Getting rid of rats/mice (merged threads)

suki1964

jeff_chandler wrote: »

We have a kitchen extension which has a flat roof. It was completely re-boarded insulated and felted last year. For a while members of our family have seen small rodents around the house . Recently above the ceiling in the kitchen we hear scratching noises as if one or more of the Rodents are trying to dig the plasterboards away. I have looked at all the possible entries they could get in but the facia boards seem flush with the brickwork which seems as if nothing could get beneath. This scratching has been occurring every day for the past week and it's worrying because there are a lot of wires under those boards.
Has anyone got any ideas how to rid these little pests without major upset. I know getting a pest controller in would cost a fortune. I'm scared to put poison down because my Daughter has a Rabbit and we have a little dog.
I have been told there's a spray where a small hole can be bored through the ceiling allowing the spray to used without much damage but I have yet to see anything on the web that suggests such items are available.
Kind regards Jeff.

Wherever you can slide a 50 p , a mouse can get in

Look at cooker hoods , drains, central heating and roof vents

Any gap from outside in,will allow mice in, esp this time of year


Wherever you can, fill the gap with wire wool, then cement

Go in the roof space and leave poison. Check weekly for dead mice ( they stink)

Use traps on their runs. This week I've killed six on just one trap


Don't think of them as cuddly wee things, they are vermin, bringing germs and disease into your home

Stop them in their tracks

jeff_chandler

Thank you so much for all the replies.

Some good advice there people. I did however use peppermint oil as instructed by a friend. This at the moment seems to have stopped the little pests, maybe they're hiding but the peppermint does have an effect on them. The entire house stinks of peppermint.
This morning I squirted some into a small hole I drilled through the plasterboard beneath where the scratching comes from, hope that works.
Something must have happened because my Daughter saw one shortly after we'd placed cotton dabs with the peppermint oil on them, maybe they want to get out. I have placed these all the way through the house in a hope it will work.
I will try the flour trick tonight on the kitchen floor.

Thanks for all the good advice.

shane291179

HI All,

We had some noise from the loft the other night. When investigating I've found droppings around the back (we never go there) etc.

Called Rentokil out and they have said it Rats (Could be a few) and have quoted £2k to kill/remove, block holes in loft (The surveyor said there were gaps all around that they cold get in). Remove and clean the whole loft (including taking up old boards, insulation and disinfect etc).

This isn't a job i'm going to do myself, due to lack of time, DIY ability or patience but the price is obviously quite high compared to the local council who will charge a £200 ish to do the capture/kill work.

I guess i'm looking for some experience either way or some recommendations on what to do next.

Thanks,

suki1964

shane291179 wrote: »

HI All,

We had some noise from the loft the other night. When investigating I've found droppings around the back (we never go there) etc.

Called Rentokil out and they have said it Rats (Could be a few) and have quoted £2k to kill/remove, block holes in loft (The surveyor said there were gaps all around that they cold get in). Remove and clean the whole loft (including taking up old boards, insulation and disinfect etc).

This isn't a job i'm going to do myself, due to lack of time, DIY ability or patience but the price is obviously quite high compared to the local council who will charge a £200 ish to do the capture/kill work.

I guess i'm looking for some experience either way or some recommendations on what to do next.

Thanks,

First off, read this whole thread , a lot of advice


The only way to stop rats and mice getting in, is to find their routes. And believe me they can get through tiny gaps

Most obvious are around the sink and any pipes going in from outside.

Fill those gaps with wire wool and go buy a bucket of ready mix cement to fill over

Get the traps and poison down and you will save a lot of money

JJAM

For the third year running in the winter, I find myself being paid a visit by...well, rats or mice, although I fear it's the former. There's definitely loft activity from time to time, movement in the walls (have experienced some bumping sounds tonight) and the occasionally visitor in the main room (I haven't seen them, but hear scurrying around walls) in my North London flat which is not only where I sleep but is also where the kitchen is (yeah, I know, great).

Have most people who've used council services found them to be more effective than private companies? My local council does charge per treatment. Additionally, if anyone in North London has used a private company with success, feel free to PM me

Hintza

JJAM wrote: »

For the third year running in the winter, I find myself being paid a visit by...well, rats or mice, although I fear it's the former.

Easy to tell mice a light scuffling, rats sound like a bloke in hobnail boots

lettucekl

Has anyone had an experience with those Ultrasound rodent Repeller plugin units?, do they work?.

