Rats...NOW....Fly Infestation

anopetse

Hi Sha

So sorry to hear about your problems. Something similar happened to us but no dead rats involved. I just thought it might be useful information for you or anyone else with similar problems.

Many years ago we lived in the country, went away on holiday for a week, came home, opened the door to the spare room and the whole room was buzzing. There were flies everywhere - dead ones on every surface, live ones buzzing around - it was like something out of a horror movie.

Like you, we had previously had a rodent problem (mice in the loft) and the council put poison down. As the loft hatch was in that room, I thought there must be dead mice in the loft. Had it checked - nothing there.

Eventually there were no more flies and we thought the problem had gone away. But then every year, usually August/September time, it would happen again and we tried everything - sprays, sticky things, stickers on the window, but nothing worked. Like you say, they left little marks on everything and it was embarrassing if we had visitors staying in the spare room as even if we cleared the flies by hoovering them all up/spray etc, they would return within a few hours.


After much investigating we found out they were cluster flies and were told it was a hazard of living in the country. They were getting into the loft and then through any holes they could find into the rooms below.

I know how you feel - makes me itch just writing this and it felt like everything was dirty. We didn't have the money to do it but it might be worth asking your landlord to get a Pest Control company out if Environmental Health can't help. I think they might be able to spray something into the space under the floorboards - but you might need to move out temporarily, particularly with the baby and you being pregnant. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted really soon.

oasisfeverish

Hi Shashasha,

I work in Pest Control.

The flies are a direct result of dead rodents. The rat would have eaten the poison and with 1/2 days would die. If the corpse is not removed and still in the property, the rodent will decay for approx. 2 weeks with what you already know, a truly horrible smell.

As the rodent decays flies will leave eggs to hatch and then the result are many flies.

It is not always possible to remove a dead rodent due to its location. Many mice/rats go through the smallest of holes and live far deep into the foundations or cavities of buildings.

We have had on occasions been unable to remove the rodent and in these cases, advise clients to keep air fresheners that are plug ins or cans of spray. Also to provide an air flow throughout the property.

Poison is preferred to traps as the majority of rodents live outside properties and only visit to find a food/water source. Therefore normally a rodent will eat the poison and return to their base, normally away from the home. If a trap was used, it would kill the rodent, but it would remain on the premises unless you have a quality pest control company that would visit every day to check.

I feel for you as we come across this smell many times and know exactly how pungent it is.

Your LL does have a duty to provide a safe environment for you, and should call a pest control company to attempt to remove the rodent(s). However it may well be unaccessible due to its location, and therefore not able to remove.

Hope this helps.

ShaShaSha

oasisfeverish wrote: »

Hi Shashasha,

I work in Pest Control.

The flies are a direct result of dead rodents. The rat would have eaten the poison and with 1/2 days would die. If the corpse is not removed and still in the property, the rodent will decay for approx. 2 weeks with what you already know, a truly horrible smell.

As the rodent decays flies will leave eggs to hatch and then the result are many flies.

It is not always possible to remove a dead rodent due to its location. Many mice/rats go through the smallest of holes and live far deep into the foundations or cavities of buildings.

We have had on occasions been unable to remove the rodent and in these cases, advise clients to keep air fresheners that are plug ins or cans of spray. Also to provide an air flow throughout the property.

Poison is preferred to traps as the majority of rodents live outside properties and only visit to find a food/water source. Therefore normally a rodent will eat the poison and return to their base, normally away from the home. If a trap was used, it would kill the rodent, but it would remain on the premises unless you have a quality pest control company that would visit every day to check.

I feel for you as we come across this smell many times and know exactly how pungent it is.

Your LL does have a duty to provide a safe environment for you, and should call a pest control company to attempt to remove the rodent(s). However it may well be unaccessible due to its location, and therefore not able to remove.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your post, very useful!

