Getting rid of rats/mice (merged threads)

chatterboxwillie

No, this isn't a rant. We've got rats, although they sound big enough to be more like dogs running around.

I did consider getting in one of the larger well-known companies but they seem a little expensive and I didn't like their proposed method either.
(even though I don't want the rats I don't want to poison them either)

Does anyone know of a sensible route to take to get ride of these pests?

spetewu

Would you use some traps?

mart.vader

You may find this of use.

When I had rats living under my house, they got in from the derelict house next door, the only advice the council (London Boro' of Barnet) gave was, "Go to the DIY shop and buy some rat poison".

I had thought of finding someone who might lend me their ferret for a while.

I bought some poison, put it down, also tried traps but with no luck. When the rats had found their way up through the floors and were making forays into my kitchen, I got sick (four nights of rampant diarrhoea), Not sure whether it was from touching where the rats had been or touching the poison.

When I told the council that I was sick, they were kind enough to diagnose me over the phone, - they said I hadn't got Weils disease. (Wow, even my doctor doesn't do phone diagnoses) The council did send someone round to assess the problem, and he eventually got the new owner of the house next door to get rid of rats.

I blocked up the holes where the rats were coming up through the floors, put poison through the small areas where there is access, drilled a small hole in my floor to drop pellets of poison through.

Eventually the squeaking and scuttling noises from under the floor stopped and then for months there was an awful stench, no doubt caused by the rat corpses decaying, I couldn't get them out because I can't get my floorboards up (laminated flooring).

I tried everything to get rid of the smell, air freshener, scented candles, joss sticks (there is a product that you can buy on the internet that makes the corpses dry up and mummify, but you had to get from the USA.)

When all that failed, I got a pressure sprayer, filled it with creosote, attached a long tube with a nozzle and poked it well under my floors, and gave it all a good spraying. This got rid of most of the smells, and I assume the creosote did not do the floor timbers any harm.

Above ground I found that if you get a plant sprayer and fill it with white vinegar, and spray it around it gets rid of smells for an hour or two.

Then I found I was plagued by huge bumbling bluebottles for a week or so. - A nuisance but easy to kill with fly killer.

In short, I hope your council is a little more use than mine, Try traps first - If you use poison, remember that dead rats stink for months, so don't allow them to die where you can't get them out.

:mad:

welshsue

I keep having re-ocurring rat problems. I have had the council pest control officer out on 4 seperate occasions to treat new infestations. I never had the problem until the lady in the house next door but one started keeping chickens and geese about 2 years ago. I thought we had gotten rid of them a few months ago when the pest control officer last visited but they are back.
Blooming things are huge and there were 3 quite happily playing in my garden yesterday. Trouble is by the time my hubby gets out there with a shovel they have scarpered.
Can we do anything about this lady with the livestock?. I cannot go near this woman because last time my hubby went to tell her one of her cats had been run over she had a solicitor and the police onto him siting him for harassment and watching her.... Think she has a screw loose!!!.

I am really worried about these as have young children and am scared to let them play in the garden as don't want them catching anything.

Any advice would be appreciated as I am fed up with this now.

Errata

welshsue wrote: »

I keep having re-ocurring rat problems. I have had the council pest control officer out on 4 seperate occasions to treat new infestations. I never had the problem until the lady in the house next door but one started keeping chickens and geese about 2 years ago. I thought we had gotten rid of them a few months ago when the pest control officer last visited but they are back.
Blooming things are huge and there were 3 quite happily playing in my garden yesterday. Trouble is by the time my hubby gets out there with a shovel they have scarpered.
Can we do anything about this lady with the livestock?. I cannot go near this woman because last time my hubby went to tell her one of her cats had been run over she had a solicitor and the police onto him siting him for harassment and watching her.... Think she has a screw loose!!!.

I am really worried about these as have young children and am scared to let them play in the garden as don't want them catching anything.

Any advice would be appreciated as I am fed up with this now.

Given the risk to human health, I think I'd be having a word with the local Environmental Health Dept

Among the diseases rats may transmit to humans or livestock are weils disease, murine typhus, leptospirosis, trichinosis, salmonellosis (food poisoning), and ratbite fever.

blushingbride_3

well winter is back & so are the little critters that make me hate my home

every year, now we have the dog he goes crazy so i put the trap out & woke up to a treat!:(

how can i stop them once & for all??

hermum

I bought one of these http://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/products/prod146339, ages ago & moaned that it hadn't worked, I had it plugged in over the kitchen worktop.
Last week I moved it to a socket over the skirting board in the kitchen. A couple of nights later I went to bed and had forgotten to throw away the dog food still in her bowl. When I went down in the morning the food was still in the bowl.
Before I moved the plug in to floor level a whole bowl full of food would go overnight.
I also haven't noticed any further evidence of mice in the last week so maybe I was using it in the wrong place.
Fingers crossed this has worked & the blighters aren't hibernating for the winter.

Lotus-eater

hermum wrote: »

I bought one of these http://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/products/prod146339, ages ago & moaned that it hadn't worked, I had it plugged in over the kitchen worktop.
Last week I moved it to a socket over the skirting board in the kitchen. A couple of nights later I went to bed and had forgotten to throw away the dog food still in her bowl. When I went down in the morning the food was still in the bowl.
Before I moved the plug in to floor level a whole bowl full of food would go overnight.
I also haven't noticed any further evidence of mice in the last week so maybe I was using it in the wrong place.
Fingers crossed this has worked & the blighters aren't hibernating for the winter.

A whole bowl of food at night isn't mice, unless you have plague levels of them, it points more towards rats. And time to start doing something serious about them.

paulsad

Rats in the house - I had a major problem with them when we moved here 2 yrs ago - house had been owned by a useless "builder"/bodger. My advice is to forget poisoning as they will just die in their nest and stink for months (tried that, they were nesting under our conservatory floor). You MUST stop them getting in - a rat can get into any space bigger than its skull size irrespective of the size of the rest of the rat. Fill any holes with cement mixed with pebbles and wire wool to fill any gaps - they can't gnaw through wire wool. Mine were getting in up the drainpipes into the roof cavity and then free access via the wall cavity to upstairs and kitchen - so I blocked off the downpipes with wire (like scrunched up rabbit hutch wire) - stainless outdoor type so it won't just rust away. Old fashioned rat traps (like a moustrap only bigger) work best with a bit of chocolate biscuit for bait - I killed seven under the kitchen sink the last one was probably trapped in the house when I sealed off its escape routes. All this is not for the feint hearted as emptying the trap is no fun and whatever you do don't touch them - when they die they usually carry fleas which leap onto the nearest living thing! If you use glue traps the usual procedure is to drown them in soapy water - the suds catch the fleas - these traps are not for me as they are very cruel and messy.
ps if you have had rats - check all your wiring near the rat runs and wires to fridges / washers etc. I had to replace most of mine as they had bitten through it all - they are a major cause of house fires.
Decking by the way is another lovely home for rats.
I reiterate you have to stop them getting into the property or they will just see your home as a convenient warm larder and you will never be rid - sonic devices are a waste of money as rats will eventually ignore them; as are the electrocuting type trap - I killed one with one of those and the rats never went near it again. Dogs again are of little use unless they are dedicated ratters like small terriers - I had a rottweiller and dalmation in the house and they just slept while I watched rats running around squeeling in our kitchen one morning at 5.30am (the time they feed usually dawn and dusk).
Sorry if I've repeated anything already said.
Good luck and you have to be ruthless.

donottellme

it's great !!!