Oh Rats!

jakarta · Nov 11, 2014

Yes we have them....

Advice from any NSC Pest Control Type persons welcome.

I saw one in our Garage, which is connected to our house, a couple of weeks ago & it made itself scarce ASAP but I wasn't happy with this situation so bought an electronic Rat Zapper and the day before yesterday caught a decent sized rat. Yesterday it zapped an even bigger one (hanging out of the trap this morning).

Have we got an infestation and if so why - there is no food in the garage (well a few tinnies and bottles of wine but I'm sure Mr Rat can't smell them).
I don't mind co-existing with the occasional Mouse but Rats are a No-No - any (sensible) advice welcome.....

Monkey Man · Nov 11, 2014

Got exactly the same problem. I've had all kinds of advice and done a lot of reading ... it seems this is isn't something that can generally be dealt with quickly.

Rats tend to venture into houses at this time of year and one in 20 homes has an infestation, whether the owners realise it or not.

Poison is what the council generally recommends and can be effective but you can end up with smelly, decomposing rodents in your walls and under floors.

The best solution is to identify entry points and seal them off. We've got an extension built on a suspended wooden frame and it's paradise for rats. I've sealed off obvious entry points with scrunched-up chicken wire or metal plates and blasted the area with Jeyes Fluid to stop the rodents navigating by smell (they use their own urine as a guide). That's been a good first step but we're now creating concrete trenches impregnated with shards of glass as another barrier. We've also taken up our beloved decking.

I put down traps but the council said it was a bad idea as they can attract new rats to the area. All I know is that none of them caught anything.

Basically there is almost nothing you can do to prevent rats visiting your garden and investigating your home as a potential refuge, even if you have no food or waste for them. Their range is half a kilometre so all they need is one or two decent food sources from your neighbours. Just look around for any hole larger than a 50p piece and consider it an invitation to rats. Then seal it with something like mesh/glass/concrete and give it a good spray. And stay vigilant.

If I'm sounding like a smug know-all, bear in mind I haven't yet conquered my own rat problem. But I think I'm winning.

lawros left foot · Nov 11, 2014

To paraphrase Jasper Carrot. "Only one way to deal with a rat, blow its bloody head off"

GoldWithFalmer · Nov 11, 2014

Jack russell or my cat..

nwgull · Nov 11, 2014

Open wheelie bins attract rats like anything - even only slightly ajar.

As suggested above, a good way of discouraging them is the old fashioned method: a cat.

Monkey Man · Nov 11, 2014

nwgull said:
Open wheelie bins attract rats like anything - even only slightly ajar.

As suggested above, a good way of discouraging them is the old fashioned method: a cat.

Here in Lewes District food waste is supposed to go into rat/fox-proof plastic bins and ours has never been breached. I've also been reading some words of wisdom from an American pest controller ... he admits that cats can be a deterrent but adds that almost every infestation he's asked to deal with has been in homes where there is a domestic cat. If rats are really established, cats just can't keep up with the rate of breeding. Neither can poison.

Rats are incredibly successful and adaptable animals, as I'm finding to my cost.

jakarta · Nov 11, 2014

Hey Ho,

Mrs Jakarta wants us to get a dog in New Year, I have a feeling it is going to be a Terrier of some sort!

GoldWithFalmer · Nov 11, 2014

More cats,the Northstand pied piper,pour concreate down all orrifices,glue traps,flamethrowers,inject the queen rat with a genetically diseased disorder,failing that move?

glasfryn · Nov 11, 2014

GoldWithFalmer said:
Jack russell or my cat..

precisely this

sully · Nov 11, 2014

Our cats have been catching loads recently!

Official Old Man · Nov 12, 2014

Had rats in an old building. Got an 'expert' in @£150 and he put down some poison. Told me to fill in all holes that we found. Certainly worked. But be aware were you put poison because of other animals.

AlastairWatts · Nov 12, 2014

Amazon sell an electronic rat trap which runs off two torch batteries and is baited with peanut butter, then zaps 'em with 80,000 volts. I caught seven in two days with one of these and since then no more. Humane, clean and all you gotta do is tip the dead rat into the wheelie bin. Positioned ours against a wall and have had no problems since then....

champion7 · Nov 12, 2014

With the inconsistent rubbish collections at the moment,rats and seagulls are having a field day.

smeariestbat · Nov 12, 2014

my parents had rats at their farm, i went up there to visit and spent two weeks shooting the buggers! they now have a cat

surrey jim · Nov 12, 2014

We never had rats until we got a cat. We now regularly awake to find dead rats on the kitchen floor, and a proud cat sat next to their present purring smugly.

Foul Play Rocks · Nov 12, 2014

A visit from pest control should sort it out quickly although £150 (see post 11) seems a tad excessive but maybe that was two visits or a very, very large house.

Thunder Bolt · Nov 12, 2014

surrey jim said:
We never had rats until we got a cat. We now regularly awake to find dead rats on the kitchen floor, and a proud cat sat next to their present purring smugly.

My stupid cat brought a live mouse into the kitchen, which escaped behind the units. We had to use a trap to kill the mouse, as our cat couldn't get at it. Useless!

Return of the Rev · Nov 12, 2014

jakarta said:
Hey Ho,

Mrs Jakarta wants us to get a dog in New Year, I have a feeling it is going to be a Terrier of some sort!

Thats a big rat! Tell her to keep the house and garden tidy! Should do the trick :moo:

Grapes of Wrath · Nov 12, 2014

A few years ago I saw a rat in my garden eating bird food, so I grabbed my air rifle and shot it. It seemed a strange colour and I thought no more about it until there was a knock on the door, and there was a little girl there with her Mum asking whether I had seen her pet rat which had escaped from a house out the back of me. I didn't like to mention that it was in my dustbin.

edna krabappel · Nov 12, 2014

Thunder Bolt said:
My stupid cat brought a live mouse into the kitchen, which escaped behind the units. We had to use a trap to kill the mouse, as our cat couldn't get at it. Useless!

Ours did the same back in the day.

Said mouse legged it up inside the boiler, which the cat proceeded to guard, intently, for a week or so. Needless to say, the mouse opted not to come out, what with there being a fat, hungry feline sitting right next to it, so simply died instead, and being positioned snugly inside a nice warm boiler, rapidly began to smell fairly rancid.

I remember the folks calling the gas man out, who, after taking the boiler apart, concluded that he still couldn't get to the mouse, and that the only way to remove the smell was to use plenty of air fresheners and wait for it to be completely toasted, to nothing but ashes.

That took weeks, I have to report. It's surprising just how grim one small, burning mouse can smell.

Bloody cat never gave up hope that the mouse would come out eventually, you know. For months, he kept going back to the boiler & having a good look & a sniff, just in case :lol:

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