Rat in the House--help!

Are they rats or mice? I grew up with rats the size of a small cat, they are very dangerous. If I had rats I would leave the property immediately. As a child, my friend got bit by a rat and was severely ill, and hospitalized.

Try this product that is suppose to be very effective; go to http://www.roozensonline.com/pest-repellent.html and look up 'bonide no escape mouse magic'.

Call animal control and ask them for companies that are reputable.

Be careful and good luck

Hi M.,

We had roof rats a few years ago, and at least one got into our attic. That was too close for me, so we called a specialist pest control company.
It was probably more than one looking at the pictures of the damage, but after the company completed the intial steps, only one remained in the attic, and that one was the one they caught.

I found Terminex and Orkin to be utterly useless in our case. Go to your yellow pages or look on-line for a company in your area that specializes in removal of pests like rats, mice, and pigeons. There should be quite a few as roof rats and rats, in general, are not uncommon in your area.

These specialists do a process of exclusion, which means they examine your attic, home, whatever to identify sources of entry, and then they install the proper barriers to prevent re-entry. Then, and only then, should traps and/or poisons be used. It makes no sense to get rid of the ones you have if you don't take away the entry point for the rest of the pack or future pests.

Please remember that it isn't enough to get rid of the one(s) you have. You *have* to block off all access routes, which isn't always easy to determine by yourself, and you must make your premises inhospitable to pests by removing water, food, and shelter sources for them. (All garbage and pet food stored in garages should be sealed in airtight containers. Do not leave pet food and water bowls outside or in garages).

Good luck with this! I do know how horrible this can be. Message me if you want more information or if I can be of any further help.

J. F.

ETA: You're getting several responses suggesting the use of poison. I just want to urge you to use caution if you do this on your own. If you have very small children or pets, the use of poison should really be restricted to professional use as these companies use locked, tamper-resistant containers or boxes so that children and pets cannot easily get into them. I have no ties or loyalties to any particular company, by the way. It's just that these poisons are so lethal that extreme caution is necessary when using them.

Even though it has been almost 4 years since our problem, I still have the company keep the boxes hidden around the perimeter of our house and yard. They come once a month to check the bait stations and change the baits, if necessary. There hasn't been any real activity in a long time, so I was thinking about canceling the service, but after reading your post and recalling that mess, it's worth the peace of mind to keep it.

I hope you get this solved quickly!

We had damage to a garage door and one winter rats came into the garage. They were huge and very bold. As a single mom, I was overwhelmed and did not want to deal with traps or poisons. These rodents got into the pantry and actually ate through canned food. They peed all over the place and ate into boxes in the attic. A few got in the house through air ducts. I did some research and ended up purchasing a rat zapper. I got it at Home Depot and paid around 37.00 plus the cost of a couple of D batteries. I put some peanut butter in it and flipped it on. The rodents must have lined up to get inside the thing. It looks like a small black mail box. As soon as the rat or mouse crosses the threshold, they get zapped. It instantly kills them. No blood, no mess. It is very humane in my opinion. In addition, all you have to do it pick up the box and empty it over your outdoor trash can. Within two weeks they were all gone and I have not seen any more since. That was three years ago.I removed the batteries and stored it in case. A very small investment for a quick fix. The bigger challenge was cleaning up the mess they made. I also read that cotton balls soaked in oil of peppermint will drive them away. Hope this helps.

Rats and mice are nearly impossible to confuse, like racoons and wildebeast. Likewise, rat and mouse traps are quite different. Mice traps give you a nice little sting if you get caught in them. Rat traps break fingers. First and foremost, you've got to seal up openings. We had mice a few years back, and I eventually figured out they were coming in through the opening where our steel bilco-type doors fit together. As someone else suggested, I placed some steel wool in the top and bottom, and that combined with a trapping program did the trick.

Could be rats but could also be field mice or squirrels that got in. We've had red squirrels and flying squirrels - smaller than standard gray squirrels.

If they die, yeah, they're going to stink. For squirrels, we trapped them and then took them MILES away to release them - otherwise they find their way back.

Lots of wildlife are looking for warm places to spend the winter. You'd be amazed at the tiny openings they can get through. Truthfully, I'd get an exterminator - they can find the openings, talk to you about poisons (you want the animals to get thirsty and go outside for water and die out there, not in your house!!), and also put in some one-way doors so the animals go out but can't go back in. A good exterminator can tell from the look of the hole and the droppings what you're dealing with, and many are working with substances that aren't harmful to people or pets.

