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

Not all walls are solid. Cavity walls are formed of two separate layers – one inside and one outside.
Sorry it has taken a long time to reply - after doing lots of research trying to solve the problem (and scaring myself in the process) I decided to try to avoid all things “rat” for a while for the sake of my mental health. My family think I have a phobia - they and our neighbours are a lot more relaxed about it…

Hi op,
did you ever get this resolved - I’m having this problem now and it’s got me so anxious 😬
please let me know how you got on and what/ if anything helped?
mine is in the walls - I’m also a terrace and feel like I’m living in a nightmare.

I’m not the OP but it was awful we live in a semi. We got neighbours to take it seriously which took some doing. We used the same rat catcher who put poison down in both our loft spaces at the same time (twice) and he examined both of our drains and any possible entry points (ours was clear but his wasn’t he also told them to do some minor building work to help resolve things which they were reluctant to do). But once they did this the awful noises finally stopped. We had this problem for about six weeks in total it was absolutely awful. I couldn’t sleep or relax and I was on edge and a total nervous wreck I just wanted to move out so I can totally sympathise.

Also some unscrupulous people with no genuine qualifications have set up in this business, with fake reviews, conning scared people, charging them a fortune and not resolving the issue. We had one of these men round first.

Thank you for the response. I’m glad it got sorted - we are trying poison tomorrow so I’m hoping this will work. It’s honestly been one of the worst experiences. I really appreciate you getting back to me.

We had rats in our cavity walls, I nearly moved out! Pest control came out, put poison down in the loft, which resulted in more movement over a few days but slowly that lessened over a couple of weeks. Unfortunately at least one of them died in the walls, so then had to put up with a grim smell. Great relief when noise and smell went

In our experience the night after the poisoning was the worst in terms of noise levels then it seemed to quieten down for a few days or a week but it wasn’t long before they started up again with a vengeance and new ones had taken their places again.

We had the fake con rat man put poison up in the loft twice, the decent rat poison man put poison down twice and DH also put some poison down. The decent man implied their was a pecking order of eating so the big ones eat the poison first and so on (he also said not to disturb anything and that it was important not to put too much down or not enough down etc). Whether that is right or wrong I don’t know. We didn’t have any smells fortunately. I just hope ours have gone for good now and hope you get rid of yours.

Yeah, I am prepared for a smell, but at this point I would take that over the scurrying in the walls and not knowing if they are checking pipes/ wires ect. Thanks for replying- can I ask how long the smell went on and were you able to pinpoint the wall? I don’t mind knocking through to try and retrieve if it’s easy to pinpoint. I also have a Jack Russell so she might help :)

Poison laid by pest control - they are coming back in a week. Checked attic but no signs. Have also contacted Northumbria water to see about drain inspection.
ironically last night the noise stopped. I’m hoping it’s dead/ ran away but not getting hopes up.

I had rats in the cavity walls a couple of months ago.
Block of 4 maisonettes, the rats were having a field day, running throughout the cavity walls and attics of all 4 maisonettes!
The entry point then was a hole in the drain in my back garden.
Poison laid inside the entry point, which was filled with cement a few days later, and traps/poison put down in one of the attics.
For a month it was fine, but a few days ago my neighbour saw a big fat rat on camera in his attic, and there was a definite rat urine smell in my understairs coalshed, which can also be accessed through the cavity wall in one side, and evidence of chewing.
No idea where they're getting in from now, but one of the upstairs neighbours, who has definite hoarding issues, refused access to the rat man to check for access holes.
Nightmare!

I used to live in Manchester and the pest control guy told me because the sewerage system was ancient there would always be rats. And for 20 years we had rats. You get used to them, they’re everywhere. My cats would sometimes bring them in and I’d just let them go out the front door. Can’t say they ever bothered me a lot - they’re just part of the ecosystem.

Believe you me the noise they made in my loft above our bedroom on a night time and in the early hours was absolutely horrendous and they did quite a bit of damage up there. I lived permanently on edge and frequently bursting into tears imagining every little noise was them. I felt like they had taken over my house and my mind it was absolutely awful and I just wanted to run away.

Yes, I was convinced we had rats, but it was mice, which were far louder thsn I’d realised. In our old house, we also had squirrels in the attic, whom I’d also thought were rats. They were getting in from trees onto the roof, and sounded like racehorses galloping up and down overhead at night.

I had mice and rats in the house in the autumn. It’s very clear that they are animal noises. Thudding and scratching, pattering and possibly sound of crumbling brick if they get in walls and are moving loose bits about.

I had to get pest control out and we’ve had no sign since then that we have any in the house. I don’t recall hearing creaks or groans of the house associated with rats/mice.