My 2nd worst nightmare
Discussion
I'm losing sleep because of a scratching sort of noise under the bloody floorboards. Starts about 1.00am and then continues on and off till about 5.00am.
Found out to my horror I've got RATS
in my home. Now I live in a nice clean comphy cottage, honestly we are not in any way 'dirty'. Had the pest control from council visit several times. I lifted the floorboards upstairs and eventually found a rat poo 
nearby I could see a hole in my wall where the bastard thing had chewed its way in. It was apparently enjoying my homes hospitality until it eat a dose of the special breakfast left out for it.
Over the last 3 weeks more have come in and gone until at last I think I have now killed the lot of them. Repaired the hole in the wall and put wire over my down pipes.
I live in an antique thatched cottage, but my mate the pest control fella said 'makes no odds on the type or age of home, same problem in new houses too'.
I used to think this would/could only happen in filthy homes, not so.
THANK THE LORD THEY DID'NT GET INTO MY GARAGE ATTACKING 'GRIMBO'.
Found out to my horror I've got RATS
in my home. Now I live in a nice clean comphy cottage, honestly we are not in any way 'dirty'. Had the pest control from council visit several times. I lifted the floorboards upstairs and eventually found a rat poo nearby I could see a hole in my wall where the bastard thing had chewed its way in. It was apparently enjoying my homes hospitality until it eat a dose of the special breakfast left out for it. Over the last 3 weeks more have come in and gone until at last I think I have now killed the lot of them. Repaired the hole in the wall and put wire over my down pipes.
I live in an antique thatched cottage, but my mate the pest control fella said 'makes no odds on the type or age of home, same problem in new houses too'.
I used to think this would/could only happen in filthy homes, not so.
THANK THE LORD THEY DID'NT GET INTO MY GARAGE ATTACKING 'GRIMBO'.
We had a similar situation when I lived in York, scratching noises in the cavity of the walls, movements in the loft.
Called out pest control fearing the worst, a rat plague.
Turned out to be squirrels! Our house had a tree quite close to the roof and when it got cold the squirrels moved to the warmer climate of my walls.
Not half as threatening as rats.
Agree with the cat idea, combined with an airgun. You could save yourself time if you could get your cat to shoot
Called out pest control fearing the worst, a rat plague.
Turned out to be squirrels! Our house had a tree quite close to the roof and when it got cold the squirrels moved to the warmer climate of my walls.
Not half as threatening as rats.
Agree with the cat idea, combined with an airgun. You could save yourself time if you could get your cat to shoot
Remember time a kid we had a rat. The dog rousted it out, and as the rat ran down the path my mum crocked it with a Crocodile Dundee style throw of the coal hammer. Totally magic.
On a much quieter but less sane note, few years ago we got a field mouse (maybe a shrew) in the house. After much chasing about we got it cornered in a bucket.
Just about to head off into the garden to tip it over the garden fence into the fields, when she who must be obeyed insisted the mouse be driven quite some distance away on the grounds that.... it might be a homing mouse! Women!
On a much quieter but less sane note, few years ago we got a field mouse (maybe a shrew) in the house. After much chasing about we got it cornered in a bucket.
Just about to head off into the garden to tip it over the garden fence into the fields, when she who must be obeyed insisted the mouse be driven quite some distance away on the grounds that.... it might be a homing mouse! Women!
Flat in Fifth said:
On a much quieter but less sane note, few years ago we got a field mouse (maybe a shrew) in the house. After much chasing about we got it cornered in a bucket.
Rescued a field mouse from a cat at our vehicle compound the other week, I took it and placed it in [temporary] safety, me and a colleague were tempted to have an office mascot though.
Fatboy said:
Another vote for a cat - a well fed cat will totally wipe out the local rodent population in no time. Train it to lay clamores and it'll be even quicker
Surely an underfed cat would be a better bet?
Claymores would be good, TBH a feline proficent in any form of improvised explosive devices would be cool.
Remember to remind the cat "this side towards enemy"
>> Edited by markmullen on Tuesday 7th December 21:58
markmullen said:
Another vote for a cat - a well fed cat will totally wipe out the local rodent population in no time. Train it to lay clamores and it'll be even quicker
Surely an underfed cat would be a better bet?
Claymores would be good, TBH a feline proficent in any form of improvised explosive devices would be cool.
Remember to remind the cat "this side towards enemy"
A common misconception - a hungry cat will only hunt for the bare minimum to fill it's belly. A well fed cat, on the other hand, will hunt for fun. Viscous little bastards that they are, the well fed cat will catch way more mice. Plus a more well fed cat will be bigger and more able to dea with rats and the like.