The smell was coming from under the bathroom, and there was droppings and noises of the rats when they were alive, under the bath - but there is no dead ones under the bath when we checked.

The tap for the bath had been leaking for sometime and there was a large puddle of water under the bathroom, I heard they are likely to go seek water after being poisened - so is it possible thats why they have died under there??



On the landlord front, hes very unwell also But is sending someone around tomorrow to lift the bathroom floorboards and see if the rat(s) are infact under there. I dont expect him to lift the whole house floorboards, thats just stupid. But he did offer to move us next door, permanently if we cant fix the problem.

Im wondering, how long is it likely the flies will be a problem? how long could a rat feed flies for? Could we move next door until the flies go away? or will they always come back?

Thanks so much

pingu2209

keith969 wrote: »

Call Environmental Health at your local council, this is a serious health issue.

Completely agree - call the local council. We rented and had a mouse infestation. However, we didn't call because we didn't want the council to say the place was uninhabitable and then find we had no where to live!

eur0

Agree with oasisfeverish. We had mice last year but if they die behind walls or under floors there's not much you can do...except let nature take its course...which is what you're seeing now. However, your scale is much worse than ours and I wouldn't want to live there in that state. To combat the smell we were given a bag to hang up containing some kind of powder which absorbed it. It was incredibly effective.

Mags269

Hi eurO - just out of interest, where did you get the bag from?

oasisfeverish

ShaShaSha wrote: »

Thanks so much for your post, very useful!

The smell was coming from under the bathroom, and there was droppings and noises of the rats when they were alive, under the bath - but there is no dead ones under the bath when we checked.

The tap for the bath had been leaking for sometime and there was a large puddle of water under the bathroom, I heard they are likely to go seek water after being poisened - so is it possible thats why they have died under there??

Rodents have to have water every day without fail, regardless of whether they have been poisoned or not.

If you look under bath floors, it will have many pipes, basin, toilet, taps, water waste pipe. These all lead outsaide of the property somehow, this is a common entry point for rodents, where pipework hasn't been finished off by the builders correctly.

ShaShaSha wrote: »

On the landlord front, hes very unwell also But is sending someone around tomorrow to lift the bathroom floorboards and see if the rat(s) are infact under there. I dont expect him to lift the whole house floorboards, thats just stupid. But he did offer to move us next door, permanently if we cant fix the problem.

Im wondering, how long is it likely the flies will be a problem? how long could a rat feed flies for? Could we move next door until the flies go away? or will they always come back?

The flies will linger until the carcass has completly decomposed or dried out dependent of it's location and atmosphere. IE in a warm environment the carcass will smell worse but dry out quicker than a damp one.

Flies will only be present if there is a food source. Once the carcass is just bones it serves no purpose for a fly.

Do tell the person that comes round what area the flies seems to like the best, this normally indicates a close location to the rodent.

I had this in a pub, dozens of flies, previous rodent problem, we had placed glue boards in various places under floor. Flies seems to be increasing in number in a store room, lifted floor and the rat was dead on the glue board.

So flies can help in finding out the area the dead rat is.

ShaShaSha

oasisfeverish wrote: »

If you look under bath floors, it will have many pipes, basin, toilet, taps, water waste pipe. These all lead outsaide of the property somehow, this is a common entry point for rodents, where pipework hasn't been finished off by the builders correctly.

Yes, there was an entry point dug out above the toilet drainage pipe, and they were entering through this hole under the foundations of the bathroom and spreading throughout the house.

I must say, the flies have died right down the past few days downstairs, but seem to be more frequent in our bedroom upstairs now - despite not seeing any obviously way of them getting there as all doors are shut to stop them getting into rooms. We do know that the rats were in the walls upstairs, so now im worrying there is another dead one! but no smell?

The smell has almost gone within the house, but can still be smelt strongly outside the house where the entry point is blocked and where the drain cover is....so may be best invesigating there instead of lifting floors now


Thanks so much, you have been incredibly useful!!!