Our house is (was) a 3 bed semi, onto which a garage has been built. There’s convenient access from the garage into the kitchen, so we keep the green kitchen scraps compost recycling bin in there – a small plastic bin into which we put a compostable bag each week. We dump all the food waste in there and it’s collected each week by the council

Last week I noticed that there was no bag in the bin which i thought was odd, then on closer inspection realised it used to have a bag in it, but something had chewed through the bin then eaten the bag and much of the contents.

I’ve had a scout round and there’s an old airbrick with a gap big enough for a rat to pass through, so I’ve blocked that by putting a brick in front of it.

On the other side if the airbrick is the crawlspace under the house, so I went down there to check and sure enough it’s full of ratshit. Have found what I think is the entry point, a hole in the external wall (it’s a traditional cavity wall). That’s likewise now been blocked.

What else have I missed? Is there something else I need to do? Am I going to need to call in the professionals, and is it something the council might offer?

You’re going to have to get religious with your food tidyness.

Nothing left out and accessible INCLUDING smears of food.

If it’s going through the bin you are going to have to up your bin game. Metal with a good fitting lid etc.

Chances are you have multiple rats. Rather than just blocking gaps, put some traps on their routes and see if you can get a handle on the problem. Keep the food waste in the house for a bit.

It knows there’s food there now so just mix in a big dose of rat poison with each batch of food waste and let it have it’s way. No matter what you block up, they’ll find a way in. You need industrial fine wire mesh, concrete and professional installation to actually create a rat/mouse proof interior.

@BadlyWiredDog has some sort of automated pest trap thing that works off a gas can firing a steel bolt into their head – the advantage is that it self-resets and all you need to do is dispose of the bodies. Poison saves you that problem (they tend to just crawl off and die quietly and the poison works by messing with their blood so they just dry out and don’t smell) – the downside of course is if they die in the open and are eaten by crows, owls, foxes etc, you end up poisoning them too.

Edit: this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlwUXP-ubI

I worked in a Portacabin office with a rat infestation problem because people left food in drawers and bins so they put poisoned traps down. The traps worked and when it came to summer, the smell of putrifying flesh was pretty grim.

Yep, we have a Good Nature A24 – https://goodnature.co.nz – which is an automatic, CO2-powered rodent-killing machine. Basically they stick their heads up inside a tube in search of food – there’s chocolate-flavoured rat-nip (lure) up the top. They nudge a wire trigger and the gas-powered ram smacks them in the head like a bolt gun. Resets automatically and repeat. Works brilliantly.

Ours has now done for 28 assorted rodents since May, so while the initial investment is steep, the price per dead rodent is falling. The crawl space will be shelter, but they have to find food elsewhere. Unless your floorspace has a concrete slab base, they can simply dig in under the foundations, but yeah, block the obvious existing access. Remove any food sources – bird feeders included, or at least minimise any spill from them – then kill the little bastards.

I wouldn’t use poison, apart from the risk of them dying somewhere inaccessible and stinking while they decompose, you’re putting a toxic chemical into the environment and potentially other local wildlife and pets. Rats are too big to dry out quickly apparently, though that’ll work with mice.

Traditional traps are a bit messy – we have a few lying about if you want to try them, just shout – which is why we got the A24. It’s very effective and kills them instantly, which is relatively humane and something that most conventional traps fall short on sometimes.

Shout if there’s anything else I can tell you. We have coffee too.

I’ll give a thumbs up to the goodnature a24, we have 2 of them, one in our shed sort of thing that gives access to the village church cellars that we back onto and the second at the only access route into our garage where we have the food waste bin. I have for years tried blocking up the many access routes they had (including in through the garage roof) but they always seemed to find a way in. Clearing the odd rat body is way less frustrating.

Our location means we will always have issues with rats. But (and I’m happy to be shot down here) I would probably try less expensive traps and blocking stuff up if this is more of an out of the blue event?

Best answer, get a Staffie.

#baseball bat, silk kimono, tweet.

(Editing to add that when I found a massive one in our garden a few years ago a broom handle did the trick, though felt touch and go for a few seconds. Don’t tell the RSPCA.)

I had baby rats. I only know this because I put my hand down a blocked drain to pull out three half rotted remains of drowned rats…. Then reach back in for the other halves….

🤮🤮🤮

Drug its onions!

Electronic rat traps are good too. Not cheap but do the biz. Poison although effective at killing yhem often leads to unintended consequences, like poisoning predators or death stench.

I have nothing too add apart from…

Best answer, get a Staffie.

I was going to ask about this. I mean, I know that terriers were bred for the purpose, but I don’t know anyone who has bought one to deal with an actual rat problem.

Does it work?

My parents had rats a few years back, and I was trying to convince them to buy a Manchester Terrier.

They didn’t. Now my widowed mum has a chihuahua, which I think a rat could finish off pretty quickly!

SaxonRider
….I don’t know anyone who has bought one to deal with an actual rat problem.

