I don’t usually mind sharing the house with a few rodents if they are polite but a rat (quite a decent size judging from poo) has made a home between the upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling and started chomping stuff AND overstayed its welcome.

I’m probably going to have to knock/cut a hole in the ceiling and check daily so I want something relatively compact and fits in the 4″ gap

I can’t recommend a specific trap, but
1. Use wire or something to fix the trap in place so the rat can’t disappear with a leg caught in it.
2. Can you go through the floor rather than the ceiling. Might be easier to patch up.
3. Find out how they’re getting on and fix that as well or you’ll be endlessly chasing them.
4. Can worldclassaccident lend you his co2 powered thumb-masher?

I screw mine to a large plank of wood.

I use pest stop rat traps….

They have been the only ones I’ve had guaranteed kill from – be it mice or rats. – only had a couple of rats but switched to rat traps after finding a foot in a mouse trap…..

We have since found how they were getting in after I chopped back a clematis they had chewed through the asbestos soffit……

Not had any for a while after a spell of 2-3 a night – after 10 years of none……

Good tips… thanks

I didn’t realise it was a rat until today and I’d dismissed finding all the possible mouse sized ways in… but rat sized is another matter…

I’ll go with the pest stop recommendation … seems to be a metal type and plastic type @trail_rat any specific recommendation?

Floor is going to be more problematic… as either I cut or 8’x4′ chipboard and overlap with the engineered wooden floor so would need to either remove a massive amount of the floor and underfloor compared to cutting a hole and just plastering over it in the ceiling… not to mention I can do this from the part of the house I’m “allowed” in. (My bedroom/office)

given that some wire is probably best to anchor it down as can’t see me getting a decent sized plank of wood in without cutting a larger hole … hadn’t really thought of having to anchor it so good tip both ways. Usually use the “humane” traps for mice then take them out to the lake a 1/2 mile away…

Goodnature traps are excellent but they’re quite bulky.

I’ll go with the pest stop recommendation … seems to be a metal type and plastic type @trail_rat any specific recommendation?

I use the all plastic. Looks like a mouse trap but is about 4 times the size of the mouse trap with aa fierce snap and many spikes in. I caught my rat – just in time it Was pregnant…..

Cleaning up their shite was a ballocks. But at least they tend to pop in the same place.

Peanut butter as bait. Its like crack for rats.
They are clever cunning little gits and will avoid a baited trap fpr a few days or a week so be patient.

Plus one for peanut butter hasn’t failed me yet. beats Nutella….. even if the mice love nutella. Rats weren’t so fond of it….. I leave mine up perminantly bated in the attic. I check regularly so not much chance of smelly dead rat.

If you’ve found droppings, why don’t you try trapping there before cutting holes in your floor / ceiling? Ideally you need to seal off the access point that the rat/rats have used first. They follow scent trails, so if you don’t do that, you’ll just get more and more rats coming in along the same access.

Once they can’t get out and are proper hungry – they’re probably feeding elsewhere and just nesting in your place, unless you’ve noticed food going missing – they’re more likely to take the bait from a trap. Bear in mind that rats are neophobic, so they’ll treat a trap that suddenly appears with suspicion, possibly for several weeks. You can try bating but bot setting the trap initially so they trust it.

If you’re relatively urban, don’t discount the possibility that they’re coming in from the drains/sewers rather than via an obvious hole. We had a couple that had accessed the loft via the downpipe from a gutter that they’d entered direct from the drains plus some under the ground floor that we think got in by burrowing from a crack or loose join in the main drain. A one-way rat flap on the main drain outlet sorted that out.

Not had any for a while after a spell of 2-3 a night – after 10 years of none……

And speak of the devil. Rat in the attic last night…..caught in the trap sure. Glad I leave them out. But even with it on the 4ft x 6inch board screwed to it it pulled it across to the sloped roof bit before dying.

I don’t understand why you need to cut a hole anywhere. It/they may be nesting between your ceiling and floor but there is no way that is it’s entire living environment unless you’re pouring porridge oats through the cracks between the floor boards. They’ll be going somewhere for food and water, work out where and deal with them there / en route. You need to know the access point or they’ll be back.