Julie F. had the best answer imho and that's pretty much what we did when we had a tree rat invasion after our kitchen remodel. The rats were entering through a hole in the roof line, getting into the attic, and coming through a new hole that was built for a refrigerator water line.

It was an awful experience so I empathize. I walked into my brand new kitchen to see 3 very large rats sitting on my Italian granite counter top. It took me a LOOOOONGGG time and LOTS of scrubbing to get over it. Even now I get upset just thinking about it. I threatened to move out permanently unless we had it resolved THAT NEXT DAY.

Regarding the smell . . . it is something you will NEVER, EVER forget. It's way worse than rotten eggs.

You have to find the entry points. I would hire someone who specializes in removing nuisance critters. It's dirty work.

Good luck.

we had quite a few mice in our basement last winter.. we literally used everything all at once.. it was the only way we got them all.. we got glue traps, we got traps that u put bait in,traps that came baited with some kinda of rat poison and my neighbor gave us these rat poison things that they would eat, they were little green cubes, i have no idea what was in them but we never found or smelled any dead mice around, i asked my neighbor and he said they just kind of disintigrated-weird.... everntually with everything combined we got them all... except for the last stubborn one that my fiance ended up squashing with our laundry bucket .. my advice, just bombard them with everything u can think of all at once, dont stop using one kind of trap just because youre starting to use another

They smell like rotting animals. I think your rat may already be dead. Do the poison in out of the way places so any kids or animals can't get to it in any way. Then poison is actually rumored to help with the smell.

But in all actuality it "smells" like the rat may already be dead.

We had to have an exterminator a few years ago for mice because the mice had learned how to get the bait out of the traps but not be killed by them. If all Terminix will do is use traps they you have the wrong exterminator. The company we used did a combination of feeding stations and dust. The feeding stations are made so that the mouse comes in and feeds, then goes about his business and dies several hours later. Most of the time they die outside of the house or in the walls (gross, but we never did smell them behind the walls). We did smell the one that died in the attic because it was 120 degrees up there. Supposidly they disinigrate. With the powder, they put it in places that the kiddos can't reach, like the attic or under the sink out of the way. The mouse or rat walks through it, then licks it off his paws, and then other mice lick it off that rat's paws and body and they all die from it.

What they used worked, although we had to constantly keep up with it (we lived in a townhouse community and they just traveled back and forth through the walls).

Look carefully at your openings. Rats and mice can crawl through holes as small as a dime. They can also chew holes to crawl through. They can jump off tall buildings and not die also. Our rodents got through a very small opening where the baseboard stopped and didn't quite make the wall. We had to fill it with steel wool. Your exterminator should do a thorough check of each room and especially where you are seeing droppings.

I hope things get better soon for you.

A mouse is one thing but if I had rats in my house, I'd be calling an exterminator

My neighbor caught a mouse in her garage with the sticky paper stuff last year. It got stuck and was still alive so she put it in a tupperware shoe box thing and thought it would die, but it wouldn't she didn't want to put it in the trash alive, so she looked it up on the Internet and learned that she could gas it with baking soda and something else and that worked.

Take a look at the images of rats vs mice. Rats have rat tails and mice have nearly no tail.

A rotten egg smells like bad gas or a catalytic converter problem. Dead animal is a little more horrible.

So why not try sticky paper and traps. Set the traps on top of a couple of sticky paper sheets. That way if he goes to get away, he is not so fast.

My exterminator has the black box things on the side of the house. I asked where they go and he said they go away somewhere and die. In six years, I have not seen anything dead around here.

We also have a stray cat that has live here for seven years. At one point, we had 32 cats running our street and we still had rats in the neighborhood, according to the exterminator and the missing feed.

I know they are in my neighborhood, so I pray I never find any of the sort in the house.

Best of luck.

We had rats in our garage, but they never came in the house... probably because we have cats. It was very tricky to get rid of them, because apparently the male rat leaves a trail (of urine) for all the others to follow. We too started with traps, but they didn't get all of them and we ended up using poison. We haven't had any since then.

The key is to find out how they are getting in and seal that part off, and make sure that there is nothing that they smell that they want to eat. So, don't leave food in your garage and try to keep all of your food inside in airtight containers.

I feel for you. It is gross. Usually by the time you see one, or evidence of one, there are already several more. And rats are smart, so not easy to get rid of. Good luck~

Are we talking rats really or mice. Borrow a cat. That will clear out any little creature. I would try the poison. I think what happens is they seek water and head for outside so hopefully they will die outside.

