Rats, rats and rats

[IronJambo]

In the walls, between floors, and in my attic!

 

New build apartment block. Everyone hearing them scurry around. Found evidence of them in my attic today after hearing them up there last night. Pest control are on it.

 

Anyone been through this? Did you get rid or was it a total nightmare?

[Helzibob]

Funny you post this. I’ve spotted a rat in my garden this week, never seen one before and have been in the house over 7 years. Think I’m going to have to stop feeding the birds.

[Auld Reekin']

4 hours ago, IronJambo said:

In the walls, between floors, and in my attic!

 

New build apartment block. Everyone hearing them scurry around. Found evidence of them in my attic today after hearing them up there last night. Pest control are on it.

 

Anyone been through this? Did you get rid or was it a total nightmare?

 

Is the block in an urban or more rural area? If where you live is rural / near any farms, it'll probably be more difficult to get rid of them completely. Either way, it sounds like you've got a good-going infestation there!

 

It should be possible to see them off the premises, but it won't necessarily be a quick process as it'll no-doubt be done by laying poisoned bait, hoping they scoff enough of that, and waiting for them to croak. (Hope it's not Rentokil who are dealing with it as they're chancers and are only interested in making as much money as they can from every job. There're much better and cheaper than them around.)

 

55 minutes ago, Helzibob said:

Funny you post this. I’ve spotted a rat in my garden this week, never seen one before and have been in the house over 7 years. Think I’m going to have to stop feeding the birds.

 

Might be an idea to be very careful how you feed them. Hanging bird-feeders are probably OK, as are bird-tables that cannot be accessed by rats. However, if they're hungry or desperate enough they can crawl along trellises and clothes lines and drop onto bird-tables and feeders from them, if they're located near enough. The other factor is that bits will inevitably fall onto the ground from feeders and tables, due to the way that birds feed, and the stuff fallen on the ground could attract rats anyway.

 

There's plenty of natural food around for the birdies now anyway.

Edited Thursday at 20:04 by Auld Reekin'

[AlimOzturk]

Cat was the thing that solved my mice problem. I did everything - blocked all known entry points, cleaned the house from top to bottom, mouse trapped about 20 of them and put poison down as well. Yet they still came and still heard them in walls. Horrible. 
 

The cat within a week took out a fleet of them and I have not seen another one (apart from the ones she brings us) or seen any evidence since. 

[IronJambo]

15 minutes ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

Is the block in an urban or more rural area? If where you live is rural / near any farms, it'll probably be more difficult to get rid of them completely. Either way, it sounds like you've got a good-going infestation there!

 

It should be possible to see them off the premises, but it won't necessarily be a quick process as it'll no-doubt be done by laying poisoned bait, hoping they scoff enough of that, and waiting for them to croak. (Hope it's not Rentokil who are dealing with it as they're chancers and are only interested in making as much money as they can from every job. There're much better and cheaper than them around.)

 

 

 

The company that look after the building have had a pest control company (not rentokil) in for a couple of weeks but have so far drew a blank. Last night was the first the rats have made themselves known to us as they've just been busy scurrying the inner walls of everyone else. Other than it sounding like the grand national is happening above my bed it's not a disaster they're in the loft as at least we'll be able to lay traps up there. Council pest people reckon they've probably got in through a sewage pipe.

 

We're in an urban area, pretty much town centre but look over a park so the rats live right next to us. I don't mind them living next to us but I'd rather they weren't all called Anne Frank.

[IronJambo]

1 hour ago, Helzibob said:

Funny you post this. I’ve spotted a rat in my garden this week, never seen one before and have been in the house over 7 years. Think I’m going to have to stop feeding the birds.

You need a flamethrower

[Tazio]

12 minutes ago, AlimOzturk said:

Cat was the thing that solved my mice problem. I did everything - blocked all known entry points, cleaned the house from top to bottom, mouse trapped about 20 of them and put poison down as well. Yet they still came and still heard them in walls. Horrible. 
 

The cat within a week took out a fleet of them and I have not seen another one (apart from the ones she brings us) or seen any evidence since. 

If you’ve got a decent cat. I used to have a big lump of ginger thing called Frank that would bring back everything from tiny birds to rabbits then sit and munch them in front of me. However my last cat Kevin was discovered by me sitting looking at a mouse in curiosity and jumped about a foot in the air when it started running away. Idiot of a cat. In his defence he was very useful for getting rid of daddy long legs and spiders, he knew his level. 

[theshed]

27 minutes ago, IronJambo said:

The company that look after the building have had a pest control company (not rentokil) in for a couple of weeks but have so far drew a blank. Last night was the first the rats have made themselves known to us as they've just been busy scurrying the inner walls of everyone else. Other than it sounding like the grand national is happening above my bed it's not a disaster they're in the loft as at least we'll be able to lay traps up there. Council pest people reckon they've probably got in through a sewage pipe.

 

We're in an urban area, pretty much town centre but look over a park so the rats live right next to us. I don't mind them living next to us but I'd rather they weren't all called Anne Frank.

