We have an old fire, never used in there, and I'd noticed the dog snuffling round it extremely interested and jokingly said to Mr Boo "Bet there's a rat behind there". Well it bloody backfired on me, as apparently there is, Mr Boo saw it scuttle back in there when he did a late night forage for food (hubby I mean, not the rat, though no doubt that's what it was doing as well!) I know (well now I do) that it was eating the dog's left over food, so that will be picked up before i go to bed each night, there's nothing else (food wise) it can get to.
Would a humane trap work? About a tenner on Ebay. Reluctant to put poison down as a) im a softy, don't want to actually kill it, and b) scared the dog will eat the poison instead. What do I put in there? The trap I mean? Chocolate?
Mr Boo says that once it's gone, he'll rip the fire out and board up the hole.
Please help me, I shudder each time I think about it :-(
The reason the rats got into ours.....the alkies next door, who were very funny, used to have weeks and weeks of binbags piled up in the outhouse. Their outhouse is connected to ours...and rats could get into them through the drainpipes. We haven't seen one since they got kicked out...
I'm convinced we've tiled over a rat though...the cat goes to the same place, where there used to be a hole, and just stares at it....it's quite spooky.
Not sure why I've been lucky enough to have my new house guest to be honest!
Next door have a rabbit, and keep the food stored in their shed. The neighbours already told me she's seen a rat shoot off under her shed. So maybe that'll be why?
I'm hoping it got in via the open kitchen door, which it was pretty much most of summer.
I don't know if rats are the same as mice in terms of the bowel control - in fact I don't know if they even have bowels - but if they are, then the rat will also be leaving traces of it's p!ss wherever it walks.
Sorry but i dont have time to read all the replies so please forgive if I duplicate but I was told by a council rat guy to put poision in a small plastic bag like a sandwich bag then smear a tiny amount of peanut butter or choch spread on it
In the morning if the bag has been torn you will know its been at it.
you need to deal with it quickly, your 1 rat will soon turn into a lot and thats even before they start breeding, my great uncle used to be a rat catcher and took me to work with him during the holidays!
We used to get the customers to put down flour so that they could see where the rats were running!