On the other hand I don’t know anyone with a staffie who has a rat problem… 🙂

I’ve never owned a staffie, but friends and my son have. Great wee dogs and born vermin killers. I’ve watched them in action – incredibly quick and instant, no mucking around, just live rat one second, dead rat the next.

mates dog.

I know Mrs nbt isn’t a fan of dogs so that’s not an option. I’d try and get a humane/live trap. I think you could get one from the horse feed place in Goyt Mill. Then either free it once it’s trapped, or drown it. Then mortar up any points of ingress. Bloody things.

I’d try and get a humane/live trap. Then drown it.</blockquot

🤷‍♂️

Then either free it once it’s trapped, or drown it.

You could let the rat decide, with a No Country for Old Men-style coin toss.

Just had mice in our kitchen, tried the humane traps but they were no use. The mice were getting in, taking the chocolate and laughing at us so we bought some pretty gruesome spring loaded ones from Screwfix. They’re not laughing now!

Aye, dogs are not an option, but neither is trapping and releasing, rats are vermin and it’s against the law to release vermin.

Mix 2 or 3 crushed paracetamol tablets into some peanut butter. Put it near where the rats run. Job done.

joshvegas wrote:

You’re going to have to get religious with your food tidyness.
Nothing left out and accessible INCLUDING smears of food.
If it’s going through the bin you are going to have to up your bin game. Metal with a good fitting lid etc.

Bin is not all that impressive to start with, it’s one of these. They just gnawed away one of the slats

Will see how things go over the next few days. We know we have rats as we can see them scurrying around the garden occasionally, which actually points to a large presence. I’m not bothered about rats per se, just what damage they might do to our house (more specifically chewing the wiring or creating an unholy smell)

Multiply how ‘cruel and unusual’ a despatch method one wishes to use by the amount of anger created within your brain by presence of said rat.

0-10 where zero = ‘meh’ and 10 = ‘I KNOW SHE’S TRYING TO KILL ME AND MY FAMILY BECAUSE SHE, SHE,SHE HATES MY HUMANITY ☠️☠️🤮’

Same goes for ‘cruel and unusual’ where zero = ‘released into a euphoric state of bliss’ and 10 = ‘His insides die an excruciating death and he vomits, pisses and shits blood for days, trying his best to live before expiring the slowest and most painful of deaths while looking helplessly at his babies who will (if they survive starvation) shortly share the same fate, along with local pets and wildlife who may eat the corpse/s.

Tot up the score.

Then get a Jack Russell in. Quick, clean, fun for the dog/handler.

You need to call Severn Valley Ratters…….

We will look forward to the video.

Yep, we have a Good Nature A24 – https://goodnature.co.nz – which is an automatic, CO2-powered rodent-killing machine.

That thing looks like tha bizniss. I’m almost jealous of you guys with rats !!

One place we moved in to had a massive colony living under the shed, I used to smear peanut butter about 6″ up a fence post near by and shoot them but soon realised I was fighting a loosing battle when I would get 5-6 per session and this went on for a week. Our landlord resorted to blocking up as many tunnel openings as possible, reversed up the faithful old smurf, length of hose in to the exhaust and the other end down in to the tunnel and let her idle of 20 mins, worked a treat

(Editing to add that when I found a massive one in our garden a few years ago a broom handle did the trick, though felt touch and go for a few seconds. Don’t tell the RSPCA.)

When I was very young we lived on a dairy farm. My gran once discovered a rat carrying a muck shovel (my gran, not the rat). By the time she’d finished it was three feet across and very very thin.

(So my advice would be to get yourself a farmer’s wife, they’re nails.)

Is it wrong to abhor toffs hunting with hounds but get all excited with terriers catching rats?

I don’t think so. There’s a slight difference in prey-to-predator ratio and the terrier doesn’t have a J Arthur about it afterwards.

(… no opposable thumbs, for a start.)

I think a problematic rat infestation is rather different than a load of baying toffs getting off on hounds ripping a fox apart. Of course, you are welcome to disagree.

You need to fix that rat.

sani2c wrote:

You need to fix that rat.

zippykona
Is it wrong to abhor toffs hunting with hounds but get all excited with terriers catching rats?

Those dogs were taking far too long to kill the rats for my liking. There’s good reasons for us to eliminate rats from our living and food environments, but they should not have to suffer unnecessarily.

With a staffie it’s one crunchy bite and a shake, that’s it.

I have seen quite a few rats and rabbits dispatched by dogs and ferrets and I have dispatched a few myself over the years. But I can honestly say, I’m wouldn’t be all over YouTube looking to watch it for entertainment.

I have seen quite a few rats and rabbits dispatched by dogs and ferrets and I have dispatched a few myself over the years. But I can honestly say, I’m wouldn’t be all over YouTube looking to watch it for entertainment.

+1

We’ve chickens so rats seem to be an inevitability, regardless of how careful we are about food storage etc. Our neighbour shoots the rats he sees and whilst we often put poison down, that A24 trap looks like it might be a worthwhile purchase (£££ though so have to think on it…)

Top excuse to invest in a bird of prey! I’d go for an Owl myself