Im thinking of getting one as i keep laying traps and poison they seem to go away for a while but a month or 2 later ill do the weekly check on the traps and there be a little !!!!!!. I should clear the loft out and get rentokil in but there is sooo much junk in the loft it would take weeks to empty completely.

red_imps_2003

lettucekl wrote: »

Has anyone had an experience with those Ultrasound rodent Repeller plugin units?, do they work?.

I bought one that was popular on Amazon and it didn't work. Firstly the noise it emits is audible to the human ear, despite what the literature states, which was immensely irritating. We were prepared to put up with it for a while if it worked, though. However, no matter where I placed it the little bleeders (both rats and mice) did return. I am not convinced that any deterrents/repellents work. As stated above, the only way to keep them out is to ascertain where they are getting in, which is not usually particularly easy. We have been experiencing the occasional visit for the past 18 months and there is clear evidence the previous owners did as well.

We paid a popular pest control company some £1k to sort the problem but all they did for the money was inspect our home for possible entry points (didn't find any), put down a few traps, and leave us with an industrial-sized air freshener unit to mask the stench if any died under the floorboards (and boy do those bar stewards reek!!?). I have since been told that the Council do something similar for a couple of hundred quid. None of it worked anyway and we heard a visitor in the cavity wall and loft space repeatedly over the weeks leading up to Christmas.

I have since blocked all holes in the mortar, no matter how small, below a metre or so off the ground with expanding foam. I know this isn't enough to keep them out but it may at least reveal whether any are getting in that way. I've also put a self-fashioned grill over the vent from the cooker hood, as I'm not convinced the crappy plastic flap is sufficient to keep rodents out, it is only a few inches above the extension roof, and there is a clear tear/hole in the tubing. This now seems like the most likely point of entry to me. I have to say I've not heard anything since then, but the visits were infrequent anyway and tend to be when the weather turns icy.

We have also paid £100 for a drain guy (sorry, I don't know the technical term for this kind of trades person) to shove a CCTV camera along the pipe work to/from the house. This revealed a small gap in the drainpipe under the adjoining garage, although I am not sure how a rat would get into the house from there, and the fact the drains don't have a non-return valve fitted. The water company say they don't fit them because they are prone to causing blockages but, as a first step towards resolution, they are putting poison in the drains over a period of weeks to see whether there are any signs of activity.

Anyhow, I would advise against spending any money on the audible deterrent devices.

Anoneemoose

We heard scratching in the upstairs walls before Christmas..next door have completely revamped their house (like pulled it back to the brick, extensions etc), so we thought maybe it was 'just a mouse' that had been disturbed by the building work. We checked out loft when we got our decorations down and there was no sign of anything, so we forgot about it.

Fast forward to last night and my daughter says she can hear scratching and 'noises'. We went up, definitely something up in the loft, so much so, we could now hear it near the loft hatch in the bathroom, which is near the other side of the house.

Anyway, today we opened the loft hatch and droppings fell down. They definitely weren't from mice!

I called the council who are coming on Thursday, but as our loft is not boarded out, I am worried they won't be able to get up and investigate.

Bearing this in mind and the fact that there seems to be quite a lot of droppings, what will it likely mean in terms of a clean up operation if/when they are eradicated? Will it mean having to get rid of loft insulation, as it won't be possible to clean it or anything. Will start reading the thread for advice, too.

Gabson81

We bought our home last September and a couple of weeks later realised we have a rat problem in the roof.
The loft has been boarded out and is in effect a room with walls ect. The rats are living (or at least running through) the eaves and the space between our bedroom ceilings and the loft room floor.
We have had pest control out. They put down poison, for about a month we had quiet but a horrendous smell somewhere in the cavity walls. Then other rats took their place.
My husband is spending almosr every weekend rat proofing. We have used wire wool and expanding foam in every gap, checked the perimeter, the garage, taken up floor boards, pretty much anything you can think of. We also had the drains camera'd but no issues there.
Occasionally I get a few quiet nights and then suddenly the scratching and knawing starts again. Currently using snap traps pretty successfully in that we are catching up to five rats over a weekend but we really need a permenant solution as this (silly as it sounds) is taking over our lives. I lose sleep worrying about disease and fires (two small children in the house).
I'm just hoping someone has had a similar experience and found a solution? All advice welcome.
Ps. We have a cat.