Rats in loft

[keepcalm11]

I have rats in my loft, I am so down about it, very tearful today.

Ive put some rat posion out, curretly looking at local pest control services

It's an old property there are holes and gaps and cavities everywhere, it seems like an impossible task.
Has anyone been in this position and sucsessfully got rid of them.

We get them in the garden, use bait traps containing poison and check if poison been eaten. Also use a battery wildlife camera so can get an idea of their route. They really chew and had managed to chew through decking and nest under the shed. Found the pasta type bait was always eaten.

We had them in an extension loft. Tried cage traps, but they didn't work. In the end we bought a couple of packs of the bait blocks and threw them around the corners and eaves. We had no more problems with them after a couple of weeks.

At this time of year rats and mice are looking to move into warm and dry lodgings for the winter.

We had an issue for years under our deck. New
Next door neighbour got a cat. I love that bloody cat!

I had them in the loft for 5 years and it really affected my mental health. Spent a fortune on pest control, taking out the old insulation and re boarding nothing worked. Eventually realised they were coming in from the drains and had a rat blocker fitted for £200. Best money I ever spent.

I had this a couple of years back, and it was horrible, I sympathise. The council pest control came out, charged less than £50 IIRC, and came three times in all. He put poison in the loft and after a couple of visits it wasn't being eaten any more. No bodies or smells, they must have gone elsewhere to die.
I figured they were climbing up the drain downpipes, into the gutter and then slipping under the eaves into the loft, so I bought some conical metal mesh things to ram into the top of the downpipes (the pointy end of the cone hangs down) that make it really hard for them to climb up or chew past it. Fingers crossed, touch wood, no rats since.

I had rats In the last house I lived in- a brand new build. I spoke to the council and they sent out environmental health (the rats where exacerbated by my awful neighbours and their panache for crap in the garden) and pest control.
They were dealt with- both! It really affected my mental health with them in the cavity walls.
They couldn't eradicate the bed bugs though.... so I moved. They couldn't force them to treat their house :/

We moved into this house a couple of months ago and DH has found extensive evidence that rodents have been living in the loft.
Old bait around so clearly dealt with by previous owners but I am half expecting their return.
We have put these mint sachets up there which are supposed to deter them but I'll be lying awake listening for them again after reading this

We've had squirrels and rats in our loft. Squirrels might sound cute but they're noisy and destructive bastards that keep ripping the side of my roofing off to get back in.

We tried the flashing lights which are supposed to deter them, together with a sonar noise thingy. We even put a radio up there as we read somewhere that they don't like environments that are noisy.

With the lights and the music, I think the squirrels thought we'd laid on a disco for them! They didn't give a shit.

We periodically had rats too. We live in a town but it's in the south west and there's countryside very close by.

I get it OP, it is upsetting to know there are rodents in your home. It feels dirty and embarrassing but honestly it's so much more common than you think, and you haven't done anything wrong.

One thing I'd also suggest is to make sure your garden isn't rat-friendly. So no food out for the birds, make sure you're not leaving any dog food etc around. If you can, make it an open space - rats prefer to sneak around under cover.

On the plus side, rats are infinitely easier to get rid of than squirrels (or at least they were for us). We tried all the non-lethal methods of dissuading them such as citrus and mint smells. Made no difference. We resorted to rat poison. The smell of death or illness is supposed to deter other rodents so that might help too.

Solidarity OP.

Rats love fish and chocolate. So poison both. Ultimately long term solution is to find all the holes and use cement, wire wool (they hate chewing it) or expanding foam to plug all holes. This was the only way I got rid of our problem, alongside our resident cat deterrents. Very important to rectify because apart from smell, they are chewers and may work through ceiling lights etc.

Please don't use glue traps it's a horribly cruel way to kill them. They're being made illegal them because they cause unnecessary suffering it's horrific the way they die.

its horrible op I sympathise

I bought my dads house after he passed away and had all new carpets. Came in one morning (still living at my old home then) and found a rat dropping on the lounge carpet. I was mortified. I had cleaned and scrubbed house before decorating and it took me weeks after to actually sleep there
The council was the best option - think £150 and the man put bait up the attic (evidence up there with droppings etc) - Since Ive moved in I havent heard anything but too scared to go up and look

Ive read they hate certain smells like orange/lemon and chilli powder apparently good to put around edges of attic

They also dont like being disturbed so I also thought of putting an Alexa up there and having a light come on randomly with an alarm noise. It never came to that but the thought of them made me sick and anxious

I agree. I didn’t even want the guy to put down poison until he mentioned some disease that their urine can carry.

My sympathies. We had this for over a year. It happened after extension was built. What happened was that they broke through the cap the builders put on a drain pipe, then dug under soil to the cavity wall. We got Pestology (rodent and drain specialists)- who were good. Haven’t heard them in a few months - so hoping the problem is fixed.

