Oh god, the rats are back. Don’t know what else to do to get rid of them.

[SuperFi]

I posted here a couple of years when it became apparent that the house we bought had a rat investation. Many measures taken:

all viable external entry points blocked.

drain survey, collapsed drain identified.

drain fixed.

Broken drain grate replaced and void underneath filled.

We haven’t heard anything in the walls/ attic for 18 months, then this morning heard them in the loft again. I could weep.

we live an a 1930 end terrace of 4, the neighbour next door claimed last time they never heard anything🙄

I am calling out pest control tomorrow, but really need to identify how the fuckers are getting in.

would be grateful for any advice, at my wits end. I should add that I am very phobic of them .

You have my sympathy, last year I realised rats had been coming into the main house at night, I noticed because of food being eaten in the fruit bowl!

After that they were scratching at our doors at night, terrifying. We had professionals out who laid down poison but didn't have the tools to block up entry points so we did a lot of it ourselves in the end and got rid of them that way. They were digging down into gravel and along the top of the kitchen sink waste pipe to access under the kitchen units. They were getting out into the house via the gap under the dishwasher that allows the door to open. My advice would be block everywhere you can think of, put poison where you can, especially in bait stations outside. Most importantly make sure you never leave any food out to try and deter them from wanting to come in to living areas. They ate through the cardboard of a box of mince pies. It's horrible, it makes you not want to live in your own home. Good luck OP, hope you get it sorted.

@Happy24624 oh no what a bloody nightmare, scratching at the door! Thank you for your kind words, and everyone else too, it has made me feel less traumatised today.

what you have said about the gravel has made me think, we have a gravel drive at the front. Will investigate this.

I am also beginning to wonder about next door, they have an extension, and apparently these can cause problems, eg if old pipes were not capped off. It could be a real can of worms, they were in denial about the issue previously.

If you suspect its a drain issue, ask about having a one way flap installed in drain, stops rats and flood water getting in, but allows waste to get out.

Do you have a flexible hose rather than a solid connection? If so, worth getting it checked. They'd chewed through my Mums and gained entry that way.

@Sunnyside4 yes defo contacting a drain company tomorrow about the rat flap thing.

Didn't know about the flexible hose thing, will ask about it, thanks.

A bucket of the rentokil sachets are brilliant

Update: just spoke to a drain company, as we don’t have a manhole cover he said he can’t install the rat flap/ gate 🙁 It is a shared sewage pipe the manhole cover is 4 doors down. Drain co said to contact Yorkshire water.

YW are going to check if the drain/ sewer has collapsed again, but the person I spoke to said they don’t install rat gates. FFS. I hope that’s not true.

The house where the manhole is is rented, so I’m guessing I will need their landlord’s permission, it is awkward as a) don’t have the land lords telephone number, b) the tenants aren’t very friendly.

Pest control company coming tomorrow.

My boys a Bengal x Siamese. Non shedding and hypoallergic. He’s a savage with vermin. Maybe visit a Bengal and see if they make your son’s allergies flare. He’s a very outdoor cat so not around that much in the house. It will take a few years to be a size where they can take on a rat but their presence is enough to scare them off.

After two years of hair pulling, excavating, pulling up floor boards, drain surveys what sorted it was a semi feral kitten from a farm. I dislike cats, I am allergic to cats, but I hate rats more. Removed all the kickboards in the kitchen and he yoinked them out by the throat squealing one by one and they didn't return. I had crawlers and toddlers at this point and it was mayhem. Then we moved so I can't tell you how permanent it was!

Cat will only help if cat can get at the rat, if they're in the cavities only cat will struggle, and it's a bit of a gamble if you don't want a cat with no job to do. Get a couple of wildlife cameras up so you can find block the entry. Ours chewed through concrete to get back in, we then mixed broken glass into the concrete and that did the trick. I feel your pain, it drove me half demented. We had to empty all the kitchen cupboards and put everything into kilner jars in the wall cupboards as they were banging about in there in the evenings, it was awful, good luck

@Craftymam I do like cats, so if we could overcome the allergy issue that would be great, not just for the rat problem.

But the issue is the are in the cavity walls and then rooting around in a boxed off are in the loft. So I don’t know how the cat would get at them

@canyouletthedogoutplease god how horrific, Thank good for your semi feral cat.

i am going to speak to the pest control about getting a camera inside the cavity wall.

We have Jack Russell terriers and don't have a rat problem despite being in prime location but would get a cat if we didn't have them!

We recently had the rat man round and he used a UV powder to work out how they were getting in. He dusted it around potential entry points and then came back a week later to check. The rats walk through it and leave footprints which you can see by shining a UV torch on the area. They were coming in through a gap in the party wall in the loft.

@frogspawn15 how clever, never heard of UV powder. 👍 Will definitely be asking for this.

We had mice last autumn and sorry to say it took us SIX months to get rid of them. Most exhausting project ever and totally wore us out - not to mention the cost! We had to put wire mesh over our air bricks and over our semi neighbours as our airspace below the house is connected. Then we had to look for ALL other entry points all over the house and block even the tiniest ones. So much wire wool, floorboard work, skirt boards changed, pipes changed...phew! The area under our kick-boards were littered with their droppings. Plus we had 2 hounds of pest control (£900!!) which did nothing as it was a wait and watch/fix game.

The worst bit is even after months we find old droppings in the most unexpected places - thankfully we were not aware that they were having a free run of the house. Also they were not rats so nothing chewed. Horrible experience.

Good luck, be patient and clever.

Pest Control might be able to help you with entry points, and solutions.

If you've got a flexible hose, you'll see a hose like soil pipe leaving the back of your toilet, many are solid though.

Thank you all again for your kind words and encouragement. Has a busy rodent busting day today.

Yorkshire Water came out amazingly quickly, only called them yesterday. Anyhow, turns out that the contractors they used to fix the collapsed sewer 18 months ago did a bodge job, ( apparently they are having problems with some of their contractors doing shoddy work). So the work needs to be redone.

So this looks the most likely source.

The pest control man has put a wildlife cam, a trap and some of the UV dust down, in the attic.

I still want to get the landlord of the neighbouring houses to get a rat flap in the manhole cover, my goodness you never think about things like shared sewers when you buy a house!

If anyone else is going through similar I advise going with a pest controller registered with the NPTA. (There are a few cowboy pest controaround).