My son is a pest controller , he said poison them . He deals with them every day in peoples lofts along with squirells
Don
I don't like poison as I feel it may get into the "food chain" and kill raptors and such who eat rats.
Of course by food chain I don't mean human food chain.
Rats are very wary creatures and trapping in a live trap is very hit and miss.
Rat traps are best but still not easy to catch rats with.
Also be careful about handling rats, many reports of weils disease.
Neil
Had a rat in the house a few years ago, got it with poison but it ended it’s days under the floor in the hallway, never smelt anything like it lasted about 2 months !
Something that doesn't seem to have been mentioned with ref to shooting in the loft is that there's a real chance of putting a hole in your roofing felt. If that happens then any water that gets under the tiles/slates will eventually find the hole and you'll have even more issues !
Norm
Get a few backbreaker traps and set them, rats are attracted to electric cables for some reason and like to chew on them ,yet they rarely electrocute themselves.The risks are obvious if they start chewing wiring.
rats get in lofts mostly though small gaps or damages brick air grates in to the wall cavity then climb up into to loft
Many thanks for the extra replies guys.
I am also worried about the poisoning. I'm really not a rat expert at all. So I don't know if this rat(s) now lives in the loft or does he wander in and out of there as part of his daily routine? So does ratty exit the house daily and go about his business up the garden etc? If he does exit the house then is he likely to eat the poison and then make it out of the house and die up the garden? I have dogs and I don't want them munching on a dead rat full of poison. Also loads of cats coming into the garden and I don't want someone's cat poisoned.
I'll ring the council on Monday and see what they have to say. A good excuse to clear a load of stuff out of the loft and lay a few traps my side.
Thanks again guys. Much appreciated.
Our old house was a terrace, we knew nothing of the neighbors rat problem until we had a new bathroom fitted. A boxed enclosure was in the corner of the bathroom for the pipes that ran up into the loft, the bottom of the box was open due to work.
We had rattus greet us early one morning. It scuttled back into the box and up the pipe!
We later found out the neighbor had a major rat problem and they were in five houses! Using hers as a base due to open dog food!
Good luck, I'd say trap them and if you do poison them......they reek, if you can't find them!
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Do the simple thing that the professionals do and use rat sticky pads.
Baz
BE AN INDEPENDENT THINKER, DON'T FOLLOW THE CROWD
My advice would be;
Do nothing !
Let your Council People /Pest Control handle matters.
They're the experts and are both licenced and insured to deal with the problem.
Worst case scenario, Don't attempt to shoot it !
You may damage something, worst of all, yourself !
“An airgun or two”………
OK I've been watching this thread with interest, I wasn't going to get involved as I am a full time pestie of nearly twenty years, because of this I can get myself in big trouble if I give advice and something goes wrong.
So, I'm going to say by law your neighbour should have been left with a report sheet of what he has had done in the loft by the council bod.
Professional pest controllers do not just shove sticky boards in there! Messers do that! We use them as an absolute last resort. They must be checked a couple if times in every 24 hours.
Rats are neophobic so live catch is problematic, killing traps such as a fenn mk 4/6 can be disguised and work quite well if set properly, but can foul catch if not done correctly.
Rats need a water source and obviously a food source, hopefully neither are in the loft so it's coming and going from the property or down into the drains.
Correct baiting in the loft with suitable bait should pose no specific danger to bops or pets, but good practice would be to check around the outside of the property in the morning to make sure it has not died outside.
Lastly as there is an authorised person dealing with it I would say it might be worth saying to your neighbour that said pestie can have access to your loft also.
Get that Ivy down and block the whole.
Ask neighbours to stop over feeding wild birds or domestic fowl 99% of my domestic rodent work is because of this.
Last edited by Mole trapper; 21-01-2018 at 10:05 PM.
Thanks again for the replies.
My next door neighbour does throw lots of bread on their shed roof which is at the bottom of their garden. Due to their house being South West, and the wind often coming from that direction, the bread gets blown onto my garden. Maybe that has attracted ratty.
The only food in my garden is inside the ferret shed. Just a small bowl of ferret dried food. There's really no way the rat can get into the ferret shed to get at that food. I'm not sure a rat would anyway as the hobs in there are huge. I went to a zoo once. They had ferrets running around in the aviary. I asked why that was and was told that they often let ferrets wee and poo in the aviaries, as that deters rats from entering the aviaries, as the rats don't fancy being confronted by a ferret.
The Ivy is coming down. The hole will be blocked. I'll ring the council tomorrow and see what they have to say.