There's a rat in my kitchen - what do I do?

Ficheall

So... there appears to be a rat in my kitchen.

I'm renting a terraced house. One of the adjoining houses has a couple of dogs, a back yard full of dog**** and bags of rubbish. There was a lot of activity in the house next door this morning, whether the tenants decided to do a spring clean or whether they've gone and the landlord has embarked upon the unenviable quest of cleaning up after them. I suspect they disturbed the rat and that that's why it's ended up in my house - though I'm not long back after Christmas, so I suppose it's possible that they were here before.

The house is oddly built - the kitchen is more like an almost detached pantry stuck on the back as an afterthought. It doesn't appear to be terribly well finished behind the presses and the cooker etc. from what I can tell, and I presume it's shoddily connected to the kitchen of the house next door. The door from the kitchen to the rest of the house is closed at all times, so hopefully they won't be able to get in any further.

The previous tenant informed me that they had rats during the summer and that they had the exterminator in. I had assumed it was due to a combination of the heat and the mess next door, though I suppose this is not necessarily the case.


TL;DR - there's a rat in my kitchen.

What should I do?

I have no qualms about the rat(s) dying, though I don't want their rotting corpses to stink up the place.

I saved a spider from the bath this evening - I feel karma has let me down here.

I'm going to just bin all the food I have in the kitchen now (not much in it anyway - a perk of living alone) so that there's nothing to draw them back. It can't be the warmth they're coming for - it's a whopping ten degrees in here now and the kitchen's even colder. Suppose I should hoover the floor for crumbs too.... sigh...

Sir Arthur Daley

Burn the house down.

gg2

What do you mean there "appears" to be? Can you see it? Smell it? Hear it?

Ruu

Leave, the rat has marked his territory.

jethro081

WikiHow wrote: »

Burn the house down.

clicked into thread to post exactly this.

Custardpi

Think outside the box. Hey, there's a recession on. Waste not want not & all that.

RustySpoon

You're gonna fix that rat, that's what you're gonna do,
You're gonna fix that rat.

BillyMitchel

Theres a rat in mi kitchen what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in mi kitchen what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna fix that rat that what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna fix that rat


Edit: fock you rusty!!

Gran Hermano

Stick your finger up his bumhole, fall on top of him impaling him on his broken ribs in the process.

Red Crow

UB40

The Diabolical Monocle

Improvise a simple rat trap.

Use a box, a twig and a piece of cheese.

Sir Arthur Daley

Chances are there are hundreds of rats next door in the rubbish, i think its got more serious you have to burn down the neighbourhood.

Ficheall

gg2 wrote: »

What do you mean there "appears" to be? Can you see it? Smell it? Hear it?

Well, I heard something in the kitchen while I was sitting in the living room and then went into the kitchen and stamped my feet a few times and saw something disappear under a cupboard, but it was too fast to get a proper look. There's definitely something, and I suspect it's a rat as opposed to a mouse...


I can't burn the house down as I'd lose my deposit

Brian_Zeluz

Cover or close everything it could get into. Seriously everything, my mother once toasted a live mouse and managed to drown another in the dishwasher.
Don't leave out any food/scraps ever, get some proper traps and melt a bit of chocolate onto them.

Galwayguy35

Rat poison.

passive

Get a cat. Or even better, get six cats!

endacl

Traps. Bait with crunchy peanut butter and Nutella. Don't waste money on the overpriced rubbish in the likes of woodies. We had an infestation a couple of years ago, and the traps that worked best were the wooden two quid jobs from any local hardware shop. If you see droppings, you can also leave some poison bait down. When you notice the droppings have started to appear in various shades of blue and green, you know it's been taken. Not a bad idea to leave a permanent bait box in the garden too. When you notice the bait has been ignored, you'll know that the problem is gone.

Don't bother paying for the likes of rentokill. They'll just do the above and charge for it. If your renting, you can ring the corpo. They'll also just do the above, but they won't charge for it.

ceo

Set a trap(s)
Put out Rat Poison (should you get the cubed blue box of poison use gloves and break it up. Hear it works better that way).
Put down a tray with lots of water

If that doesn't work move out! Just runaway!

Witcher

Set traps, avoid poison unless you want them dying behind your kickboards and in the walls.

Sir Arthur Daley

passive wrote: »

Get a cat. Or even better, get six cats!

Cats are no good for killing big rats.

dodderangler

WikiHow wrote: »

Cats are no good for killing big rats.

Big buck ferret is your only man

endacl

WikiHow wrote: »

Cats are no good for killing big rats.

Big cats. Get some lions?

SuperSean11

Slydice

Blay wrote: »

Set traps, avoid poison unless you want them dying behind your kickboards and in the walls.

This is good advice. Happened in an apartment block I lived in a while back. Smell of dying rat followed by lots of flies (which I guess were eating the rats body) was pretty bad.

gg2

Ficheall wrote: »

Well, I heard something in the kitchen while I was sitting in the living room and then went into the kitchen and stamped my feet a few times and saw something disappear under a cupboard, but it was too fast to get a proper look. There's definitely something, and I suspect it's a rat as opposed to a mouse...


