Rats....help....advice pls

[Caroline123]

Hi I'm after pest control advice pls.

Right this is going to take some explaining.

October 2016
First time I heard definitive very loud scratching in the floorboard between the ground floor and 1st floor. It was rats. We caught 2 within a week in the traps. They didn't touch the poison. Various holes we blocked such as an old hole in the cupboard where the old water tank/boiler pipes went. We were trying to figure out how they got in but to no avail.

I put a peanut in every room/cupboard I could think of. Not one of these was eaten. Fearing they didn't want my dry roasted nuts I also strategically placed chocolate/other food in the kitchen. Again none of this was taken. I still now leave bits of food to see if they are in the kitchen. Luckily (and thank god as I think I would of moved to Scotland) I'm almost certain they do not go anywhere other than what I've named the 'rat run' which is one straight path from one end of the house to the other. I've heard nothing anywhere else.

Xmas 2016
I came back from my mothers to a smell I'll never forget. I called my housing provider and they came out to find a dead rat. Count to now is 3.

At this point I said you need to get professionals in which they did.

The guy that came said they were most likely coming up the drain. Cue every plug in the sink and toilet seats down. They are still not getting out from underneath the floorboards.

Long story short the three visits were wasted as my genius housing provider tried to send a 6ft man down a little drain (apparently they don't understand what a man hole cover is)

united utillities then came to check the public drain. Apparently there were no holes

Then a private company came and checked the drain from my house to the public drain. no defects were found apparently.

Now
I'm still hearing activity. My housing are refusing to do anything else stating (and I quote) there are no rats.

The whole thing is very strange for the following reasons...

-They are ignoring the trap and poison.
-I read rats come out to play at night. Most of the activity is during the day
-rat no 2/3 or anything I've heard since isnt in the same league noise wise
-if they aren't eating in my house then how are they getting in and out so easily for food
-no water supply either
-they aren't sharpening their claws in my house

I'm at the conclusion now they have to be coming up the cavities. Any ideas?

I just need any advice possible

my housing are saying they won't do anything cause there are no signs of rats. Can the rats seriously just choose not to go for traps/poison?

I honestly feel like I have psychic rats. They only come out to play when no one else is here.

I'm in a semi detached house but the 'rat run' is no where near the attached house.

Help!

 

[Doggit]

I use sulphur to get rid of fleas and insects etc, but you'd need to lift a floorboard to set some alight (I fill an upturned coke can with it, and then set light to it), and then leave the doors closed for 8 hours. But you can get flea bombs that are an aerosol can that has a lock on the spray, and you set these going, and then leave the room. Whether you could spray a couple of these in from an air brick, and achieve the same effect on rats I don't know. But having gone back in a room with the sulphur burning, you choke to death, so it's worth thinking about.

 

[mangosRus]

Get a small camera down there? maybe wireless if it can retain a good enough signal.

 

[transam]

Get a cat

My Jones never took any prisoners guaranteed to get any rat

ambush was his specialty

 

[KenGMac]

Caroline123, good evening.

If you were to move up here, I hate to tell you but I have over the past 4 Weeks managed, using a rat bate trap externally to eliminate about 7 of these non-paying guests.

It is a possibility that the Rats are using your Property as a Nest? but there is in very close proximity a plentiful food source for them, I believe that these highly devious, intelligent nasties will camp out as close to their food source as is possible? in my case the Rats were feeding from our hens layer Pellets, during the late afternoon [We have now just two hens that roam the rear yard]

Suggest you get a friends Dog [ plus the owner] to visit, let the dog roam the Garden, and watch where the dog spends a load of time sniffing around, that could give you a pointer to any external well used Rat runs, then a possible food source?? [any of the terrier breeds are very good at this]

What annoyed me to a certain extent was that at dusk I could watch the Rat family scuttling back and forward from their well concealed burrow to the Hens Coup, given I have an Air Rifle [and up here a License to hold and shoot one] but because of the law [several bits of it] I was not able to take the Rats out using that gun, On a good day i can hit a 20 mm. Diameter target at up to 50 yards.

Our dog is wary of rats but appears to want to play with Mice. we do not have a cat so I use the dogs actions to alert me to the presents of any Rodents.

Hope this assists?

Ken.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Rats are intelligent & wary of anything new in their surroundings. A trap will be avoided for at least a week. If you know where they are coming in , fill the gaps with steel wool. Glue traps are quite effective but are not supposed to be left for long periods. As suggested, a cat will be effective.

 

[^woody^]

My housing are refusing to do anything else stating (and I quote) there are no rats.

If your tenancy agreement states that it will deal with such infestations, then you have a claim under contract.

Alternatively, pursue a claim under Statutory Nuisance and contact your council's environmental health team who may be able to serve an abatement notice.

 

[333rocky333]

In the shops we do they lay down a fleurescent powder, maybe you could put some under the floor, when whatever treads in it, they leave a trail and you can determine where they go or come in and out