Rats in loft

[winterblues32]

Hello,

we think we caught it early and have now had no noise for 9 days ( the bait was put down 14 days ago) pest control coming back in 3 days.

if you’ve had this problem, what did you do after? Did you get experts in to sanitize? Did you get an electrician in the check wires? That’s my main worry, that they have nibbled wires and a fire will start! We can’t have anyone go up check though until after pest controls next visit. It’s the health and saftey aspect of it all that is worrying me the most.

thanks for your help.

We spoke to an electrician who reassured me because I was so worried about this. It took us 9 weeks to get rid of our rats and they were running through the walls and floor spaces every night.

I was told not to worry about fire risk unless we had regular flicking lights or disrupted power - that would indicate damaged cables which were on the brink of failing.

We did notice that the lid of the water tank wasn’t on securely so we had that sanitised and flushed through.

Didnt bother with any other specialist cleaning.

We had a leak when thirsty rats chewed through plastic water pipe (in the attic). Pest control sorted rats, plumber sorted pipe, job done. They didn’t chew our electric wires for funsies. No other work done.

Yes the water tank! That’s been worrying me too! Even though I got my other half to go tape it before pest control came round! It’s because I’ve got children and it is a bit unnerving isn’t it. It’s looking likely they were using next doors mahoosive pear tree as a ladder and came in to investigate when we went on holiday! Noticed droppings when I went up to put suitcases away.

ive been googling like mad and it worries me about fires! I’ve been thinking I’ll need to fork out on an electric test etc!

it’s driven me a bit insane, thanks for your replies, I don’t know anyone who has had them in their loft. Loads of people say they see them in their garden.

@UbiquitousPistachio how did you clean up droppings etc? Did you have much stuff stored in your loft? I am dreading pest control coming back and revealing what’s up there. We’ve not heard noise for a while now, but I’m just expecting a hideous smell that’s going to be revealed.

I also have rats in my loft, I heard them last night so I was straight onto pest control first thing. They can't get to me until Wednesday though. PC that is, not the rats!

My loft is a carpeted room but with just a pull down ladder. I'll drag the vacuum up when it's been sorted.

Good luck!

I have had them in my loft. On and off over the years. Its awful. Never seen one in my actual house though. My loft is above my bedroom so on a night I can hear movement. I think the rats come in through the drains so its hard to completely solve the issue.

I still have poison down now. Pest control come out and put poison down. Never had my wires checked.

Hope you get it sorted.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your replies I really do. Pet control told me it is really common… more so than ever with the hotter weather, good bins not being closed properly .. people having compost heaps

We swept up what we could see but as we have a loft conversion the issue was confined to the eaves which we use for storage but they are quite inaccessible.

We only keep v old stuff in there so basically we have left most of it untouched.

There was absolutely no smell for us in the house at all, we were so worried about them dying somewhere inaccessible but that didn’t happen. It became obvious that we only had one rat who arrived (quite promptly) early evening and then left in the morning. Clearly there was a nest somewhere outside but close by. We found his corpse in the garden 😞

Once you have eliminated the problem it’s worth doing a sweep of the house to see what you can do to prevent recurrence.

we installed a gate in the sewers, cut back some trees, blocked in some gaps in The eaves and we even found some gaps in the bricks to fill in. Fingers crossed we did enough!

Did you install a sewer gate without having a drain survey? Honestly, I was tallying up all the cost and thinking it is going to cost us a fortune. I was thinking for saftey we will need a electrics test, sewer survey, sanitize the whole space etc! Honestly it has driven me insane with worry, as it’s never been something I’ve ever considered!

@UbiquitousPistachioYou heard them in the walls? Oh my! That’s stuff nightmares are made of. I’ll never forget the noise made the night the bait boxes were put up there. I slept downstairs until we had 3 days of quiet. It’s been 9 days now of nothing.

Do you have a home emergency plan with your home insurance, as pests are routinely included without an excess/classed as a claim.

You need to find out how they got in so they don't just come back.

No, not included in home insurance xx

yes, definitely, we will try our best, with help to pinpoint. If it was my massive pear tree I would have had the branches cut back by now, I think that’s how they getting to the roof. Just need to secure/ fill holes that are allowing them into the loft space.

It's so horrible, isn't it?

I spent last night with my staffie on my bed and threw peppermint oil everywhere like it was holy water! And had a podcast on really LOUD!

This morning, what do I find 3ft above my head? A giant house spider. The pain coach came round and I was hyperventilating and had the vacuum running after I'd hoovered it up. So embarrassing! (And don't start on the ooh you shouldn't kill them...)

Anyway, PC are out tomorrow. Week one of four weeks visits. I told my NDN as last time it happened, she had them first and they came through to me. I suspect she has them again. She just went pale.

Im sure you'll be okay now @winterblues32 When the last infestation happened, it was just before covid. But good to check out everything electric etc wise and then you can relax.

It was the worst couple of months of my life. Every night hearing scrabbling in the ceilings of the middle and top floor, running across the entire floor of the whole house and then in the walls too. It was disgusting.

We didn’t bother with a drain survey, we just put the gate on the main sewer. Together with the fortnightly PC visits, repeated bait and trap setting and cleaning out the water tank and system the whole thing cost us a little over £1000.

With a bit of luck your traps have done their job, but PC will need to check for any dead ones. Then you can move on to cleaning and securing the property.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. @DinoLilwill you get a electric test? I know a few people who have mice and squirrels and they never got the electrics checked out, obviously they would if the RCD tripped. Would rather not fork out all that money if it’s not the usual thing people do

Thought I’d update.

All the bait was eaten, and no smell. We’ve cleaned up the droppings on the boards, but will do the rest in the eaves when we’ve had chance to get over it all! Checked water tank, lid was still on.
bits of bait crumbs around but PC said to just sweep up and you can put them in black bin, think the culprits must have gnawed off bits and taken them to stash and eat, as we found in the corner little pile of crumbs of the bait. Anyway, seems they have gone, no smell, we did inspection of the wires we could see and they all looked perfect. Like mentioned above I’m sure RCD would have tripped had they nibbled them.

the bad news.

we have wooden fascias and soffits, they have got in by what looks like gnawing through them from sitting in the drain pipe. So probably up the pear tree which is right near the drain pipe and then along to ours. We are replacing our fascia’s and soffits to pvc. Quite an expensive unexpected job! I hope our neighbours agree to cut the tree away from the roofline. We went to our back neighbours and told them rats had been seen in their garden, and they were adamant they hadn’t got them! We were like, you have, they have been seen.

@DinoLilhow are you getting on?

thanks guys.