Rats in walls - how do you know when they’ve gone? Do they ever make single creaking noises here and there? (terrified and haven’t slept all night!)

[SarahR71]

We heard very, very loud scratching/scraping in the wall in January for a few seconds. We eventually got an appointment with Pestology who did a drain inspection and survey of our house and the outside of our neighbours.

We are structurally interconnected with four other houses in our block of five and it turned out there was a massive hole in our direct neighbour’s airbrick.

We found out one of the other houses had heard a lot of scratching in the ceiling/walls a few weeks earlier too.

We hadn’t heard anything at all since the few seconds of scratching three weeks before until we put wire wool in our neighbour’s broken airbrick and all of a sudden we and our other neighbour a few doors down could hear lots of loud scratching and scrabbling…

My neighbour’s airbrick has now been fixed but I’ve been hearing creaks in different parts of the bedroom all night (Even though I’ve read rats make scratching/scrabbling noises, I would never have known we had rats in the walls until we put the wire wool in my neighbour’s airbrick).

There’s a lot more to this but I’m trying to keep it short.
Pestology are convinced it’s a problem with drains (even though we found a hole in my neighbour’s airbrick) and have also quoted us for a lot of expensive and intrusive proofing work because of a shared subfloor.

Other people have said if you block rats in they’ll just make another exit/access point - I’m wondering if this could have happened.
I’ve turned into a nervous wreck - I’m at home most of the time and the house is noisy but not scrabbling/scratching noise. Mainly creaking but other noises too.
We can’t put down traps or poison because the rats were or still are in the walls.

It would be great to hear from anyone with a similar experience

Get a cat

How could they sell it?

If you had rats you'd know it. The noise is loud, prolonged and distinctive. It would stop for a bit if you bang on the wall.

There are a dozen cats around us, including ours. A good hunter might catch mice but very rarely a full grown rat.

Fully grown rats especially alphas do not scare easily especially if there is food about.

Had this in a rented house, rats are loud! At about 2am every night they'd be having a rat party in the loft. Also had scratching in the walls. Thankfully never saw them or any evidence of them inside the house other than loft. Pest companies came three times to put poison down in the loft, the poison was eaten but the rats kept returning. As I was renting I moved out as couldn't take any more. To this day I can't sleep without radio or white noise due to those nights of listening to thumping sounds overhead. It's usually that they're coming up through the drains and climbing up the walls to the attic which is a lot more costly to solve than putting down poison but far more effective in the long term.

The rat man is coming back tonight or tomorrow but this sounds blooming grim. Its our forever home have been here over 20 years and ironically just paid the mortgage off. We hear them mid/late evening and it gets worse when we are in bed.

Bollocks apologies if you have already said and I've missed it but have you had the drains surveyed? Could that be their way in?

Thanks I haven’t yet we only heard it properly kicking off at the end of last week although we had heard a tiny bit of falling plaster the week before but didn’t put two and two together then and still haven’t had it confirmed its rats. Not sure how many share the same drain as us or how that all works and whether others are affected and can share costs etc and haven’t seen neighbour since end of last week.

This rat man I called was only a one man band so maybe ineffective and a waste of £150 especially if we never see him again. This is all new territory to me. Also someone from work lives two doors down so don’t want to shout to much about it. Incase it is just us affected and next door neighbours keep stum. He is awkward and they had laid own poison as heard noises but hadn’t contacted anyone yet on Friday of last week.

Just tidying up thoroughly today and insuring no crumbs or anything else from us anywhere I hadn’t noticed. Being extra vigilant re: recycling and clearing away promptly after meals.

Ahh ok.

Hopefully Rat Mans activity will sort it. Unfortunately as ours has access to inside next doors kitchen and therefore dog food they didn't touch the bait in either loft, clever fuckers

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz yes can imagine next doors doing similar so they will not acknowledge a problem or pay any costs to resolve it. Yet if they tidied the garden up a little or got rid of most of the waste rotting building materials it would be a step in the right direction. I am frightened to open the patio doors or open a window at the moment.

One thing I've learned through this horrific experience (in addition to just how clever and resourceful rats are) is how casual some people are about the risk of having them accessing their living space and food prep areas ... this guy has his kids over every week FGS! I'm gobsmacked he isn't moving heaven and earth to get it sorted.

Sending you best wishes for resolution soon, it's bloody horrible

Thanks all Rat man came again today. He said he’d put 3 blocks of poison down last week two of which have gone and the third is untouched. He said he’d put some more down again today. We definitely heard them last night over our bedroom but less noisy than previously.

He charged us £150 last week which he said was for a call out and initial inspection, to put poison down also for a return visit. But today he wanted another £150 for today’s visit (which DH has already paid). We are in the NW and he just had normal clothing on no protection. Does this sound right or is he taking the mickey?

Sounds like a piss take to me, certainly for the second lot of £150. I used to pay an awful lot less than that for a business contractor (food premises) Private vermin control businesses basically charge what the hell they like.

It's worth looking on your local council website for pest control. Ours charges a fee of £20 and that's for up to four visits including putting down poison. It does vary by local authority, but definitely worth a look.

I don't know. You can buy rat poison on amazon though

Thanks jumped in with the man as I was phoning after 5.30pm and at the time didn’t think it was rats or mice.

Local council charge £74 for two visits so we won’t be having him back.

He has also wound up next door so I doubt they will bother with him or anyone else now. Meanwhile we are £300 down.

As part of his survey (assuming he did inside and out?$ he should have either found points of entry or if not, signposted you elsewhere ... did he do either of these?

The cost usually includes at least one minimum return visit in 2/3 weeks to see if any updates

Based on that he seems awfully pricey so far

Take care buying poison yourself OP. For a start it's likely it won't be as strong/effective. You also need to be extremely careful if there's other wildlife about too

Basically a good pest control bid will be insured in case anything untoward happens involving use of poison

Sorry OP, didn't read your updates first ... ahh, that's very annoying. Hopefully council chap will be a pro

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz thanks I’m not the OP but have hijacked the thread in my panic.

All he did for his £300 was spend about 5-10 minutes each time having a very quick look around our loft and quickly put some poison down and legged it. He never mentioned entry or access points.

Will see how we get on with this lot of poison but we won’t entertain having him back. If we still think we are having problems we will definitely contact the council next time. This guy had 29 5 star reviews but I doubt these reviews are genuine with our experience.

Our council no longer have any pest control.
Poison you can buy yourself will not be strong enough.
I've learned that rats are very clever and very cautious about what they eat.
Just had a quote for repointing the old wall where they are coming in £3000! First a drain survey £400. We live in a very old rambling house.

The only poison we've found that actually works was from the local agricultural suppliers. Its a big bag of purple coloured grains and was pretty expensive, but worth it.

Thanks we still don’t know for definite if its rats mice or what it is. But I am finding it hard to relax and sleep listening out for noises and movements etc.

The blue grain poison from amazon worked well for us.