Plus if you've trained him in offensive ordinance, pissing him off by starving him probably isn't a good idea
Fair point, I've only ever had a well fed cat and never tried starving her to improve her already considerable hunting prowess.
O/T but funny my mum is a real animal lover and was gutted when her cat brought in a still alive mouse into her room at 3am. Having managed to get the cat to drop it and get the cat out of the room the ran down the back of her wardrobe.
After an hour of trying my mum finally persuaded the terrified creature out from behind the wardrobe with a small piece of kitkat.
She let it get all the way out into the open, settle down to eat the tasty snack and then attempted to capture it with a view to releasing it to safety.
The only thing she had which she thought suitable for the capture was a glass mixing bowl so she could monitor its progress.
So she approaches the mouse who by now is tucking into a late night chocolate feast and enjoying its new found freedom from the jaws of the cat induced death it looked sure to suffer. She drops the bowl down to capture the mouse and........
misses the target dropping a heavy pyrex bowl right across the little mouse splitting the unlucky blighter in two!
My mum was gutted, I was in bits
O/T but funny my mum is a real animal lover and was gutted when her cat brought in a still alive mouse into her room at 3am. Having managed to get the cat to drop it and get the cat out of the room the ran down the back of her wardrobe.
After an hour of trying my mum finally persuaded the terrified creature out from behind the wardrobe with a small piece of kitkat.
She let it get all the way out into the open, settle down to eat the tasty snack and then attempted to capture it with a view to releasing it to safety.
The only thing she had which she thought suitable for the capture was a glass mixing bowl so she could monitor its progress.
So she approaches the mouse who by now is tucking into a late night chocolate feast and enjoying its new found freedom from the jaws of the cat induced death it looked sure to suffer. She drops the bowl down to capture the mouse and........
misses the target dropping a heavy pyrex bowl right across the little mouse splitting the unlucky blighter in two!
My mum was gutted, I was in bits
When at Uni, i used to stay with a family in my first year - landlady was a proper big "housewife" and you'd never gave her any shite. Anyway, she works out that from the scratching it "has" to be rats in the loft area. I mean, you could hear it anywhere in the house, meaning big feckers....
So gets pest control in: "Nah love, ain't rats, you must be mistaken, its just goona be ickle mice, not scared of a mouse are ya..." (bragging from pest control man
)
Could see landlady getting irate, within a cats whisker of boxing his ears, but manages to control herself enough to persuade him to open the door into the loft spaces just to do a bit of work for his callout fee.
Next was like a comedy sketch, still chuckling at his own unfunny jokes as he opens the door, looks into void, shines his torch in, to be greated with the biggest rat in the world sitting quietly in torchlight staring straight back at him.
Bloke slams door shut, falling on his arse in shock...
Gulps, picks up his torch and says "ere love, you've got rats in there..."
So gets pest control in: "Nah love, ain't rats, you must be mistaken, its just goona be ickle mice, not scared of a mouse are ya..." (bragging from pest control man
) Could see landlady getting irate, within a cats whisker of boxing his ears, but manages to control herself enough to persuade him to open the door into the loft spaces just to do a bit of work for his callout fee.
Next was like a comedy sketch, still chuckling at his own unfunny jokes as he opens the door, looks into void, shines his torch in, to be greated with the biggest rat in the world sitting quietly in torchlight staring straight back at him.
Bloke slams door shut, falling on his arse in shock...
Gulps, picks up his torch and says "ere love, you've got rats in there..."
A few weeks after I moved into my current house I got a frantic call from my wife saying she had seen a rat and could I please come home from the pub to kill it as she was standing on a chair in the corner of the kitchen.
After another swift pint I meandered home to find the missus in tears because she was so terrified she would be attacked ny this creature.
On enquiring where the rat was, she pointed to where the washing machine met the wall and said "look you can see the bastards tail".
She wasn't best pleased to find that she had been standing on a chair for over an hour because she had mistaken a crack in the vinyl flooring for the tail of a rat. How I chuckled!
After another swift pint I meandered home to find the missus in tears because she was so terrified she would be attacked ny this creature.
On enquiring where the rat was, she pointed to where the washing machine met the wall and said "look you can see the bastards tail".
She wasn't best pleased to find that she had been standing on a chair for over an hour because she had mistaken a crack in the vinyl flooring for the tail of a rat. How I chuckled!
mutt k said:
There is some hideous statistic that there are so many rats in London that on average everyone who lives in London is within 10 feet of a rat.:yikes;
I thought it was more like 5 feet but even 10 is too close. A girl I work with told me her friend was working late in her office and a rat ran over her foot. She was in a new building on the 8th floor...
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