Rats in the attic (1 Viewer)

[larry_david]

No not cash in the attic. Rats. Happened to me last year and drove me mad for 2 months. I rent a flat so landlord instead of getting people out went for the cheap option of some lethal rat trap claiming it would only be mice. These things sound like rampant puppies running around at 3am. Anyway long story short last year one of the traps went off and went missing, and one of them went off and the rat proceeded to drag itself across the ceiling in the trap, eventually settling on the trap door so when me and my housemate plucked up the courage to open it, it fell on my fucking head and broke it's body in half.

Thinking that was traumatic but at least the end, the pittar patter of rats were heard again a day later so we got poison up there and blocked all the drain pipes in with a leaf collector thing. The scurrying stopped and all was well. (there was a bad smell and called landlord round to find the bodies but he couldn't)

Fast forward a year and it's 537am been up for 2 hours due to the same fucking noise. With working from home, lockdown, coronavirus... Wtf do I do now? If anyone's ever heard them in their roof, they are loud and it drives me mad. How have they got in again! Any advice welcome, but please note I'm a chicken with shiit like this and housemate has moved out so it's me vs the rats

 

---

[Nick]

Need to get some little jack Russells up there

 

[clint van damme]

Call in the professionals. I don't know where you stand with getting your landlord to pay for it.

 

[PurpleBin]

No not cash in the attic. Rats. Happened to me last year and drove me mad for 2 months. I rent a flat so landlord instead of getting people out went for the cheap option of some lethal rat trap claiming it would only be mice. These things sound like rampant puppies running around at 3am. Anyway long story short last year one of the traps went off and went missing, and one of them went off and the rat proceeded to drag itself across the ceiling in the trap, eventually settling on the trap door so when me and my housemate plucked up the courage to open it, it fell on my fucking head and broke it's body in half.

Thinking that was traumatic but at least the end, the pittar patter of rats were heard again a day later so we got poison up there and blocked all the drain pipes in with a leaf collector thing. The scurrying stopped and all was well. (there was a bad smell and called landlord round to find the bodies but he couldn't)

Fast forward a year and it's 537am been up for 2 hours due to the same fucking noise. With working from home, lockdown, coronavirus... Wtf do I do now? If anyone's ever heard them in their roof, they are loud and it drives me mad. How have they got in again! Any advice welcome, but please note I'm a chicken with shiit like this and housemate has moved out so it's me vs the rats

Mint is a good repellent for rats and mice...if you put some near entrances or whatever it should work.

 

[Covrock]

Had them In my kitchen, the question was... what am I going to do?

 

[SIR ERNIE]

Clint’s right, contact a good local pest control company. We had a big old thatched cottage surrounded by fields and every autumn mice used to find their way into the loft to make a warm winter home. I found a company who came out and laid about a dozen small trays of poison bait pellets in various places in the loft and then came back every few weeks to top up the trays and clear the bodies. That’s the problem though, finding the bodies and a decaying rodent stinks like nothing else for weeks. The professional will also identify the most likely route they’re taking into your attic so you can hopefully block the access.

 

[Nick]

Pack of dogs kill more than 700 huge rats after farm is overrun

 

[SIR ERNIE]

Pack of dogs kill more than 700 huge rats after farm is overrun

must have seemed like Christmas and birthday rolled into one for those dogs.

 

[clint van damme]

Pack of dogs kill more than 700 huge rats after farm is overrun

they use protein feeds on pig farms, that's why those rats are so big. Once they get into that they can reach some size.

 

[Otis]

Had an ongoing story for years .

People probably remember the horrific parrot tale I spoke of a few years back.

Whole street has had a problem.

 

[Irish Sky Blue]

It’s not only the smell that is bad. We had an investation under the floor boards and in the ceilings. We had someone in and poison was laid down. A rat is a sizeable mammal and when it starts to rot it really does stink. Unfortunately for us ‘Roland’ decided to take his last breathe over the ceiling rose and as he started to moulder, he must have become invested with maggots. Not only did we have the smell, we had a huge swarm of flys coming through the ceiling Rose. I am not sure it was worth getting rid of the rats to then put up with the flys and the smell. As they never came into the house proper, I just think I would put up with them in future.

 

[olderskyblue]

I had mice in the attic. Bought one of those electric traps, it zaps them when they go in it for the food. Result? Nothing caught. Called in professional and he put normal traps down. Caught 5 that night, and 4 more the night after. Problem solved.

just to add, the noise the mice made, I was convinced it was squirrels with hobnail boots on

 

[jimmyhillsfanclub]

Many city councils offer a free pest control service.

I had an issue with them getting into our cavity wall & enclosed ceiling space a few years back after we had an extension built & the builders failed to cap an old section of drain correctly.
Get a pest controller up there, fill the loft space with poison, get the pest controller to try & locate the entry/exit points.
The stench is rancid, but having used mechanical traps previously, you still have the issue of untangling & disposing of their bodies, so poison is probably the way to go in a loft.
We ended up having to remove half of our new kitchen & dig up an old drain to stop future rat access.....fucking stressful expensive nightmare....but wev'e been rat-free ever since we got the drain issue sorted.

