# Rat in the ceiling!.



## keithmac (3 Apr 2022)

Heard a few odd noises over the weekend so I had to evict my son from his bedroom today and pull the floorboards up.

Found rat droppings but luckily the haven't eaten the wiring..

Turns out electricians have knocked a brick out of the wall to make their job easier and left a nice hole for all and sundry to get in. Lovely jubly.

Going to brick it up and leave some poison down just in case.

Not a great way to spend your day off..


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## numbnuts (3 Apr 2022)

I've got the same problem, except this is a block of flats and the mice are up in the loft space, the housing association didn't believe me at first, until I started sending photos of dead mice, killed four up to now. Someone came round to have a look and it seems they are coming through the cavity walls and in to my boiler cupboard and on to my kitchen. Next Wednesday I have another person to “have a look”, so it could be a long job.


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## Mrs M (3 Apr 2022)

Thomas offers his services.


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## keithmac (3 Apr 2022)

We had them in the loft a long while back and sorted that out.

Apparently they can shimmy up the drainpipes quite easily, up in through the soffit. 

Also heard them in the shared cavity wall a long time back, I think next door have a breach as I've checked all our drainage and footings and no way in on our side.

I suppose living behind a field doesn't help!


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## Cycleops (3 Apr 2022)

Rats are easier to rid of than mice as they will eat anything. Just have to hope it's not your wiring.


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## annedonnelly (3 Apr 2022)

I have mice that go into the loft. I hear the patter of their tiny feet sometimes at night.

They don't go anywhere else in the house and they don't do any harm up there so I leave them to get on with it.


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## bikingdad90 (3 Apr 2022)

keithmac said:


> We had them in the loft a long while back and sorted that out.
> 
> Apparently they can shimmy up the drainpipes quite easily, up in through the soffit.
> 
> ...


If the breach hasn’t been fixed then I would be fitting these in your sewer and rainwater outlets to stop them coming up the sewers.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine...VToFQBh01Mw54EAQYASABEgIN9_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

If you are trapping then these are the bees knees, when they go off they tend to flip so you can hear the sound of it.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/pest-sto...VBrTtCh2TKwptEAQYEyABEgLDm_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


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## Gillstay (3 Apr 2022)

bikingdad90 said:


> If the breach hasn’t been fixed then I would be fitting these in your sewer and rainwater outlets to stop them coming up the sewers.
> https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine...VToFQBh01Mw54EAQYASABEgIN9_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
> 
> If you are trapping then these are the bees knees, when they go off they tend to flip so you can hear the sound of it.
> https://www.screwfix.com/p/pest-sto...VBrTtCh2TKwptEAQYEyABEgLDm_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


I have two of those rat traps and they have never caught a thing here despite doing all the right tricks. Did manage to catch 6 in a live trap though.


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## bikingdad90 (3 Apr 2022)

Gillstay said:


> I have two of those rat traps and they have never caught a thing here despite doing all the right tricks. Did manage to catch 6 in a live trap though.


The knack to them is to wedge the bait in so it takes a tug to get it out, as they tug the weight sets the trap off.


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## Cerdic (3 Apr 2022)

…gonna feast on rat, yeah…


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## oldwheels (4 Apr 2022)

Cerdic said:


> …gonna feast on rat, yeah…


Been reading Terry Pratchett books have you? Rat features on the menu in some of them.


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## si_c (4 Apr 2022)

annedonnelly said:


> I have mice that go into the loft. I hear the patter of their tiny feet sometimes at night.
> 
> They don't go anywhere else in the house and they don't do any harm up there so I leave them to get on with it.


We had squirrels move into the loft a few years back - they were jumping from a branch on a tree at the front onto the roof and then climbing in under the roof space.

They can do quite a lot of damage when in the roof space (and this is a Grade II property) so we removed the branch they were using on the tree, didn't want to lay traps as that seemed unnecessarily brutal.


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## grumpydad (4 Apr 2022)

keithmac said:


> Heard a few odd noises over the weekend so I had to evict my son from his bedroom today and pull the floorboards up.
> 
> Found rat droppings but luckily the haven't eaten the wiring..
> 
> ...


Talking from experience, I wouldn't advise using poison, you could end up with a dead rat that will STINK!! for at least a couple of weeks. Use live catch or snap traps, we had a rat get in the house which produced 8 off spring, they were dispatched by various methods over a couple of weeks, we also bought a torch (possibly UV?) that showed up the urine stains all over the cooker, worktops, inside cupboards, you get the idea🤮


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## wiggydiggy (4 Apr 2022)

oldwheels said:


> Been reading Terry Pratchett books have you? Rat features on the menu in some of them.