Can’t believe people still recommend them, unbelievably cruel to sentient creatures. Poison is not much better but not sure what else you can do.

My brother had them in his loft/wall cavity and had pest control out and they got rid of them. They were coming up a pipe so they had it blocked along with another hole outside.

Thanks everyone, another night with little sleep , I'm looking at all your recommendations and feel a new determination to get rid of them before my mental health deteriorates further.

Last night I slept in a different room there are 2 loft spaces due to entension but they are connected and I heard the rats in the other bit. So I am very worried that its a big infestation.

My local council no longer have a rat catching service it was scraped, but there are private companies. I think the drainpipe also could be an entry point.

I have decking and will put some poison under there as well. If anyone can recommend specific products , brands of pasta bait or blocks. I will not use the sticky pads but I have no quarms about using any poison. Thesy are vermin.

The stigma as well. I have DD's at uni and I will tell them so they are pre warned. They are due to come home for Chritsmas break and bring BF's but I am going to say no to the BF's, no way can I have guests overnight

Yes we had this could hear up the side of house and in loft. We got traps and poison but didn't work so called pest control person who sorted it after 2 visits and so far thankfully have never returned. Definitely worth contacted someone if you can

I used the pasta bait under the decking, I wanted to make sure it had been eaten so flattened the little sachets it came in and threaded string through them, tied the string onto wooden skewers and dropped the sachets through the gaps leaving the skewers on the decking under a brick, then could move the brick and lift the skewers and string and see if pasta had been eaten. Good luck.

Great idea, thank you Tea

Had this in lockdown at my mums, she thought I was going mad hearing noises at night, till she started hearing it. It gave me massive anxiety and I'm now always listening for it.
We thought it was a squirrel as others in the street who have had them but no was a big rat, we used to council, less than £50, he came 3 times but found the body on visit 2
I still feel uncomfortable going in my mums loft but had nothing since
It was a new visitor as had no droppings or smell so rat man put stuff out for multiple visitors, he was great.
There are fields not too far from my mums bungalow so it's to be expected though ratman blamed the neighbours who have a huge bird feeding area with water at the bottom of the garden right by my mums house
Good luck, I used to sleep with one of those runners Bluetooth headbands on and played white noise to try and sleep.

Don't feel down about, OP, it's so common (and horrible 🙈!).

It's not a sign of hygiene, they are looking for warm spots to live in (unlike mice who want to much on dropped food, etc).

We had them and I freaked out too. Got some rat poison boxes, they worked really well.

It will soon be a distant memory x

It happens a lot, someone I know had them in a new build, we had squirrels in the loft once too, it does really get you down I know. The ultrasonic devices are useless, we tried that, no luck at all. We got an independent pest control guy in he was brilliant and sorted it out. Good luck OP.

I had this a couple of years ago, in the roof space above my bathroom. I heard them scuttling about at night when I went in for a wee — tried to tell myself it was mice until the dog caught a whiff of it one night at bedtime and refused to leave the bathroom (terrier with a real nose for rats!). I was weeing in a bucket in the bedroom at night for weeks, couldn’t sleep, it was awful!

Spent £££ on pest control who confirmed it was rats and suggested a drain survey. It’s a very old house, solid walls and Victorian drains running under the terraces. Spent a further £££ on a rat specialist drain surveyor who were great but weren’t sure which drain they were entering from. Before they left, they suggested putting large screws crosswise through the rainwater down pipe at 2ft intervals to stop the buggers climbing up… took 5 minutes, cost about 10p …

… and — touch wood — no more rats! I wish someone had told me this before I spent a grand trying to get rid of them!

(Sorry about the underlining, can’t get rid of it 😅)

Urgh it is the worst thing, you have my sympathies. When we had rats I was very distressed and anxious but my husband and teenage DS had a much calmer mindset which was basically 'they're just rodents who have come in seeking shelter. They're not going to do anything bad to us, and we're going to get rid of them so stop freaking out' 😁 it's quite a helpful mantra!!!

We had to pay a builder to rip out a kitchen unit, find the hole in the external wall and block it in addition to pest control and poison. We also borrowed my friends terrier who made me feel immeasurably safer even though he didn't manage to catch the damn thing. I also carried a tennis ball from room to room and threw it in front of me as advance warning so the rats knew to hide!

Good luck. It's a wonderful feeling when you get rid of them!

We get them but it’s a losing battle to try to keep them out of the loft in our rural period house. We were naive to it when we moved here and they got out of control but now we make sure that there’s always lots of poison up there - we hear one every couple of months or so but stick earplugs in for the rest of the night and the problem is generally gone by the next night. Luckily we don’t use that loft, otherwise it would stress me out more!