How to cope with rat entering my kitchen

[Mercury2702]

Please can anyone help reassure me 😩

I am massively rodent phobic. I live in a council house and this is the third time getting rats this year so they’re actually investigating with cctv drain surveys now.

can I just say, I’m not filthy, don’t leave any food around, don’t even have kitchen bins since the first time I had mice coming from my attic in this house and all other food in cupboards is in plastic boxes. The first and second time this year I had the councils pest control out and the rats were underneath my house so they just kept treating with poison until it stopped. They assured me they wouldn’t get in to the house.

Then last week I heard scratching in the kitchen and thumping in the ceiling where I have a boiler cupboard in the bedroom upstairs. I put a camera where I heard the noises in my kitchen on a night besides my washing machine and low and behold it’s a great big giant rat! It’s tail seems miles long and it has chewed through expanding foam that the council covered a gap below my kitchen cupboard with. They also found evidence of rat droppings that it has been entering my cleaning cupboard below the sink. My uncle gave me a snap trap and the councik have put poison trays in 5 different areas. They said the problem is that rats are neophobic so anything new, they’re very suspicious of.

Turns out they were right as it was caught on camera having a sniff and returning every night and now hasn’t returned to that area but I can hear it scratching around in another part of my kitchen instead. It’s very clever and hasn’t been deterred by bleach, those plug in things and I threw cotton wool balls soaked in peppermint oil behind my washing machine and in cupboards and it was still returning! It isn’t deterred by loud noise as eben with my Alexa on full in the areas it’s coming, it was still spotted coming out on camera, as early as 5pm.

They also found evidence of them in my boiler cupboard upstairs as suspected, where we previously discovered a massive dead rat the 2nd incidence this year, to which they told me it was only a juvenile! They have now said clearly there’s an issue and that they must be getting in via a collapsed drain potentially so I have the cctv survey next week. The rat is an arsehole trying to gain access elsewhere now clearly but it’s affecting me so much. I can barely go in the kitchen, I do shift work as I’m a nurse and I come home to the scratching in my kitchen so refuse to eat tea, and my sister has a learning disability and I care for her and she is also terrified, especially as the boiler cupboard is in the room she sleeps in and they’re keeping her awake at night.

Not sure what I’m looking for, maybe a rant or maybe some reassurance from anyone who’s gone through similar 😩

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to be horrified and unhappy with this situation.

no help, but proper sorry you are dealing with this!

I do empathise....went through this many years ago and it was a drain issue, the gas board had run a new pipe through it and the problem showed up when they put a camera down.

It did get resolved eventually and it sounds like the council are on the right track. It's nothing to do with how clean you are. Hopefully it's sorted soon

You can see the damaged foam and where they are accessing via the cupboard. So take immediate action to seal those areas off more securely. It's horrible and course you've every right to be upset. If I were you I'd call a private pest controller as the councils one does not seem to have eradicated the issue.

Buy some pest expert pellets they do them on amazon and work far quicker than bait blocks.

Well I set the camera up elsewhere on the floor after it wasn’t coming back to the area where poison was put and low and behold it’s coming into the actual kitchen now 🤮 I can’t find anymore holes behind appliances etc so don’t know where the hell it’s coming from!

it’s ignored traps, poison, doesn’t care about peppermint oil or sound, doesn’t care about glue pads. I literally can’t prepare tea in there and don’t know what they’re going to do 😭

A tip I was given when we had this problem a few years back was to never touch the poison/bait with your hands. Rats are not only highly suspicious of anything new, but they will smell you on it and avoid. I used kitchen tongs (bought for specifically and disposed of afterwards!) to chuck it under our kitchen cupboards (which was where they were getting in).

Although it took about a fortnight, they took the poison and never returned.

Your feelings are natural, no one is ok with rats in their kitchen.

Have you written to the responsible department?

Write to them, copying in your MP, to say this needs urgent attention and please can they tell you next steps.

Explain the house is currently not inhabitable, you have a vulnerable sister etc. Put everything in writing.

Flamethrower

UB40 recommends you fix that rat.

There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna go?
I'm gonna fix that rat that's what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna fix that rat.

We had mice a while back and sieved flour on the floor to figure out where they were entering and exiting. Try that, then stop up their holes. You can sieve flour outside as well.