Lying in bed listening to them running around above you 😱😱

 

Feck that.... I’d be moving for a few weeks till they are found and killed before I came home 

[FWJ]

 

[Restonbabe]

We have tiny wrens nesting under our solar panels in the roofing. Annoying in the morning. 

 

Then we have a murder of crows in the woods behind the school. These barstewards make a racket. 

 

Think we have some mice in the cupboard in the kitchen. But have never seen one and the two cats keep scratching at the carpet. 

[Stu_HMFC]

I hate Rats, Mice etc horrible I couldn’t live in a house with them like theshed said 😂 I would be out away into a hotel or back with my parents . I’d rather take on a lion or a tiger than multiple rats they just give me the fear and feel sick even talking about them . 
 

Good Luck with getting rid of them! Hope their gone soon.

[Tazio]

1 minute ago, Stu_HMFC said:

I hate Rats, Mice etc horrible I couldn’t live in a house with them like theshed said 😂 I would be out away into a hotel or back with my parents . I’d rather take on a lion or a tiger than multiple rats they just give me the fear and feel sick even talking about them . 
 

Good Luck with getting rid of them! Hope their gone soon.

Pet rats are brilliant things. Very friendly and good fun, also a lot safer for kids than gerbils or hamsters as they don’t bite normally. I’m sure they might if you provoked them enough or alarmed them but they’re not mad for it like hamsters. They also love being handled and are very soft and furry to the touch. 
Wild ones I’d rather avoid. 

[chuck berrys hairline]

Get a snake and release it in the walls. Will pop back out for water,  sure this is what mines does after he escapes all the time 😅

[A Boy Named Crow]

10 hours ago, IronJambo said:

In the walls, between floors, and in my attic!

 

New build apartment block. Everyone hearing them scurry around. Found evidence of them in my attic today after hearing them up there last night. Pest control are on it.

 

Anyone been through this? Did you get rid or was it a total nightmare?

My understanding is traps are better than poison, you don't want the wee bugger crawling off to decompose under your floor!

 

I like the snake idea too. I know a guy with a diamond python, it only eats rats...shite at "gimme a paw" though.

[IronJambo]

2 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

My understanding is traps are better than poison, you don't want the wee bugger crawling off to decompose under your floor!

 

 

You're probably right but I don't think I'd care if I had to knock holes in all my walls to find their rotten carcasses if it meant the problem was gone. There's an environmental health officer calling me today at some point so hopefully he can give me an idea of how these things normally go.

 

Didn't hear them last night at all so I'm hoping they were just having a wee jaunt to have a look around before deciding to concentrate on irritating the shite out of the ground floor neighbours that done next to nothing about it.

[IronJambo]

But aye, if anyone's got a snake that needs a free holiday box it up and send it to me via DHL or the like and I'll send it back when it's doubled in size 😂

[Ron Burgundy]

8 hours ago, Tazio said:

Pet rats are brilliant things. Very friendly and good fun, also a lot safer for kids than gerbils or hamsters as they don’t bite normally. I’m sure they might if you provoked them enough or alarmed them but they’re not mad for it like hamsters. They also love being handled and are very soft and furry to the touch. 
Wild ones I’d rather avoid. 

I've had pet rats and agree that they are honestly fantastic pets, like wee totty dogs they are that clever and affectionate.

[Harry Potter]

15 hours ago, IronJambo said:

In the walls, between floors, and in my attic!

 

New build apartment block. Everyone hearing them scurry around. Found evidence of them in my attic today after hearing them up there last night. Pest control are on it.

 

Anyone been through this? Did you get rid or was it a total nightmare?

My son works in pest control, shame you are too far away.

Would have helped you out.

[Rizla]

Unfortunately if you have people you will get rats, they’re all over the place.

Do your best to block up holes or roof gaps etc. Poison will kill some but they crawl and snuff it under a floor and then you get infested with flys.

Traps are probably the best.

Cats will help and if you get a good hunter all the better but you might get a fat lazy sun lover🙄.

I had a lot of mice but after we got our cat he got rid of them, mind you he’s a vicious little git.

[Rizla]

Try get an independent pest control rather than a big company.

[fancy a brew]

9 hours ago, Tazio said:

Pet rats are brilliant things. Very friendly and good fun, also a lot safer for kids than gerbils or hamsters as they don’t bite normally. I’m sure they might if you provoked them enough or alarmed them but they’re not mad for it like hamsters. They also love being handled and are very soft and furry to the touch. 
Wild ones I’d rather avoid. 

 

[AlimOzturk]

2 minutes ago, fancy a brew said:

 

They are fwiw. We had them and mice for years. 
 

Always find it tough watching the cat catch mice and torture them knowing I have a number of them as pets over the years. Nature though. 
 

 

[fancy a brew]

1 hour ago, AlimOzturk said:

They are fwiw. We had them and mice for years. 
 

Always find it tough watching the cat catch mice and torture them knowing I have a number of them as pets over the years. Nature though. 
 

 

 

Each to their own, but rats, snakes, insects and spiders are a sold no for me when it comes to pets.

