Rat in iron downpipe

Chin

hi all

at the back of our property is a cast iron down pipe.
it's only a half of one though, which appears to be coming out the floor up the back of the house.
at the top of the iron pipe is a grill, which we can see in and where the grill sits is a tiny ledge.

well this ledge is also home to a rat and we can often see it poking it's tail through. it clearly can't get out the grill, but it climbs up and down the half iron down pipe and I want it gone.

the easiest way of getting rid of it on the face of it is to drop some rat poison on the ledge it sits on, however i'm worried it will start decomposing in the down pipe. will this happen or will it get flushed away?
the grill is too small to put a trap in so poison seems my only option.

has anyone had this or can anyone else recommend a way to remove?

Ebe_Scrooge

Surely the rat can't be actually living in the pipe permanently - what on earth would it eat ? Perhaps it's just nesting there. Whatever, it must be able to get out somewhere to forage for food when it wants to ? Based on that, I'd be tempted to set a trap somewhere nearby, and hope that you catch it next time it's out and about. Just be careful that you don't set the trap somewhere where a nice cute animal like a cat or a hedgehog [ ] could get it's paw hurt - rat traps are quite powerful things, much more so than mouse traps.

mikey72

You'd be amazed how many rats live in sewers and run up and down waste pipes.
Usually the nest is in a space off to the side of the pipe, so put poison down, and it should hopefully die out of the way, or get flushed.

UncleZen

Literally - a rat up a drainpipe!

dave82_2

I would trap it. They stink like * and you can end up with flys if they die somewhere you can't get rid of the body.

oasisfeverish

Applying posion direct to the ledge is only advisable if no non target species can get at it like birds. So is the ledge under the grill?

The poison works such a way that is thins the blood and prevents the internal organs from functioning properly. Normally most rats will die in their nests, as they are too weak to venture out.

If the rat does die in the downpipe, the body will dry out within 2 weeks, and just get washed away when the next force of water enters the pipe.

If as you state this pipe is on the outside, yes it only takes one fly to lay eggs, but being on the back of the house, the flies would go upwards towards the top of the pipe for daylight and then fly (no pun) off.

Rats have to drink everyday, and the sewers easily provide this source.