We got squirrels in our attic this spring. Orkin has an off branch that does do the sealing and puts a special outlet where if you trap one it can get out but not back in and then seal up that outlet in about 3 weeks. They put metal anywhere it needed to be sealed. The also put wire mesh where the attic vents were. About $$$ 1,200 dollars later we were poor but squirrel less. Before we went to that we tryed fox urine granules. You get them at feed stores and sprinkle it around frequently. Rats also hate steel wool so if you can stuff holes with it. Good luck!

I think it's time to call an exterminator.

Get an exterminator.

We have exterminators who do use a purple, pink and blue brick bait, that basically dehydrates them and kills them. We had an awful mouse problem and they set this things all over and within 2 weeks I have not seen any new droppings and stopped hearing the scratching.

The poison also dried them out so there has not been any smell at all, and they did think we had a pretty big population going. They said the bait can take up to 30 days to work so I am hoping we are pretty good now, but I am still leaving them out.

None of the traps ever worked for us. The mice were too damn smart and always got the bait without getting trapped.

I have smelled rotting rats during my farm days, and it does not smell like rotten eggs. It is hard to describe but you can tell it is a rotting animal of some sort.

If you have one place they keep coming back to over and over...ours was one place in the kitchen. go out and buy those huge old fashioned spring loaded rat traps...they look like the little mouse traps but are like five times the size.

I got four traps and set them with peanut butter all around where the rat was drawn back too...I caught that sucker the first night. The traps are so sensitive to movement and it snaps their neck...wham!! I set one off on a pencil and it snapped it in half. Watch your fingers when you set the trap as it could break one if it goes off in your hand.

But that way it was dead and I think more humane that sticking it to a trap where it is still alive and you either have to bash its head in with a hammer or step on it. Or let it die of dehydration or starvation, etc...

Big old fashioned rat traps!!

Exterminators won't really do anything for rodents, except recommend glue traps.

Boy, can I sympathize. I think it was summer 2011, we had this same problem. It was AWFUL. They were everywhere. They had infested our kitchen cabinets, and I could hear them crawling around in the ceiling over the kitchen. I say infested, there was probably a handful of them making a lot of noise. Traps didn't work. They would literally take the bait off the traps. I even found one floating dead in the toilet. Scarred for life.

The ONLY thing that worked was rat poison. We placed the trays of rat poison where we knew the rats were frequenting, and they were all dead within days, and have never returned. Give that a try.

I've smelled the rotting animal smell - it's hard to describe. It smells hot is the only word that ever comes to mind when I try to describe it. It will last about 3 days. I hate the smell but I love what it symbolizes - a dead rodent!

If you don't want to use the poison, how about those sticky traps. The mice/rat steps on it and can't get off. Of course, then you have LIVE rodent to deal with. Personally, I'll take the poison and the smell over dealing with a live rodent!

As for the rotten egg smell, I would have someone come to make sure you don't have a gas leak!

We set traps with peanut butter. The cheapy wooden traps that almost snap your fingers when you are setting them. Got all our mice that way. Or you can call and exterminator.

I've never had rats before, but we have had mice. I don't know what kind of traps you are using, but the ones that have worked for us every time are glue traps. We buy the smaller ones for mice, but they have bigger ones for rats- that would be my only suggestion. I agree with you on the exterminator. When we were having a large mouse problem, I called around and they were just going to do the same things we were already doing.
As for the smell, rotten eggs is a pretty accurate description of rotting, dead animal. When we first got our house, it was a foreclosure and there were raccoons and who knows what else living in our attic. We set traps and sealed the hole where they were coming in...well, one must have gotten stuck inside and eventually died. It was above our bedroom and we couldn't find it anywhere. The smell started out like rotten eggs, but then got much, much worse. To the point that we had to move out of our room for a couple of weeks. The smell eventually went away on its own.

ETA:

http://www.animalcontrolsolutions.com/california/orange-c...

http://orangecounty.crittercontrol.com/services/sanclemen...

http://orangecounty.ratremovalsolutions.com/index.html
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dead animals usually smell like rotting eggs.

Call an exterminator. that's the best thing to do.

You need to make sure that things are closed up. They will chew through concrete. So that means they smell something in order to come into the house. Put flour, sugar, cereal, etc. in plastic containers to store them. Make sure that everything is clean so they don't smell something to come in to eat.

Best way other than ensuring there is NOTHING for them to come in and feed off of? Exterminator.

Exterminate, get a cat, buy traps, go to Home Depot, do it ALL! It is nasty and embarrassing if one were to come out while you have a guest. Also, I hear a dish of coke will explode on their insides. I never tried it but I hear they drink it and the fizz kills them. God BLESS! yUCK