There's a rat in my kitchen.

jennihen

Sorry butI'm going to post this and run as I've got to go to work.

I've been hearing noises in my kitchen cupboards for the last week now - scratching and gnawing. Also the cats sit for hours staring at the gap under the cooker and units.
Last night I came down at about 3.00am and crept up to the dry store cupboard where the noise was coming from and swung the door open quickly enough to catch a glimpse of it.
Only one packet of food had be gnawed at but no sign of Mr Rat.
The cupboards are very deep with rough stone walls at the back and I suspect that a small animal could travel under them most of the way round the kitchen.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to get rid of it?
I have 2 cats which limits my options!
I'd really appreciate some help on this one.

(All the local pest control are off for Christmas now)

jennihen

No ideas? - Looks like I'll be dismantling the kitchen over the holiday period!!

morg_monster

As a first try, could you leave all the cupboard doors open and let the cats do their work? Are they hunters?

The_Hornet

Poison - Neosorexa Gold works a treat

bigblackdog

rats gnawing at your food ? thats just disgusting , where do you live in the twelfth century?

WhiteHorse

Are you sure it's a rat and not a mouse? Mice are far more common.

Give the cats a free run. Alternatively, keep the cats out the room and set traps. These can be bought at the DIY sheds or general hardware stores.

lisawood78

bigblackdog wrote: »

rats gnawing at your food ? thats just disgusting , where do you live in the twelfth century?

No need!!

Op I feel for you, I go with the suggestion of leaving cupbaords open and letting the mogs do the work.

Maybe take all your stuff out, put it somewhere safe and hope kitties are in hunting mode.

Good luck, rats are vile creatures, it certainly doesn't mean the ops dirty or unclean however!

tanith

Just set a trap with cheese or chocolate it'll do the job if the cats don't

moi68

Don't get the traps that catch them alive and then you let them go, they just find there way back in you have to kill them ( I know its not nice but if not they keep comming back). I called inviromental health and the put pioson down and I just had to keep the cat out that room, it only took a couple of nights

tanith

moi68 wrote: »

Don't get the traps that catch them alive and then you let them go, they just find there way back in you have to kill them ( I know its not nice but if not they keep comming back). I called inviromental health and the put pioson down and I just had to keep the cat out that room, it only took a couple of nights

Not if you take them far from home.... :rotfl:

Apricot

We had mice in my old flat, tried traps but they seemed to be able to get the food without actually being caught and the two that we did catch - well put it this way I was retching and the whole trap ended up in the bin! The only thing that worked for us was poison, bought at a local hardware shop, it was fairly cheap - can you put it in the nooks and cranny's that your cats can't get to?

Any food in a packet should be checked thoroughly and moved to an airtight container - our mice managed to gnaw through the plastic around bread, hot cross buns, cup a soups - nothing is safe! Hope you get rid of them soon!