Rats!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Just a word about the blue blocks of poison. Make. sure you tie them down or thread something through them so they can't be taken away easily otherwise you won't know if the bait is working. I say this because we had one rat in our yard however it seemed to " devour" two of these blocks every night with no I'll effects until I found them all slightly nibbled buried in the compost heap. It was'nt eating them just burying them.It had a total of 13.stored away.The one it must have eaten along with some of the poisoned grain obviously had no effect on it. These were the blue blocks from rentokil.Eventually we got rid of the rat. We found it was dug into a large plant pot and made a nest in the compost. We had a neighbour dispose of it with a shovel and after blocking up it's entry (the gap in the bottom of the gate) we've had no more. Thankfully.

RocketSalad

Thank you everybody for taking the trouble to reply. I really don't want to use poison because apart from the risk to my dogs, and the neighbour's dogs, it gets into the food chain and can kill foxes, stoats, and scavenging birds. The house smells awful with the rat wee everywhere - apparently wee just constantly pours out of them! Air fresheners do help but then you just get a wee-tinged floral smell. My local authority don't get rid of rats any more, and the housing association won't help either, even though it's them that insisted on demolishing the old shed where the rats were living before. We have killed 5 so far, but we have at least one left because the dead rats were half eaten. Knowing our luck, the one that's left will be a pregnant female! I used to leave food out for visiting badgers and this is probably what brought the rats here in the first place. All these wildlife presenters encourage you to be kind to wildlife but they never point out the possible unwanted consequences. I will be too afraid to even put food out for the birds now, and one of the joys of living where we do, was all the amazing birds that came to the bird feeder. The rats chewed wiring going to our fire alarms which all had to be replaced, they caused a leak in the bathroom which damaged the kitchen ceiling and broke the strip light, they constantly try to nibble through even the most robust food containers, they keep me awake at night when my dogs wreck the house trying to catch one. It really is very stressful, and then I was told off by a "humane" pest man I found on facebook for not persevering with the live traps, when I had caught not one animal in two months and in the meantime they were multiplying at an alarming rate, you could hear the shrieks of delight from the females when they were mating. I think he must have never had to share his living space with such smelly and destructive animals!

Fairenuff

As I see it you have no choice but to use poison,you cannot live with rats running round your house they carry disease and as you are aware are very destructive. I live in the country and keep poultry etc , I use poisons to keep them under control its a constant battle, I like you was concerned about wild birds etc taking the dead rats and then being poisoned also my dogs ,however we tend to find we get the occasional dead one that is visible and my husband usual incinerates it ,but on the whole I believe most die in the nest below ground . I can always tell when one has died as the smell as you are aware is disgusting but I can assure you it doesn't linger for 2 years ! If you do resort to poison wear gloves when handling the bait and traps and be patient ,also once they have departed ( by whichever method) go round the exterior of your house looking for ways they have got in,and fill any gaps with some cement or wire wool.

wannalot

This thread is literally my worst nightmare!:eek::eek:

Primrose

Please do persist with the poison however reluctant yiu are to use it. Remember the story o the Pied piper of Hamly and how the bubonic plague was probably started by rats. They breed at such an alarming rate that yiu will u fortunately continue to suffer further damage unless you try to control their number.

I had mice nest in the bonnet of my car while it was parked in the grave on cold winter nights. They chewed all the wiring and I had to have the dashboard pretty much dismantled to get everything restored. It cost me a fortune. Don,t ease up your battle!

Where are your traps? Are they inside or out? I think yiu need to cover both options. Can you locate the external ones in open ended boxes where the dog can't get at them?

Rainy18

Hi, I don't know if i am posting this in the correct place but was wondering if anyone can offer any advice please? For three months i've heard something in my house and can't get rid of it. At first i thought mice but now i am thinking it's a rat. I haven't seen it, just heard it and there are no visable droppings. I have bought poison and had the council out three times, they said there is nothing more they can do. I haven't slept in months because of it. Any advice welcome please.

