truly effective thing they tried (he still sold up to escape them in the end, though).

Oh dear Rats are such clever, cunning creatures. Traps are such a waste of time as they are smart enough to avoid if anything looks unusual or out of place. You have to be sooo patient. Poison is the only thing that worked for us when we had one delivered to us with some furniture - but that is another story. Then you have the unfortunate event of having a ddead smelly rat in your abode - we were lucky ours ran off to die - the poison makes them v thirsty so they run to the water. They are awful, difficult buggers to get rid of Good Luck.

we use the ultra sonic things they do definitly help this is in a awning tho so we still get them but nowhere near as many we have 3 going at the same time in the summer and we still had rat droppings in the motor behind the fridge but that was the only place so we do not have a frige this year only the one in trailer but they definitly help i think the only thing is once u gto em to clean clean and clean a bit more in our case and at night cover most things up and vacuem b4 u go to bed so they don't find crums on the floor but i think once u have got them u have got them really

my friend has a rat / mosue problem (they too live in middle of country / nowhere)

we were researching ways of eradictaing them online just a few weeks ago...

got into all the intricacys of HOW / WHY rat poisen doesnt work... they sort of get immune to it over time... after speninding hours online together reading about rat poisens, the different chemical ingrediants and WHAT the ingrediants do to the rats etc, most sites concluded that physically trapping the rats was a better bet cause then the didint reproduce and their offspring were not reisistant to the poisens etc.

I would suggest LOTS of traps with yummy bait on them and trapping them that way

get a jack russell!! One caught the rat that was coming into my kitchen a few weeks ago !!

You could try Tracking powder. REALLY obnoxious stuff but highly effective. Tie a spoon on to a long stick and put a spoonful into a long pipe too narrow for the cats.
The stuff goes on to the rat's paws and fur and they groom themselves fastidiously....death comes very quickly.
Don't feel bad about it as they carry terrible diseases plus they pee everywhere.