I knew someone would say that 🫣😂

im just a nervous wreck honestly, they’re also in the upstairs boiler cupboard making a racket thumping and gnawing on a night and I think I’ve just found another entry point it’s made under the kitchen sink with fresh saw dust 😩

There’s a rat in ma kitchen
😂

Please buy some pet expert blue pellets the rat will eat it and it’s quite fast acting. I can really recommend it we had rats in the garden and we used this problem solved took a few bags but we think there was more than one

I found the human trap baited with Nutella (well Aldi own brand) was irresistible to them. Caught 6 over 3 nights and released 3/4 mile away by river each morning. Blocked up hole first though. Mice were harder, but we had a hole behind the dryer next to the vent we didn't know about. Once fixed it took 4 days to trap all the mice and released

I'm so sorry, I had the same a very long time ago when my kids were babies. The thing was stomping around my kitchen and didn't even scarper when it saw me, it was so bold.

The humane traps work well with mice, but with rats I would take the nuclear option and definitely try the pressure on council cc-ing your MP as a PO has suggested. You have a very busy life giving to others and you deserve to get all the help you're due.

PP, not PO

It's that time of year, we've just discovered, when the colder weather draws them in. We moved earlier this year and saw a rat a couple of times in the garden. Then a month or so ago found on dead at the bottom of the garden - we assumed poisoned.
Then a week a go noticed cavity wall insulation in a kitchen cupboard, then the scratching under the floorboards and in the cavity over our heads between the kitchen and extension. They don't frighten me as such but they can do a lot of damage. We got killer traps, not poison, don't fancy a dead rat under the floorboards, and got one two days ago. Yay! Then more scratching under the lounge floor. Boo!
Local council will deal with then for free so I've booked them in and in the meantime we've been searching for entry points to seal.
Good luck sorting yours @Mercury2702

Can you borrow a cat for a few days, leave a litter tray near the area? I say this as my cat would absolutely catch that. And we have mice problem in my area, but they don’t come
in my house and the cats regularly catch them when they go outside. However not all cats are good at catching mice/rats. Unfortunately this time of year when rodents come inside due to the colder nights. Rats are clever too

Do you have any friends with a terrier or other dogs? Thankfully we haven’t had this issue indoors but my spaniel X has quickly killed a rat in the garden.

I think it’s illegal to release rats onto someone else’s land without permission. Also it’s probably now in another rats territory with no food or shelter it doesn’t tend to end well. I actually think it’s kinder to kill them quickly tbh.

Wire wool needs to be embedded in any expanding foam you use. I had one get in my pantry cupboard through a hole from the sewage pipe conduit box! Chewed a bag of potatoes (teeth marks far too big for mice) and I went a bit mad with the foam plus wire. Not seen any since. I also once had mice getting in airbricks into a rented kitchen. Boiler grille mesh bolted onto the brick with winged plasterboard bolts sorted that out.

Just thought I’d update, rat still currently alive and making me quite unwell with stress!

The council organised a drain survey and they discovered my gulley where kitchen waste water goes has a fracture down in my garden so the drainage company believe this is the cause. Rang back councils pest control department and I was a wreck and they said I just have to bear with it, as awful as it is :/ I even rang a private pest controller I’d previously used for mice and cried down the phone and he was so reassuring and lovely but said environmental health are doing the right things. 2 nights ago the rat ate the full tray of poison over about 2 hours but is still alive and coming out at night. Hoping it won’t take long now and pest control will be coming around again tomorrow for their fortnightly visit and replacing the bait I assume. It’s quite a bit rat so the full tray it ate, I’m unsure if will be enough to kill it but it’s really affecting me

We've had our visit from the council rat man. He checked all the possible entry points and advised on sealing them - two airbricks had rat sized holes in them. We've sealed them with those steel pan scrub things until we can sort something more permanent. He's put some poison down but seemingly we've had no incursions since we blocked the airbricks etc. When we expressed concern over ending up with a dead rat under the floorboards he reassured us that rats usually only come in for food and have a nest elsewhere. When the poison begins to act they will return there (and when they die their mates will eat them and also die..... nice)
So hopefully the end is in sight OP

How did things work out in the end? We had this last year (but in the walls) and I’m still a nervous wreck