[The Frenchman Returns]

We regularly get rats appearing in our garden, source is a Pets at Home in Corstorphine. 
 

When we lived in Livingston we had a family of squirrels move in to the eves above the ground floor hall, just below our bedroom. Now they were seriously annoying noisy pests, particularly when they have babies and wake up at dawn

 

 

[jonnothejambo]

Since moving our rural abode we have spotted a multitude of wildlife in our garden and in the woods over our back fence. 

 

Deer, red and grey squirrels, hedgehogs, voles. 

 

Pheasant, woodpeckers, collared doves, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits ; they all feed in our garden.

 

No rats yet....

 

 

[Lemongrab]

5 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

Since moving our rural abode we have spotted a multitude of wildlife in our garden and in the woods over our back fence. 

 

Deer, red and grey squirrels, hedgehogs, voles. 

 

Pheasant, woodpeckers, collared doves, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits ; they all feed in our garden.

 

No rats yet....

 

 

 

I saw those, and a multitude of foxes in my garden when I lived in Saughton Mains.  Didn't see a single rat or mouse in the 10 years I lived there.

[Ainsley Harriott]

19 hours ago, IronJambo said:

In the walls, between floors, and in my attic!

 

New build apartment block. Everyone hearing them scurry around. Found evidence of them in my attic today after hearing them up there last night. Pest control are on it.

 

Anyone been through this? Did you get rid or was it a total nightmare?

Get a pest controller in I had them ages ago they bread faster than rabbits so get a pro asap

[Auld Reekin']

1 hour ago, jonnothejambo said:

Since moving our rural abode we have spotted a multitude of wildlife in our garden and in the woods over our back fence. 

 

Deer, red and grey squirrels, hedgehogs, voles. 

 

Pheasant, woodpeckers, collared doves, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits ; they all feed in our garden.

 

No rats yet....

 

 

 

There'll be foxes and badgers around too - and probably also feeding or passing through your garden, by the sounds of it - but both are mainly nocturnal and so less likely to be seen. These days you're much more likely to spot a fox in the city than in the countryside.

 

Rats will be there too, but maybe not that many if you're not close to a farm.

[Robbo-Jambo]

16 hours ago, Tazio said:

If you’ve got a decent cat. I used to have a big lump of ginger thing called Frank that would bring back everything from tiny birds to rabbits then sit and munch them in front of me. However my last cat Kevin was discovered by me sitting looking at a mouse in curiosity and jumped about a foot in the air when it started running away. Idiot of a cat. In his defence he was very useful for getting rid of daddy long legs and spiders, he knew his level. 

🤣

[davemclaren]

Had a rat in our loft a few years back. Took weeks to get rid of it  but it finally took the poison bait the pest control guy put down.  Thankfully no smell or blow flies when it died so I assumed it died outside. Hell of a noise it made at night running around the loft though. Filled up the hole it had dug to get in with cement and broken glass. 

[IronJambo]

2 hours ago, jonnothejambo said:

Since moving our rural abode we have spotted a multitude of wildlife in our garden and in the woods over our back fence. 

 

Deer, red and grey squirrels, hedgehogs, voles. 

 

Pheasant, woodpeckers, collared doves, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits ; they all feed in our garden.

 

No rats yet....

 

 

Ffs Johnno, I've got rats racing around a few feet from my head and you're boasting that you live on a nature reserve 😂

[jonnothejambo]

1 hour ago, Auld Reekin' said:

 

There'll be foxes and badgers around too - and probably also feeding or passing through your garden, by the sounds of it - but both are mainly nocturnal and so less likely to be seen. These days you're much more likely to spot a fox in the city than in the countryside.

 

Rats will be there too, but maybe not that many if you're not close to a farm.

 

We are close to a few farms. 

[jonnothejambo]

1 hour ago, IronJambo said:

Ffs Johnno, I've got rats racing around a few feet from my head and you're boasting that you live on a nature reserve 😂

 

 

[Tommy Brown]

6 hours ago, jonnothejambo said:

Since moving our rural abode we have spotted a multitude of wildlife in our garden and in the woods over our back fence. 

 

Deer, red and grey squirrels, hedgehogs, voles. 

 

Pheasant, woodpeckers, collared doves, wood pigeons, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits ; they all feed in our garden.

 

No rats yet....

 

 

Red squirrels? At Linlithgow?

Good to hear.

[jonnothejambo]

16 minutes ago, Tommy Brown said:

Red squirrels? At Linlithgow?

Good to hear.

 

Not at Linlithgow any more, Tommy.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

21 minutes ago, Tommy Brown said:

Red squirrels? At Linlithgow?

Good to hear.

 

We've got reds here in Innerleithen now, there was a cull of the grey feckers a few years back which allowed the native reds to move back in.

[Tommy Brown]

57 minutes ago, jonnothejambo said:

 

Not at Linlithgow any more, Tommy.

Ah

[Tommy Brown]

51 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

We've got reds here in Innerleithen now, there was a cull of the grey feckers a few years back which allowed the native reds to move back in.

Good to hear.

[J.T.F.Robertson]

 

Alberta is rat free, or so we're told.