You can even read about it here.:emoji_relaxed: Rats......help

 

[Paul Anthony]

Had this a couple of years ago. Had the local council pest control in, all that seemed to do was make them worse. I don't know what they were doing up there, but it sounded like they were having a bloody rave! I took. To sleeping with ear plugs in. One of them was picking up the tray with the poison on and throwing it around like a lunatic! Ended up getting rentokil in (apparently they can use a stronger poison than council pest controllers) which did the trick.

 

[larry_david]

Had this a couple of years ago. Had the local council pest control in, all that seemed to do was make them worse. I don't know what they were doing up there, but it sounded like they were having a bloody rave! I took. To sleeping with ear plugs in. One of them was picking up the tray with the poison on and throwing it around like a lunatic! Ended up getting rentokil in (apparently they can use a stronger poison than council pest controllers) which did the trick.

It's incredible the noise they make. I know at 3am noises are even more sensitive to us but this fucker last night sounds like he had 12 feet with tap dance shoes on.

Last year was grim. We used poison as the traps did fuuck but anger them. I'm convinced one of the rats was eating his half dead pal as well as I could hear it dragging the trap/itself and the nesting or resting point is above my head. I've ordered drain guards but not til Thurs, picked up some point so we go again.

Note as well it did sttink last year for about 3 weeks in the living room and then about 1 month later huge black flies just appeared once day in the window, like 18 of the fuckers for about 2 days. See what happens this time

 

[Houchens Head]

I know a bloke in Hamlin. He plays a pipe thingy and wears pretty clothes.

 

[wingy]

I know a bloke in Hamlin. He plays a pipe thingy and wears pretty clothes.

Hehe
Pretty Clothes Lol

 

[Gazolba]

There are these ultrasonic sound generators that claim to scare rats off. You could try one of those.
Also remove any food or water source.
Rats are smart, if they can't find anything to eat or dink, they'll move elsewhere.
The problem is they will eat almost anything, including roof insulation or electrical wiring.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

Grendel has a similar problem. He's got bats in the belfry.

 

[shmmeee]

There are these ultrasonic sound generators that claim to scare rats off. You could try one of those.
Also remove any food or water source.
Rats are smart, if they can't find anything to eat or dink, they'll move elsewhere.
The problem is they will eat almost anything, including roof insulation or electrical wiring.

Apparently all those things to scare off rats don’t work, though I read that on the Rentokill site so take with a pinch of salt. I was looking at one for spiders.

 

[Otis]

Apparently all those things to scare off rats don’t work, though I read that on the Rentokill site so take with a pinch of salt. I was looking at one for spiders.

Yup. Had four. Pretty useless

 

[larry_david]

My fear with the spider one is you turn it on and they all come flying out of nowhere.

I'm currently watching stranger things season 3 so when I heard the rat noises last night couldn't bloody believe it

 

[Gazolba]

Apparently all those things to scare off rats don’t work, though I read that on the Rentokill site so take with a pinch of salt. I was looking at one for spiders.

I don't think spiders have ears, but rats do.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

I don't think spiders have ears, but rats do.

Might do vibrations that scare them because it simulates a predator?

 

[Peter Billing]

Is it not a conversation to have with your landlord? Seems a bit off that you're having to sort it out.

Anyway have had them in two houses. First time used the council pest control. Second time bought a strong grain type poison from Amazon. Just did the same as the pest control guy, put trays in few places, topped it up few times until no more was taken and that was that. Later found one dead at the bottom of the drainpipe and after that put in drain guards.

Don't block the exits up if using any type of poison, leave them open so they can leave and hopefully die elsewhere and then block up after.

 

[larry_david]

Is it not a conversation to have with your landlord? Seems a bit off that you're having to sort it out.

Anyway have had them in two houses. First time used the council pest control. Second time bought a strong grain type poison from Amazon. Just did the same as the pest control guy, put trays in few places, topped it up few times until no more was taken and that was that. Later found one dead at the bottom of the drainpipe and after that put in drain guards.

Don't block the exits up if using any type of poison, leave them open so they can leave and hopefully die elsewhere and then block up after.

Good point regarding the exit. I'm assuming it's the drainpipes so I'll put the guards in a few days time when I know the poison is gone.

This all started when they covered up the drainage with mesh because rats were always in the bins. I remember once hearing a full grown binman squeel because he went in to get the bin and a rat ran at him. His pals were pissing themselves laughing but yeah, I ain't laughing now

 

[Gazolba]

A rat can squeeze through a hole of about three-quarters of an inch, so to stop them you'll have to be pretty vigilant about detecting possible ingress points.

 

[robbiekeane]

Get a cat up there