I've a small invasion of rats and am terrified

Nana cool - very practical and imo typical sensible approach from women who keep horses

I have humane traps in my tack room baited with peanut butter, when I catch one I drop the trap in a bucket of water and when the rat stops squeaking I chuck it on the muck heap for the local predators. Any field mice trapped are released.

I actually love rats and mice and when I had mice in the kitchen put peppermint-soaked cottonwool balls everywhere and that did the trick.
But if I saw a rat in the toilet I would be severely freaked. Poor you.
Spiders were my terror but I’ve overcome that now.
Try and tell yourself they won’t hurt you and are just trying to survive. And no-one will think you’re dirty, it’s got nothing to do with that.
But totally understand how this has shaken you and hope the problem is solved.

Awful experience for you, if you use poison be careful it’s not where any pet would eat it, or wildlife if placed outside ..
Don’t leave anything they can eat about …do look for where they may have got in, does anyone nearby keep chickens? That can encourage rats .
Hopefully they have gone now …

DeeAitch56 the ratman looked at the sewer pipe and it's intact. He fitted a valve on it which (hopefully the rat(s) can't get through.

Fortunately I’ve only ever had mice and not in the toilet, that said I’m pretty sure I’ve read that to allow vermin to get here there has to be access for the rat by virtue of a broken sewer pipe, so I’d get that look at as a matter of urgency

Lahlah65 what a horror story and so expensive for you.

It's one of my biggest fears, the rat(s) chewing through electric wires but it seems okay so far. It has chewed through concrete to try and get a hole through to outside.

It's horrible not knowing how many there are and the bait boxes and traps remain empty but how do I know if it's dragged itself back to its nest (wherever that is) to die.

I hope you can find something to finally eradicate them, what a nightmare.

The one place I won’t be visiting soon is Govanhill in Glasgow, I saw a few rats running back & forwards across a road, disappearing under this gate. I wanted to see my Grannies old house (nice back in the 70s buts it has become run down with rubbish in the gardens 😩

Rats caused £000’s of damage in our house. Chewed through an internal door, up through a wooden floor and through the wiring of our alarm system. They climbed shelves and broke a lovely ceramic bowl. It took two separate pest controllers to eradicate the problem. We have the plastic bait boxes now, and put the poison in when ever we see them. They got in by chewing out the concrete around drainage pipes and moved around the house inside walls etc.

Two winters ago they were running along our 1st floor balcony and window sills - we put a bait boxes on the balcony. Unfortunately the squirrels were also able to get into the boxes and there were skirmishes between the rats and squirrels over access to the boxes. (Although we have also had problems with squirrels getting into our roof - we had to get roofers in three times to block their access so I can’t pretend I was really sorry.)

We have always understood that they go back to their nests to die, so hopefully the risk to local pets/wildlife is minimal. But I don’t know what else we can do.

How awful for you. We have a rat (probably more than one) in our shed, and it has been digging holes under it and around the garden which I keep filling in. The rat is a clever thing as we have a nice large trap which he can manage to spring and then eat the food. I want to use poison but will not as we have cats and foxes in the garden and I do not want them poisoned. So now I get all the bird feeders in at night although I cannot scrape all the leftovers up as I have watched him jump from one tree branch to another. They are very intelligent and I just wish they would go somewhere else as I am so reluctant to stop feeding the birds. Hopefully the foxes will catch him/them.

We've just bought some liquid to spray around in the hope of keeping the rats away from the balcony area where we feed the birds (they climb up the wall, crafty little blighters!). It contains castor oil and peppermint and seems to be deterring them. You have to spray daily at first, then less often to keep them away.

Mt61

Allira

I've looked after pet rats for other people and the domesticated pets are supposedly very clean creatures but I still didn't like them. They stayed in their cages when they stayed here.

I think it’s the tail’s & teeth that have something to do with it 😂

We've had lots of hamsters over the years and they have teeth so it's probably tails with mice.

It's disease with rats.