Rat on a stick - 1p
Rat on a stick with ketchup - 3p

"Why's ketchup more expensive than the rat?"
"Have you ever tried rat without ketchup?!"


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## Cerdic (4 Apr 2022)

oldwheels said:


> Been reading Terry Pratchett books have you? Rat features on the menu in some of them.



Hmmm…I was thinking of UB40 actually!


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## Cerdic (4 Apr 2022)

How about Baldrick’s recipe for ‘rat-o-van’…?


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## keithmac (4 Apr 2022)

grumpydad said:


> Talking from experience, I wouldn't advise using poison, you could end up with a dead rat that will STINK!! for at least a couple of weeks. Use live catch or snap traps, we had a rat get in the house which produced 8 off spring, they were dispatched by various methods over a couple of weeks, we also bought a torch (possibly UV?) that showed up the urine stains all over the cooker, worktops, inside cupboards, you get the idea🤮



It's a secondary measure, there's a big brick cemented in now so hopefully they won't get anywhere near the bait!.

Quick release floor boards as well for time being so I can keep an eye on it. Electricians managed to smash those to bits as well, can't have heard of a multitool it seems.


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## oldwheels (4 Apr 2022)

Cerdic said:


> Hmmm…I was thinking of UB40 actually!


Is that some kind of lubricant/penetrating oil?


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## Phaeton (4 Apr 2022)

Cerdic said:


> Hmmm…I was thinking of UB40 actually!


I as going ask him whats he gonna do?


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## slowmotion (4 Apr 2022)

I'm with @grumpydad. You really, really, really don't want a hidden decomposing rat corpse in your house. The "inconvenience" is lengthy and entirely disgusting. We had a couple of mice pegging out under the floorboards and that was bad enough.


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## Teamfixed (5 Apr 2022)

As mentioned above, if you use poison you will end up with a dead rat in an inaccessible place. The stench will be disgustingly unbearable for a long time and you'll just have to live with it unless you are lucky enough to find the rat.
I know this from personal experience.
We had exactly the same with a removed air brick.
One day I was using a reciprocating multitool to cut through upstairs floor boards in an attempt to locate them following scratching sounds above the ceiling. I happened to look out over the back garden and saw two of the creatures run out of the missing brick (there was a vertical void between floors that they must have used) obviously petrified by the loud noise I had been making. Worth a try maybe.


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## robrinay (5 Apr 2022)

A word of warning based on experience. Once the rat dies do your best to try to find the body before the smell of its rotting body permeates the house. The good news is that if you don’t find it the smell will go away in a week or so as it dehydrates or is eaten by insects. My invading rat holed up and died under the garage having slipped through a missing brick hole from the cellar and was unreachable 🤢
Finally be very careful when clearing up the droppings and the dead rat owing to the risk of rat flea bites and Weils disease.


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## keithmac (5 Apr 2022)

We've gd them in the loft a while back so have an idea what's what but never in the ceiling .

Contemplating pulling up some floorboards in the other bedrooms as well now as they will have knocked a few more bricks out when rewiring I would have guessed.


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## bikingdad90 (5 Apr 2022)

the stench is bad but the blue bottles in the rotting bodies is even worse, they come out of every crack and orifice in the house for about 4 weeks straight while rattie decomposes and their f-big huge flies too!


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## keithmac (16 Apr 2022)

Well..

Been in the loft last weekend pulling insulation out and rat proofing. 

Had enough after 2nd day and managed to fall out of the loft!.

Anyways no activity since (I'm not allowed back in yet..).

Ankle and shoulder are still feeling it, not something I'd make a habbit out of!.

Nogginned all the entries to middle boarded out area for now. Mulling over what to do with the eves..


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## bikingdad90 (16 Apr 2022)

@keithmac what you do will depend on the type of roof soffits you have and if it is an open ventilated roof or a closed roof space. 
With an open system you can’t block the vents off as they are required else you end up with damp and condensation in the roof liner.


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## keithmac (16 Apr 2022)

Yeh I'm going to have a good think before doing anything and see how the roof breathes.

Got this to keep me busy, other side is just as bad!. Must have been Friday afternoon when they knocked the walls up..


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