I can't burn the house down as I'd lose my deposit

Are you not sh1tting your pants right now?

I wish I hadn't opened this thread.. :-/ I feel for you!!

shamrock55

WikiHow wrote: »

Cats are no good for killing big rats.

Maybe not but he would drive the rat out

Sir Arthur Daley

gg2 wrote: »

Are you not sh1tting your pants right now?

I wish I hadn't opened this thread.. :-/ I feel for you!!

They say we are all only ever 3 feet from a rat.

feargale

ceo wrote: »

Set a trap(s)
Put out Rat Poison (should you get the cubed blue box of poison use gloves and break it up. Hear it works better that way).
Put down a tray with lots of water.

Why water?

skirtgirl

The rat definitely has baby rats. Move out.

gg2

WikiHow wrote: »

They say we are all only ever 3 feet from a rat.

Cheers mate!

Sir Arthur Daley

shamrock55 wrote: »

Maybe not but he would drive the rat out

A big rat could eat a cat.

Mickey H

Kill it. Kill it with fire.

endacl

If that rat has four turtle mates.....

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Thread is giving me the willies omg

Worst nightmare stuff. I would move out

gg2

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Thread is giving me the willies omg

Worst nightmare stuff. I would move out

Honestly right now I would be out on the street waiting for someone to pick me up, chain smoking like a mother

Sir Arthur Daley

The only solution is to catch a shot of live rats, put them in a big cage and they will start eating each other, eventually you will be down to one rat, release the rat and that rat will only have an appetite for rats thus killing all the young rats which will kill off the population of rats.

I made the BBC

Write the deposit off as collateral damage and burn the kitchen down. If you can keep the blaze localised to that one room, then you can go back to living a nice rat-free existence. The flames will act as a warning to any other rats who are considering moving into your kitchen.

handbagmad

Get a jack Russell dog. Great little fellas for catching rats n mice.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

gg2 wrote: »

Honestly right now I would be out on the street waiting for someone to pick me up, chain smoking like a mother

Ugh, know that feeling. There was a mouse in my bedroom about six weeks ago. I was sitting on my bed when it raced out and I got such a fright I couldn't even get out of bed to get out of the room. I was texting my housemate and landlord (he lives with us) to come home quick and save me. Of course one was off riding and the other was off drinking so I was alone in the house until the next morning. Had to get a friend to come over and get my clothes out of my room so as I could get dressed.

If that was a rat, jaysus, that would be it, id be gone. Somewhere. The thoughts of it is freaking me out even. Ugh ugh ugh. Goosebumps are on my arms even thinking about this

unitedrover

Is his name Elmo?

catallus

OP are you not afraid that the rat will come into your bedroom tonight (probably with all his dirty rat friends) and start crawling around on your bed while you sleep??

You need traps and a cat and probably a dog too.

NegativeCreep

Starve it. Then you can stuff blue cheese in your next victims vagina and set the rat free inside her. They have sharp teeth.

Sir Arthur Daley

NegativeCreep wrote: »

Starve it. Then you can stuff blue cheese in your next victims vagina and set the rat free inside her. They have sharp teeth.

:eek::eek::eek:

yeahimhere

WikiHow wrote: »

Cats are no good for killing big rats.

Not for our crazy cat. She lives outdoors and is a little feral but you should see the size of some of the rats she's caught in the barn. I'm almost a little afraid of her

ScummyMan

catallus wrote: »

OP are you not afraid that the rat will come into your bedroom tonight (probably with all his dirty rat friends) and start crawling around on your bed while you sleep??

You need traps and a cat and probably a dog too.

Aaaaaaand I'm gone

Sir Arthur Daley

yeahimhere wrote: »

Not for our crazy cat. She lives outdoors and is a little feral but you should see the size of some of the rats she's caught in the barn. I'm almost a little afraid of her

You have one good cat there, you could rent your cat to the OP.

unitedrover

Set up a 10 ft square pool 2 foot deep in the kitchen. Put a few piranhas in it. Plank across it. Bait along the plank.


If that don't work just play Sinead O' Connor or something.

Sir Arthur Daley

JJayoo

Keep the rat as a pet.

wolfpawnat

ceo wrote: »

Set a trap(s)
Put out Rat Poison (should you get the cubed blue box of poison use gloves and break it up. Hear it works better that way).
Put down a tray with lots of water

If that doesn't work move out! Just runaway!

Why in bejesus give it water? The poison dehydrates them, is this some weird torture where you want the rat to suffer or just confuse the poor OP?

I am not frightened of rats, we always have some vermin here (thank you shítty boom building) but I have a fairly decent hunter cat. He's an employee more than a pet. Even if he just keeps them from coming out of the gaps in the walls he is doing some good!

So I'll rent him out to you. 20e a night plus expenses!

shamrock55

WikiHow wrote: »

A big rat could eat a cat.

Lol, what size rat are we talking about hear,our fella had a big enough one ripped to shreds and left him outside our backdoor the other morning, just what you want first thing in the morning when going out to feed him, turns out he didnt need feeding:D