Rats in my loft! Advice needed please. UPDATE page 4 & 5

[Newbie2015]

Always wondered how they seem to get up in the attic. Under floor boards etc seem easy enough. But can they climb up walls to get in a hole opening ¿. Nor being a smart ≈≈≈≈ just curious

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Newbie2015

Always wondered how they seem to get up in the attic. Under floor boards etc seem easy enough. But can they climb up walls to get in a hole opening ¿. Nor being a smart ≈≈≈≈ just curious

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yes, a rat can climb a gutter downpipe

Next door had them in his loft, we heard them occasionally in ours ( it turned out they were getting through a small hole in the Dorma roof valley )

next door must have had them for 9 months, he really struggled

good luck with it

I spoke to a pest control guy who said that poison is the best bet, you can buy it on ebay is small packets, i put down 6 bags of it in ours, just to help nextdoor out

[birdiesX4]

Originally Posted by NewtoOrlando

We found out where they were coming from as we never had a rat problem before, a house a few doors down had an Avery in the garden, and rats were attracted to the birds, they dug a rat run along the gardens down our road so they were clever and greedy!

You have my sympathies, I absolutely hate rats more than anything, hope you get them sorted!

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My worst nightmare.
One of our neighbours puts food out in the garden for 'wild life ' and he also has an aviary. One of our other neighbours had problems with rats in their garden and had to get the council to come and sort it.
We had a bird in our loft before Christmas and that was bad enough. Hope you get it sorted soon.

[Momofboys]

We had one a few years ago, our council do rats for free.

The smell was horrendous after, the council then provided "rodent deodorant" i kid you not.

I didn't mask the smell though!

[JoB]

Thank you so much for all the replies. My local council just refers me on to private companies, think I may give one of them a call as I have no idea how they are getting in to the loft. I wouldn't want them getting back in.
I think I may go down the poison route too based on all your advice. It is good to know it is more common than I thought. All my neighbours feed the birds so I think that attracts the rats, plus the house is really close to fields.
Maybe I will forgo the traps as it will be me going up into the loft to sort out any that are caught!
Thanks again, I can always count on the Dibb for great advice.
Joanne

[macdonald]

Are you sure its not mice?.they can sound really loud too!..Rats usually go under the floor boards & mice usually get into the attic.its harder for rats to get up there so i was told!..We had mice recently and paid for the man to come out and lay poison,they never took the bait but left when the weather got milder!..It really freaked me out so i understand how you feel,but your definitely not alone!

[Rac20]

I’m another who would recommend getting the council out. When we had mice they did a very thorough job of placing poison down and checking where they were coming in. They then came and removed the poison.

[PPM]

If you have a rodent infestation, best results we found ( and we live by a small loch, where there’s lots of them) is when we got cats.
The only mice, voles etc we see in the house now are the ones that our cats take in to us as presents. Never had an infestation since we got them

[Posiesmum]

I’d never try to fix this myself. I’d call in an expert every time.

[novocastrian]

i can concur a decomposing rat will stink your house out

i used to live in a miners terrace house and under the floorboards was bare dirt, you could literally crawl under the whole street if you wanted to under the floors

we heard scurrying / scratching a lof of the time, the council laid poison / traps etc etc

a few weeks later my house stunk i lifted the floorboards and there was rats nest with a couple of adults and younger rats rotting away

the council removed it but the smell was there for ages

its rank