Rodents inside the walls!

Lissy94

Hi all!
I have a question but first I'm gonna explain the situation.

I am a student and live (legally) with 7 other students in a spacious house in Rathgar, Dublin. The house is old and has never been maintained properly and especially our walls are ****. Unfortunately, our landlord does not really care about anything because we are all internationals and he is just aiming for profit.

Since a week now we hear noises coming from the inside of our walls. I presume we have a rat (or rats, I don't know how many) inside of our walls. We can hear mainly one single rat running around the house (always the same route) especially in the evening when our heater is running (it is not running the entire day, mainly in the evening). The noise is very significant which is why I think it is a rat and not a mice. Furthermore, sometimes we can hear the rat scratching. It is very scary because it sounds like it is digging a hole through our wall. However, it is only inside of the wall and not (yet) inside of the house. We haven't noticed any droppings so far and we keep all the premises as clean and tidy as possible. I could imagine that the rodent found its way into our house due to the unusual cold temperatures this year so far.

I was wondering now if anyone of you had a similar situation? How quick do we have to call a pest controller or whatever? I've read that rats can cause serious damage to a house when they chew through pipes and wires. I'd like to hear some opinions because I guess in case we have to organize a pest control we have to pay for it with our own money since as I said the landlord doesn't care at all.
Many thanks!
Greets

_Brian

You could just buy a few traps rather than turning straight to professionals..

But you should at least inform the landlord so he’s aware that damage may be done to the property.

Also, it is amazing how much noise mice actually make, they sound enormous.

vicwatson

Not to do with the heating by any chance? Creaking pipes?

Lissy94

_Brian wrote: »

You could just buy a few traps rather than turning straight to professionals..

But you should at least inform the landlord so he’s aware that damage may be done to the property.

Also, it is amazing how much noise mice actually make, they sound enormous.

Sure, landlord comes over tomorrow and I plan to inform him about it. We noticed the rodents only a couple of days ago.
But do mice as well do that scratching noises? I thought thats like a typical rat noise.

Lissy94

vicwatson wrote: »

Not to do with the heating by any chance? Creaking pipes?

Nope those are unfortunately not the pipes. Our pipes do creak sometimes as well but you can definitely identify that that's an animal walking around.

The Ritz

Mod Comment

Moved here from Home Entertainment DIY, for a more appropriate audience.


Ritz.

evolving_doors

Look for entry holes on the outside.

Although if he's trying to dig through the wall he might be trapped, if this is the case he might have come through the roof and dropped down between the gap.
If it's safe have a look for droppings in the attic etc
Make sure the water tank in the attic is covered, rats seek out water when poisoned. It's not uncommon for rats to fall into a tank and can get out.
Is it just one wall he's hanging around, check the other side of this wall.

Professional companies will usually just put down poison. That works, but you might have the smell of a dead rodent to deal with for a few months.

If you can open the airvent you might find a gap in the wall. You might be able to drop down a baited rat trap on a fishing line without setting it off!

shesty

Rats are quite tricky to get rid of - from past experience.(ugh)

You will probably end up calling a pest control company.Your landlord should really sort this out though, very bad on his/her part.

jmBuildExt

The best and only pest control you should contact in this situation is an organistaion called the RTB.

Edit:

Cushie Butterfield

shesty wrote: »

Your landlord should really sort this out though, very bad on his/her part.

jmBuildExt wrote: »

The best and only pest control you should contact in this situation is an organistaion called the RTB.

OP states that their landlord hasn’t even been made aware of the problem as yet, so how it’s very bad on his part or why RTB should be contacted before the landlord is a mystery, to say the very least.

jmBuildExt

My comment was mostly in jest....
But op did say....
"Unfortunately, our landlord does not really care about anything because we are all internationals and he is just aiming for profit."

BrokenArrows

Dont allow your landlord to dismiss your concerns.
Make sure he deals with the issue.
Mention to him that it will cost him more money in the log run if the rat starts eating through cables in the walls. That might get him thinking about the benefits of dealing with it early.

Graces7

Sounds like a rat, sadly.

Like i heard in one house way back.

I had a young cat then and one night was woken at around 2 am by screaming. When I ventured out of the bedroom, the cat was standing there shaking and there was a huge dead rat on the floor.

Never saw or heard one again there.

twignme

Yes, definitely sounds like a rat. It is almost four months since one died in my walls, and it's only now that the smell is beginning to disappear. You do not want that smell, or the bluebottles that come with it.

Lissy94

Thank you all for your replies and advices! The landlord unfortunately did not come over last week (he was supposed to come over for another reason) so I did not tell him about the rodents yet. The interesting thing is actually that the last day I heard rodent noises was a week ago. This is very weird. Basically, between the 19/03/2018 and the 28/03/2018 we noticed rodent noises inside of our walls. Not before that time and as I said not anymore afterwards. Seems like it just disappeared. I am not sure how to handle the situation now. I plan to get in touch with the landlord tomorrow for sure and will tell him anyways. Perhaps it would be actually a good idea to check our attic for droppings or any rodent signs. At least that would be the easiest option for now.

BrokenArrows

Lissy94 wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies and advices! The landlord unfortunately did not come over last week (he was supposed to come over for another reason) so I did not tell him about the rodents yet. The interesting thing is actually that the last day I heard rodent noises was a week ago. This is very weird. Basically, between the 19/03/2018 and the 28/03/2018 we noticed rodent noises inside of our walls. Not before that time and as I said not anymore afterwards. Seems like it just disappeared. I am not sure how to handle the situation now. I plan to get in touch with the landlord tomorrow for sure and will tell him anyways. Perhaps it would be actually a good idea to check our attic for droppings or any rodent signs. At least that would be the easiest option for now.

Tell him anyway.
Then if the issues come back he has had some previous warning.

They might have just moved on to somewhere nicer.

unkel

Might have died from dehydration. If the smell of death starts soon, that was it. If not, it might have just moved on. I'm with BrokenArrows here, inform your landlord. Don't wait for him to come over, ring him. Or better, email him if you can (so you'll have a record)

cheif kaiser

Had the same thing in my house and the intense scratching was the mouse building it's nest, all then went quite for a while and then soon after there were baby mice everywhere. Came down down to he kitchen one night, switched on the light and a baby mouse popped it's head out of the toaster! Not one to like killing, I caught them all in humane traps and let them out in the local field and that was that! Needless to say, the toaster went in the bin

decky1

you don't live in 'Leinster House' house by any chance it's full of them.

Lissy94

I informed the landlord about the situation. He will come over at the beginning of the week to have a look at the attic. We don't have stairs that lead to our attic so he needs to bring a ladder. I'd say the attic is probably the first spot to check. Thanks again to you all! I just hope the moved on to another house.

Lissy94

decky1 wrote: »

you don't live in 'Leinster House' house by any chance it's full of them.

No, I don't live there

GrumpyMe

"The HSE also offers a free pest control service which is available to householders to bait their private residential properties.
This service can be availed of by calling 1850 211 774 or alternatively 076 6955057"