One of our cats once brough a live rat into the house and it hid behind the radiator in our hallway, we could see its horrible pink tail hanging down over the skirting board. Fortunately my husband was in and he opened the front door and gave the rat a quick squirt of steam to send it on its way. Ugh...

I worry about rats, we have a sloping pipe running through the garage before it goes to the downstairs loo and then up to the bathroom. The slope is so shallow that I think a rat could easily walk up along the pipe. If we had rats I think I'd have to go away until they'd been dealt with.

Allira

I've looked after pet rats for other people and the domesticated pets are supposedly very clean creatures but I still didn't like them. They stayed in their cages when they stayed here.

I think it’s the tail’s & teeth that have something to do with it 😂

Rats won’t stay in the house with people. Gardens and outbuildings they like. If they come into your house they will soon leave (unlike mice - both house and field varieties who will stay). Pest control will use bait traps you won’t see any more rats after the first few baitings. I hate poison but it is done now and will definitely solve the issue and you won’t see any dead. Unfortunately rats can breed very fast and carry disease so sadly sometimes safe bait traps are the only way.

Rats hate the smell of cigars which is very distinctive. I'm not sure you would want to sit around smoking one though. A friend of mine had an infestation in the thatched roof. The solution was smoke bombs. I'm not sure you can still buy them. I'm not very much help am I?

Just for those that say don't poison trap or kill them.
My friend's beautiful great dane dog died of leptospirosis. One of her neighbours was feeding the birds throwing birdseed on the garage roof. This attracts rats. On a hot day my friend put her dogs water in the garden while she was sunbathing and forgot to bring it in at night. Dog drunk from it next day but it was contaminated by rat urine.
Nothing the vet could do and the dog had to be put down. Very sad. It can affect people too.

Nanny27

*Bohemian*. I too have a deep seated fear of rats. We bought 'rat gates'. You find the manhole that feeds your soil pipe and install them. Easy to do or find a friendly plumber who should be able to do it. You can buy them on Amazon and they prevent anything coming up the pipes.

Oh! Never heard of them, what a great idea Nanny27

ixion

Leave bleach in the pan?

Someone suggested washing up liquid but I wondered if that might froth up all over the floor when the loo was flushed!

I’d be just the same, bohemian. My son had a rat problem and initially didn’t want to use poison. However the humane traps didn’t work so he called in the pest controller (£60) and this solved the problem almost immediately. How about pouring bleach down the loos and leaving it, and using lots of spray bleach on the floors/surfaces. Apparently rodents hate bleach…

you have my sympathy i think i would have burnt the house down! eeww rats nasty. due to living by woods we have loads especially in shed and garden thank fully not in house.
i was helping my partner clear the shed once and one popped up out of a box, I was gone!

Bohemian. I too have a deep seated fear of rats. We bought 'rat gates'. You find the manhole that feeds your soil pipe and install them. Easy to do or find a friendly plumber who should be able to do it. You can buy them on Amazon and they prevent anything coming up the pipes.

Living on a farm I am surrounded by rats - they try to steal the chicken food and I put poison down in various sheds where no other animals can get at it and I have had them in the house. I don't mind rats as such - had pet ones as a child but not in my house or garden. I have trapped several in the cellar and shot at least four under the bird table with an air rifle, but a good terrier is the best. My Labradors are completely useless with rats!

I kept hearing a noise in the kitchen but thought it was the heating radiator. Then it happened when heating was off so checked all cupboards nothing. I even wondered if we were haunted as we live by a cemetery but dismissed that thought. My spaniel puppy kept knocking the bottom kick board off one of the cupboards too. One day OH reached for his bran flakes and something jumped out. His new packet was almost empty! He put a trap in the cupboard and killed it. Never found another in the house but saw one in the garden 6 months later. OH checked all the walls behind the cupboards, but no entry holes were found. I think it must have come in through the back door when it was open in summer. We keep it closed now. Checked the whole house but never found another or any sign of one here tg. Our local council does pest control for free, so if I see another, I will call them. Spoke to neighbours and apparently the last owners of this house had rats twice in the house. It's very common around here apparently.