GreyQueen

RocketSalad, are you absolutely sure that your council doesn't offer pest control services for rats? I work for a council and my understanding is that it is one of the services that has to be offered at a reasonable fee to residents? Have you checked with the council themselves (it'll be whichever one bills you for council tax, not your county council) or have you got this information through word-of-mouth? It'd be in the best interests of a private pest control firm to tell the public that the council doesn't do rats, f'rinstance.


Re live catching of vermin, words fail me.......! It is actually a criminal offense to release vermin on someone else's land so there is nowhere you can take your live-caught rat and release it legally.


Rats have a reproductive cycle of under one month, rats are extremely clever, rats are risk-adverse and hard to catch/ poison. Rats are, imo, a job for a skilled professional. You are not just paying for the bait boxes, you are paying for the accrued expertise of the professional in the habits of rats.


I book pest control services for residents of one of England's cities. I talk to literally hundreds of householders with rats every year. You wouldn't believe what damage these creatures can do to your home and you've got off lightly thus far. They can eat electrical cabling and cause fires in appliances such as fridge-freezers. They spread filthy diseases including Weil's Disease (google it).


:eek: For the sake of your health and safety, go after them with extreme prejudice.

beedeedee

Our council don't do pest control anymore. We all have to pay privately and it's £150 for three visits. Our neighbours have rats in their wall cavities...(that's how I know the costs). They think the rats are in the drains and go up the drainpipes to the loft first. What can I do to try and prvent them getting into ours?

GreyQueen

Rainy18 wrote: »

Hi, I don't know if i am posting this in the correct place but was wondering if anyone can offer any advice please? For three months i've heard something in my house and can't get rid of it. At first i thought mice but now i am thinking it's a rat. I haven't seen it, just heard it and there are no visable droppings. I have bought poison and had the council out three times, they said there is nothing more they can do. I haven't slept in months because of it. Any advice welcome please.

That's horrible!


I'd ask a householder the following questions;


1. Is the noise in daytime, evening or night?
2. Is it in the loft? Does it seem to come from inside wall cavities? Does it seem to be in the space between the upstairs floor and the downstairs ceiling?
3. Is you home attatched to anyone else's home (ie in a terrace, one of a pair of semi-detatcheds, in a block of flats?)
4. Do you have a bird-feeder/ compost heap/ chickens/ aviary/ rabbits/ guinea pigs?
5. Do you have pet food down, indoors or out?


The reasons for the above;


1. Birds sometimes roost inside roof spaces and can be mistaken for rats. If it's birds, it will be audible in the hours of darkness (lot of those at this time of year). Squirels can also get into lofts and are bliddy noisy. Google for images of their droppings. Rats, mice will typically be heard at night when the home is quieter but can be around at any time of the day. Squirrels will be night-time nuisances.





2 and 3. Google for images of rat and mice droppings. Mice are doubly-incontinent, you should see signs. Mice and rats can potentially travel between different parts of attatched buildings, there is a newish block of flats in this city with rats in the cavity walls and it's very difficult to get at them.


4 and 5. All pests need two things; food and habitat. They'll be eating something, if you can find and remove that something (or contain it in glass or metal containers), you're halfway there. Animals also hate disruption, do if there are any undisturbed corners of your home, get in there and turf them out regularly.


If you have a cat, and they're showing an interest in a particular place, even if they can't get at the vermin, that's a great clue. Cats being homebodies, you can't really 'borrow' one for this purpose, but do you know anyone with a terrier-type dog who'd bring it round to see if it reacted to a certain spot? These breeds are bred to go for rats etc, and are great little dogs. HTH.

GreyQueen

beedeedee wrote: »

Our council don't do pest control anymore. We all have to pay privately and it's £150 for three visits. Our neighbours have rats in their wall cavities...(that's how I know the costs). They think the rats are in the drains and go up the drainpipes to the loft first. What can I do to try and prvent them getting into ours?

If the drains are your own surface water drainage and on your property, I think it's your (or your landlord's) responsibility to do something to prevent this. Google and see what products are commercially available to barricade access (I've got tofix brekkie and do my packup and go to work shortly so not much time to help you, sadly).


Rats can also be in the sewer drains and the can and do come up through the toilet bowl, I speak to people who have this happen to them! If they're in the sewer, talk to your water company about getting them to treat their sewer. HTH.