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.