Rat in my kitchen

[Dilraj68]

It has really creeped me out and now I can't sleep! No matter how many times the kitchen and dining room is deep cleaned, they'll always come back.
Kids made a movie and we know where they're coming from. It's made our skin crawl thinking there's more than one and now today we're going to get advice from the council. We don't want to trap them as that'll mean getting rid of them. We want to deter them by using natural products and sealing off any open gaps.

Bloody hate this! What have you guys done?

Well, yes if your two choices are to quickly kill a rat or treat it in such a way that it suffers an agonising slow death, then a quick death is more humane.

But humane live trapping doesn’t automatically mean the rat is going to then suffer horribly and die a slow death.

I'm gonna fix that rat, that's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna fix that rat!! 🎶

Rats take bait back to the nest to share with the others. Unless the nest under the house, there shouldn't be a smell.
The risk to your family's health is real, don't hesitate, get baiting

Ours had made a nest under our floorboards

I advised they get professional advice. I started my post by saying I don’t agree with poison (same as you only you went one step further and made it an order of “do not use poison”).

Then I said call pest control. As in professionals. You did similar in your post saying call the council, although it could be argued that the council are not actually professionals in pest control. But I’ll give you a pass on that.

Then I recommended humane traps whereas you recommended kill traps.

Our posts are very similar in construction. Both recommended getting professional advice (although mine recommended going directly to the professionals and yours did not).

We had rats last year... I got a professional in.
They lifted floor boards, found where they were getting in, laid bait traps under the house and in the garden, and came back every 2 weeks until the buggers had gone. £250
I then blocked the vent where they had dug under to get in with a rat proof vent

The council pest control service are professionals; they are paid by the council to get rid of pests, whether the service is paid for by us or not.

Poisoned rats that go back out to die will be eaten by other creatures, not always by other rats, and cause the death of wildlife and pets. A snap trap is better for the rat as it will die quickly and not in agony from being dehydrated to death.

Pest control use big snap traps which they call humane traps. Didn't catch ours as it had already been poisoned before moving in, and died under the floor. That was a couple of years ago and we never found the body in spite of floor being taken up and toilet removed.

We had traps fitted in the sewer drains (the kind of trap door that is on a hinge and only opens one way, not actual rat traps). Holes blocked with a mix of cement and steel wool.

I still smell death now when the weather is humid. Someone in the road had put poison down and poor rat came in under our floor to die.

Poisoned creatures should be disposed of properly, a pest control company should remove them and dispose of them correctly. Random use of poison by the public is not a good idea (that's how we got our ratty guest).

For those reasons I would get a zap trap which gives a sharp electric shock and it is over quickly. (Hope I never have to).

Depends. Many Councils nowadays let contracts to professional pest control companies and no longer have pest control professionals on their staff as council employees. But as I said, given you a pass for that :)

Can anyone recommend a trap for outside use that won’t hurt the local cats but strong enough to give the rat a quick death?

You need a cat. I witnessed my cat killing an enormous rat once. The rat was so big that it turned on the cat and tried to fight back, but fortunately, my cat was also a big beast. He grabbed the rat on the back of the neck and killed it instantly.

Even the scent of a cat should be enough to deter rodents.

If only it was!
I have 2 cats but still had a rat infestation under the floorboards, drove the poor cats mad (they could smell and hear the rats).
One cat did catch a rat when we'd blocked their main access point and it tried to escape into the garden.

For a few treats and a belly rub, my rescue dog will sort the problem out. He's dispatched a couple of the buggers recently.

I have been spending all morning cleaning my cupboards out. I have got mice in ma kitchin' and they have eaten my crisps 😖

We live fairly rural and one of us (not me) has a habit of leaving the kitchen door open. Not rats as far as I'm aware, mice, we got electronic things that plug into the mains and put a signal out that annoys rodents making then move away. Tool a couple of weeks to work. We haven't had mice since.

What am i gonna do?

Get a cat Op.

Due to the area we live in we have been unfortunate to experience mice and rats in the house. The amount of tears I have had due to finding the rat or mouse droppings. They even chewed the pocket of my joules coat I had left on the sofa one night as I had my sons chocolate in it.

We tried humane traps, poison and finally traps that killed them.

The rats managed to get rid of the mice. However the rats where horrific and we only got rid of them with proper traps that killed them. It was horrific but with three kids in the house I couldn't cope any longer. We now have two cats and I'm hoping things will be better but I have still heard them under the floor boards

I still shiver when I think of a large, fat rat running down our staircase. Pay for professional help to access and block all the entry points to your house.