a rat in the house!

Has anyone used the electronic rat deterent device like the one sold by Rentokil?....Do they work?

I've just returned after a week in Cornwall and found that rats have been enjoying my living room while we away. I now have days of work trying to exclude/kill/deter/remove them which is tricky in my old house with it's many nooks and crannies etc.

The rat problem is getting worse in my road and I have already successfully defended my workshop by means of traps and air rifle, but the house is much more tricky. I hate rats and herself is 'deeply upset' to put it mildly so ANY advice and help appreciated!

If there's any food about they won't leave, make your house and garden a famine zone

I suppose a cat/cats is the easiest solution

Put one in the roof space of my 165 year old house to deter squirrels. Seems to be working as they no longer try to bite through the metal mesh covering the roof vents. Three cats look after the mice......

....Thanks.....No food normally left out but we did leave the fruit bowl....never realised that ratty loves a banana and likes a fresh satsuma nearly as much!

Cats not an option realistically....

Get a mongoose.

Martin

I would love a mongoose but have a mental picture of herselfs face when I suggest it.....

. . . . swallowed the spider to catch the fly . . . . etc .. etc

We live in the middle of nowhere, always had rat, and mouse, problem. Food laying about does not help, but clearing up will not help much. Our cats help with mice but not rats. buzzers etc might work for a short time but they soon learn no harm will come. Only way is poison and trapping. Rats go back to the nest to die ,if that's in the house you may get a smell, but soon goes. After the majority are killed go all over the property and block or fill all holes etc. Keep up the poison /trapping even when you seem to have won. Get poison from farm shop, not DIY stores. Any more advice just ask.

Was it Yorkies they used as ratters in the mills? Jack Russells are feisty too

They certainly work on mice. Note that they work by emitting ultrasound and some of them are at a low enough frequency to be audible to some people. I bought one from Aldi last year that wasn't and also I think some "Big Cheese " ones more recently.

My wife and I live in a small village and in the twenty nine years we have never had mice or rats but then we've always had a cat in residence, recently I watched a rat run up our bird table for the bread so became wary of more until two days later when our cat started mewing loudly outside and my wife went to look to find a very proud moggy sat with a dead rat at his feet, not seen any more rats since and Cheeky has earned his Bed and Board.

Martin P

There is an electronic pest deterrent advertised in NZ(have not seen it lately), it's said to deter rats, mice, cockroaches etc, but does not affect cats and dogs or other family pets. What worries me about this, how come domestic animals can't hear it. Cat's are the answer.

Ian S C

There is an electronic pest deterrent advertised in NZ(have not seen it lately), it's said to deter rats, mice, cockroaches etc, but does not affect cats and dogs or other family pets. What worries me about this, how come domestic animals can't hear it. Cat's are the answer.

Ian S C

Ive got an electric rodent deterrant and a bird one - they dont work!

At this time of year the fields have been harvested and the food source has gone so ratty starts looking for a new B & B.

Here they come off the fields as they are no longer safe as the Raptors are soon onto them. They get under next doors Pergola and dig through into my side. I sit and wait with the PCP Airgun and as the head comes out the hole, 'Pop' no head. I have another way but Neil deleted it so I cannot say, people may get distressed but it certainly works.

It is a an ongoing problem not only in urban areas but in places like shopping malls where there are fast food outlets. You will see the black boxes with the poison in them.

Clive

Went to our local Brewers Fayre for lunch one day and as I parked the car saw something quite large ( first impression was a cat) walking across the car park towards the kitchen area of the building, second take and it was a very large rat totally oblivious of everything going on around him. Problem is that rats are everywhere nowadays, worst source of problems is if anyone keeps chickens, they are a rat magnet.

Dave

Friend has a couple of large carpet pythons living in the shed, never has any problems with rats/mice/possums or for that matter cats....... A bit disconcerting for his missus though when going out in the evening to take the rubbish out and finds them draped over the verandah railing next to the stairs.

I have no love for rats...

The only thing that worked for me (chicken keeping*) was poison+air rifle+breakback traps, until I found the real solution. A small female cat.

Neil

*the chickens attracted rats but because we suspended the food they didn't get much, the real problem was the Council's 'bird feeding area' 50m from our back garden , with rat food spread across the ground

A few yrs ago my father in law[farmer] kept hens behind our house, I got poison off my uncle BUT it killed a rat but took me ages to find it meanwhile the workshop [old cow byre] absolutely stunk me out till I found it, I then bought a couple of fenn traps [the only legal spring traps] , I put hard chocolate on the platform & taped it tight round & round with electrical tape,I caught over 30 in a year,& for mice I use the old fashioned little nipper & remove the bait pin,"fine tune the sensitivity" & put peanut butter over the mechanism not the platform, never fails, f.i l not with us so no hens or rats.

My wife reversed of our drive yesterday bound for the shops and left behind the squashed carcass of a rat - yuk. The thing must have been taking cover at the back of the rear wheel - I suppose it was tyred.

Rik