Rats in the house

the bom

Please help, going out of my mind, Ive rats in the house, its an old house with no proper sub floors or cavity walls, the walls are about 24 inches thick with stone and sand, which is dry and easily removed. Im in the house for 20 yrs without problems,They keep coming up in the same corner, Rentokill are useless the come and lay bait, Im laying bait, theres 20 different types of bait , paste, oats, blocks , powder everything on the market.Ive opened the corner where they are and surrounded it with a steel box with rat traps inside, last weekend I came home after being out, one of the traps had grazed a rat , there was a blood bath the wall the floor etc all spattered, My House has concrete foot paths to the walls and tarmac going 3mtrs outside that , theres no obvious signs of a hole, During the week I had 3 guys from rentokill walking around the house for half a day, they left bewildered, I got specialists in to put cameras into the pipes and gutters from the house , all seems perfect, Ive been up on the roof, into the attic and combed the whole house, which i know pretty well, theres no obvious entry point, yet the one corner is covered in rat poo with scratching and rooting going on in the corner, can rats go 4 meters under ground, I have small kids im afraid to leave alone,Im Not sleeping the night.Has anyone any suggestions, Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

MAJJ

I have heard that ferrets will catch, kill them and leave a scent that scares them away.

cautiouscarguy

Maybe get a few pet kittens.

jimmy180sx

I live next door to a farm and last year we had an infestation of rats, both inside and out. What didnt help was our dog, a great dane, would open the back door to go out and leave it adjar. The farm had a few wild cats outside so we started to give them food and they began to stick around outside ours. Everyday we would find a headless rat after the cats leaving them on the door step. Slowly, but surly the rat problem stopped outside. The only way we could get them inside was to set traps. Im against poisen as they could die under the floor boards or someother tight spot and leave the place stink. Traps would guarantee that you have caught them and can dispose of them safely. Peanut butter is great for bait, but remember if a rat fails to set off a trap it wont go near the same on again. Cleaver little fe**ers.

johndoe99

get a jack russell terrier, i had a nest of rats under my shed. The Jack Russell's will hunt the rats.

MAJJ

Maybe post up broad location and a local might have ferret/jack Russell for this job.

I hate rats!

Pumpkinseeds

cautiouscarguy wrote: »

Maybe get a few pet kittens.

I'd suggest adult cats rather than kittens as most kittens wouldn't be able to cope with an adult rat or have the hunting skills to avoid getting bitten by rats. There are rescues that are always looking for safe outdoor homes to relocate feral cats to, having some expert ferals on the ground could be a long term solution to the problem.

kylith

A big rat will stand up to a cat. Terriers are great, but you'd have to take up the floors so they could be got at, so a ferret might not be a bad idea. You'll get mixed reports of the sonic repellers, but I found one good for mice, in conjunction with snap-traps.

dodderangler

kylith wrote: »

A big rat will stand up to a cat. Terriers are great, but you'd have to take up the floors so they could be got at, so a ferret might not be a bad idea. You'll get mixed reports of the sonic repellers, but I found one good for mice, in conjunction with snap-traps.

Big male or protecting female rat will stand to anything and a cat will back down because cats prefer an easy meal that won't fight back
A ferret won't back down although a ferret will possibly be injured as one of mine was few weeks back but did kill the rat. I put my ferret into a large box of silage and 7 or 8 rats burst out of it just a pity I didn't have a jack Russel present . Rats will head for the hills when ferrets are present
Ferrets will do the job and if not kill the rats their scent will deter them
IMO ferrets are only man to do it.
If your in Dublin I'd be willing to help .

ShaShaBear

dodderangler wrote: »

Big male or protecting female rat will stand to anything and a cat will back down because cats prefer an easy meal that won't fight back
A ferret won't back down although a ferret will possibly be injured as one of mine was few weeks back but did kill the rat. I put my ferret into a large box of silage and 7 or 8 rats burst out of it just a pity I didn't have a jack Russel present . Rats will head for the hills when ferrets are present
Ferrets will do the job and if not kill the rats their scent will deter them
IMO ferrets are only man to do it.
If your in Dublin I'd be willing to help .

Im in the middle of a situation too, we seem to have rats under the floorboards upstairs, but can't lay poison or traps because the dog would eat anything. We cant use sonic things because I have two female pet rats

Tipperary animal lover

I used to live in an old farm house and had a bloody nest of them in shed beside the house, got two cats from a shelter and with in weeks my little ninjas had the place cleared.

deano2882

where ye located me n one lads hav few ferrets....ive jack russel tht serious rattin dog she hates the word rats even she heavy in pup due in next day r two if any 1 wants to buy gud wel bred rattin pups pm me i wil travel within reason wit ferrets and couple jackrussels if ye cant get sorted...

Corron

dodderangler wrote: »

Big male or protecting female rat will stand to anything and a cat will back down because cats prefer an easy meal that won't fight back
A ferret won't back down although a ferret will possibly be injured as one of mine was few weeks back but did kill the rat. I put my ferret into a large box of silage and 7 or 8 rats burst out of it just a pity I didn't have a jack Russel present . Rats will head for the hills when ferrets are present
Ferrets will do the job and if not kill the rats their scent will deter them
IMO ferrets are only man to do it.
If your in Dublin I'd be willing to help .

Hi we found, and killed, a baby rat in our house yesterday. Then found that there are droppings in the attic. Would you be interested in bringing them to our house and let them work their magic? PM if interested.

ClareGal2015

I have rats in the attic and just can't trap them so I'm going to have to find a pest control company. I think I'll get a cat or two as well from the animal shelter. Will a female adult cat keep the rats away? And it is better to get feral cats?

RainyDay

ClareGal2015 wrote: »

I have rats in the attic and just can't trap them so I'm going to have to find a pest control company. I think I'll get a cat or two as well from the animal shelter. Will a female adult cat keep the rats away? And it is better to get feral cats?

Not all cats are good ratters. You really need a cat that was thought to hunt by it's mother, which doesn't always happen. Do you know anyone with farm cats?

ClareGal2015

RainyDay wrote: »

Not all cats are good ratters. You really need a cat that was thought to hunt by it's mother, which doesn't always happen. Do you know anyone with farm cats?

No, unfortunately I don't know anyone with farm cats. Any tips on how to spot/choose a good ratter from shelters or elsewhere? As I said, I'm going to get an adult female cat as supposed to better than toms. I was going to get a kitten as well- was reading if you train them to chase and play with things, they could become a hunter (maybe not a great one but adequate perhaps). Finding a cat that was taught to hunt by its mother would be the best thing as you say, if I can actually find one! There were several cats in my neighbourhood but now there's only 2 and the rats are now everywhere on my street and surrounding area, even out scurrying around in the day.

RainyDay

Talk to the folks in the shelter and see if they can point you in the right direction

DBB

Sorry folks,
But things have moved on since this thread was first posted two years ago, and discussion of killing animals is really not conforming to the ethos of the forum.
If you'd like to continue or re-start the discussion, I see threads about it in the hunting forum, which is probably a more apt place for it.
Thanks,
DBB