Rats!

[exhaustedmum24]

Hi everyone,

Soo last Sunday I was woken up to scratching and noises coming from my loft, I've had pest control out and yes my worst nightmare there's signs of a rat/rats up there!

My home is a housing association property and they are sorting it out, is there anything I can do to help this? Pest control have put poisonous bait up there but he couldn't find where it was coming in and out from, I'm literally not being able to sleep at night because of the noises they are soo bloody loud!!! I feel dirty because well rats are just filth and vermin, no food is every left about and I vacuum the whole of downstairs every night, there hasn't been any evidence yet of it coming into the house just being in the loft.

I've got housing coming out next week to check the brick work and see if there are holes anywhere etc where it's getting in from, pest control are back next Thursday to check if it's eaten the bait. I don't think it has because of the noises still. I'm stressed out about this because I only moved into this property February and it was a mutual exchange. I'm fuming too as the previous tenant has lied about soo much I've had about 15-20 repairs done since being here and now I have a rat, the pest control man even said to me I'm sure I've been here before. I'm absolutely gutted! 😔 I shouldn't have moved but needed a 4 bedroom property.

I've got a feeling next week when they inspect the house they aren't going to find where it's coming in from and if they don't how the hell am I going to stop this from happening again and again? I think it's chewed through the electrics in the ceiling of the dining room as my electrics kept tripping a month and half ago and they couldn't find the fault I've been without the dining room light since then too.

I've also got a suspicion that it's coming from under the house and travelling up the walls into the loft as you can hear it in the walls like what the hell am I meant to do about that?

We eventually got rid of ours when we fitted these into every single drain leading from our house. Some of the drains were for waste water, some were for rain water from the gutters. You’ve got to work out where each of the pipes are leaving your property, and there should be a hatch outside which you can open up and fit the valve. www.toolstation.com/mcalpine-arb-1-anti-cross-flow-and-rodent-barrier-valve/p29356?store=S4&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=null&pkw=null&pmt=null&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD-vLcXI2kjY2Ff-Vq_nwJ22_iCks&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr9m3BhDHARIsANut04bo__77ERy7dCgcynM6bexKJ-TnlQKqFlBZI32XxbFvz2gnmWgmYsEaAtdcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Wouldn't housing be the one who will need to buy this? I don't really have £25 for these as I know it's going to need a good 3-4 of these maybe more as this house is a lot bigger than my previous one?

Honestly I'm soo gutted!

It’s worth asking if they will buy them for you. You have my sympathies, it really was awful when we went through this.

I will ask them, I've just got a feeling they are coming from under the house and I will tell them this next week but whether they look etc I have no idea

Ours had climbed the inside of a drainpipe to get in a gap under the roof tiles. So once the valves were fitted it solved the problem.

Steel wool pushed into gaps works. I live by a river so lots of rats about and have plugged all gaps.
We did get squirrels in the roof last year. Noisy buggers. Could be them if you’re near lots of trees. I have a bright light in the attic which I put on if I hear a noise.

I will speak to the housing on Monday about the caps, that's something they will have to do. It doesn't help that I had to have loft insulation done this year too and the cowboys that done it just literally and I'm not even joking you threw shit loads of insulation everywhere up there and left it, it's an absolute mess up there and the pest control guy said to me I can't really see much due to the insulation!!!

Ok thank you for your recommendation, I'll have a look at steel wool. It's an actual nightmare and I'm losing sleep because of how loud these vermin are at night! Last night I could hear it running around up there 🤢

Check your air bricks for damage as they'll get in via them. We have wire frames over our air vents to stop vermin getting in.

A good pest controller will look at entry points. Like others have said steel wool and valves on the drains, loads of rats and mice get in via drains apparently.

He didn't really do much the other day looked about half assed and put four bait traps down.

To be fair I think they are getting in under the house as I did see a massive hole in the front garden couple months back when I dug out a massive bush and put down a plant and stones..... have no idea how you are meant to deal with that issue if honest. I'm soo stressed about it.