Got rats coming through the chimneys - Sealing fireplaces?

muckybutt

Many councils charge for pest control, York is even scrapping their council run one !

As for blocking up etc, first thing I would suggest is a chimney cap, these are vented plastic or metal caps that secure to the pot to basically stop any rain or birds etc from coming down your chimney, you could put chicken wire into the pot before you put the cap on as extra measure to stop any vermin coming down.

Any good NACS chimney sweep will fit these for you, what you don't want to do is block the bottom of the chimney up as there will be no escape route for anything that does drop down and dies ... believe me rotting vermin stink !

If you are getting vermin inside after that then you have other issues - maybe coming through the sewers up through your toilet or through a gap in the floorboards etc in which case you'll need a professional pest controller to source the entry point and then to trap / poison the vermin.

pine77

Yip, the chimney caps seem brilliant. Didn't even know chimney sweeps still existed. the last one I think I saw was in Mary Poppins.

dktreesea

In the meantime, you could put rat traps, as in glue traps, across the mouth of all the fireplaces. Yes, it's a bit drastic, but they do work. You just have to close them up and kill the rat pronto, i.e. not leave them to suffer. It's better than allowing them access to your living space.

lessonlearned

Sonic rodent repellant. They emit a high pitched sound which will deter rats, humans cannot hear them. You just plug them in. About £20.