Sidenote: My mother-in-law’s kitchen ceiling sounded like this. Turned out there were rats running around in there. The smell of rat urine will live with me forever.
A few years ago we had squirrels. They had a family. A pest controller trapped them. They’d chewed rafters but not too badly by the time they’d gone.
Last year we had rats. Pest control dealt with them too. But we threw everything in the loft away for fear of rat-borne disease.
Whether rats or squirrels, they won’t be voluntarily leaving. Get it sorted before they start breeding, escalate to local authority if landlord won’t do anything.
Grab your husband a copy of The Rats by James Herbert first.
Rats, definitely.
Poking his head up there won’t show him anything but an infra-red wildlife camera will. Point it at the edge of the loft, where there is a gap in the insulation.
You need to find and fill their entry points. One possible tell-tale that you’re close, is a collection of empty snail shells. You can also listen at night and you might hear them climbing up the cavity wall. Worst case is they are coming in through the sewer pipes.
Don’t bother with traps, put down multiple pots with poison in them. Take the kick boards off your kitchen units and put some under there too.
Check your pantry and put stuff they might eat in kitchen cupboards out of reach and ideally inside plastic boxes. If they have eaten stuff already, put rat poison in that spot.
Be prepared to put up with the smell of rotting in the house after a couple of weeks, lasting a couple of weeks.
Fun times.
That’s the exact sound that made me call an exterminator last year. Turned out to be a whole family of rats.
There’s a mouse!
Where?
There on the stairs, right there.
A little mouse with clogs on.
I’ve got mice in my house again, we’ve just baited all the traps. It’s the season.
Mice or Pigeons!
Rats will generally stay low, (Under the house/ in the basement etc) mice are usually in the walls and/or loft!!
Our ex landlord told us to do this exact same thing. No f-ing way! I called a squirrel guy out and he invoiced the landlord (£100) to out traps and poison down. The landlord told me off for trying to sort the problem out, but it’s dangerous to leave them in there! If they chew through the electrics it could cause a fire. So when the problem returned I rang the estate agents instead who then called the landlord to sort it straight away (he had insurance for this type of thing but he still had to pay £100 excess)
Edit: oh and the company the insurance sent out to us wouldn’t enter the loft because they didn’t have insurance to do so…. I mean, what the actual f. Complete waste of time.
If I own the house I’ll poke my head into the rat hole, but if I’m paying someone else’s mortgage then that’s on them.
31 comments
Rats
Have you seen that movie, *Parasite*?
https://preview.redd.it/4lapx6x4oppf1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c23e1baf2768ac884aa36156921f628c9d8639bb
exactly the reason I put motion sensor night-vision cameras to the loft, so I can identify this early.
Your cheapo landlord should have put in hardwired smoke alarms. Maybe tell the fire service, they can lean on him, a bit.
Oh hell no, grab your passport, head to the nearest airport, and start a new life as far away as possible from whatever the heck that is.
“I’m afraid I can’t see past the extortionate rent we’re paying for the privilege of living in your infested property – you come and look instead”
Are birds able to get in at all through your roof? We’ve had birds in our attic before and you can hear them tap tapping around 🐦
https://preview.redd.it/dzteg3cwoppf1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac73e1d9497a7efb75e16c524f697572fcef7b34
Rats, almost certainly. We’ve had problems on and off for many years and that’s a familiar (and horrible) sound.
Shia Lebouf
Xenomorph
It’s hungry, throw some more fish heads in.
My guess is squirrels.
It’s those massive house spiders. They’re preparing…… Have a good day, and sleep well tonight. 🕷🕷🕷🕸🕸
Massive flightless wasps.
Mine’s full of wasps. I won’t be poking my head in there until we’ve had a heavy frost.
https://preview.redd.it/wjekslpyrppf1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c157f63ca83ae7813c1151af444decd4ee5df21e
Thats one way to find out your landlord still lives in the house
https://preview.redd.it/hiwbdnefsppf1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=058c6c5def9e81cf451c23cd412fa1d5829996d5
Sidenote: My mother-in-law’s kitchen ceiling sounded like this. Turned out there were rats running around in there. The smell of rat urine will live with me forever.
https://preview.redd.it/c0krxlncuppf1.jpeg?width=514&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f1a1022d5d56e632575c47acc6beb686ca63b2c
A few years ago we had squirrels. They had a family. A pest controller trapped them. They’d chewed rafters but not too badly by the time they’d gone.
Last year we had rats. Pest control dealt with them too. But we threw everything in the loft away for fear of rat-borne disease.
Whether rats or squirrels, they won’t be voluntarily leaving. Get it sorted before they start breeding, escalate to local authority if landlord won’t do anything.
Grab your husband a copy of The Rats by James Herbert first.
Rats, definitely.
Poking his head up there won’t show him anything but an infra-red wildlife camera will. Point it at the edge of the loft, where there is a gap in the insulation.
You need to find and fill their entry points. One possible tell-tale that you’re close, is a collection of empty snail shells. You can also listen at night and you might hear them climbing up the cavity wall. Worst case is they are coming in through the sewer pipes.
Don’t bother with traps, put down multiple pots with poison in them. Take the kick boards off your kitchen units and put some under there too.
Check your pantry and put stuff they might eat in kitchen cupboards out of reach and ideally inside plastic boxes. If they have eaten stuff already, put rat poison in that spot.
Be prepared to put up with the smell of rotting in the house after a couple of weeks, lasting a couple of weeks.
Fun times.
That’s the exact sound that made me call an exterminator last year. Turned out to be a whole family of rats.
https://preview.redd.it/fou98qqvzppf1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f152ef8037a09e3e9147695b92a163d7e08d2192
It’s a mouse with clogs on…
There’s a mouse!
Where?
There on the stairs, right there.
A little mouse with clogs on.
I’ve got mice in my house again, we’ve just baited all the traps. It’s the season.
Mice or Pigeons!
Rats will generally stay low, (Under the house/ in the basement etc) mice are usually in the walls and/or loft!!
Our ex landlord told us to do this exact same thing. No f-ing way! I called a squirrel guy out and he invoiced the landlord (£100) to out traps and poison down. The landlord told me off for trying to sort the problem out, but it’s dangerous to leave them in there! If they chew through the electrics it could cause a fire. So when the problem returned I rang the estate agents instead who then called the landlord to sort it straight away (he had insurance for this type of thing but he still had to pay £100 excess)
Edit: oh and the company the insurance sent out to us wouldn’t enter the loft because they didn’t have insurance to do so…. I mean, what the actual f. Complete waste of time.
If I own the house I’ll poke my head into the rat hole, but if I’m paying someone else’s mortgage then that’s on them.
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