puglvr: Don’t dispair, they’re verywhere. People who think they don’t have a rat problem just aren’t looking hard enough. If the snap-type traps creep you out, try the Rat Zapper 2000. Just google and you’ll find it. Hard to believe it actually works, but it really does. Once they’re dead, all you have to do is dump the thing-- no untangling of those snap-traps.
Good call, pug, on Orkin. If they are not willing to seal up, they are not helping you.
There should not be any need for anyone to have to get into the crawlspace. The rats will come to the traps, and you can probably seal everything up on the outside.
We used concrete to seal - expansion foam should work, too.
Seal up the access areas.
Set the traps…I vote for a double whammy kind of trap, the humane cage with a sticky paper thing.
Rats…::::shudder:::::::::
Hey, just toss one of the pugs up there…who knows. There may be the heart of a lion dormant inside that snoring pampered pooch!
Unfortunately we regularly get rats in our garage. I’ve taken to changing over my cardboard storage boxes to tougher plastic, although I realize they’ll get into what they wish to regardless of what’s in their way. We use the snap traps, as nasty as they are to get rid of (and some of the rats we get are BIGGUNS lemme tell ya).
Worse than over your head, however, is when they’re in the wall a foot from your head while you’re in bed! :eek:
Esprix
Puggy(teela?),
Call Dewey Pest Control. THey’re a good bunch of guys and they do great work. I’ve only had them out here for creepy-crawleys, but they get the job done well. We have some fucking rats in the attic too, on occasion. Last time it was because of the cold snap we had a while back and you could hear the little bastards fighting.
Rats are like roaches, most people have them and those who swear they don’t are probably not looking hard enough. We moved into our house in South San Jose and started finding dead roaches-in a very clean neighborhood, too. THat’s when we called Dewey.
Sam
Thanks for the tip, GaWd. When dOrkin put forth the most minimal effort possible, we stopped payment on their check and instead called Animal Damage Management (ADM), who helped us before when our roof was in danger of becoming a Marriott for pigeons. They did a good thorough job, so my husband called them this morning and they’re coming Monday. ADM was warned that it was a small attic and they assured us they’d send over one of their “jockeys” who could squirm into small spaces. No hemming and hawing over not going into attics!
The rats were having a rumble and kept us awake half the night. They seem to confine their activites to a single spot – just over our heads! Maybe the rat jockey will discover a nest up there.
Yep, I’m teela brown now. Where’s that luck when I need it?
But do you have toys in the cellar?
One more recall of this aging thread for an update. ADM did a professional, thorough inspection and did indeed find rat turds in the attic right over our bed. Our home was built during the dot-com boom era, when anyone who could hold a hammer was recruited to work in construction. This, of course, resulted in shoddy construction in many homes. ADM says that the firewall which separates our home from the home attached to ours has gaps and holes in it! They deduce that the rats come from the attic of our accursed neighbors next door, which explains why we never hear them coming and going in the walls. I’m not surprised - these folks have heaps of clutter piled in the backyard and scattered kibble everywhere from the little yard dog which is never let into the house.
Well, ADM just got finished plugging every crevice and crack with steel mesh, copper wool and expanding foam. They then set “unarmed” traps and will return in a week to see if food is eaten from the traps. If so, then they will arm the traps and catch any which may have remained in the attic during the plugging process.
Yay! No more rat square dances at 3 a.m.!
Hope that fixes the problem teela brown or pug or whoever you are…
Last Friday I saw a mouse in my pantry. Checked, sure enough, there were droppings on the floor. Fine- to the store, to get traps.
Over the weekend I caught eight of the little fuckers. EIGHT.
I think I got 'em all, though. I’ve always had to deal with roaches- this is the first time I’ve had trouble with mice.
Yep. There is no such thing as one mouse. We had a family of them a few years ago and used live traps, because my daughter wouldn’t hear of anything else. We finally caught six or seven, all obviously young ones, but we couldn’t catch the big guys. Then one night my husband was up reading and he heard this sound from the kitchen:
scribblescribblescribble…plop scribblescribblescribble…plop scribblescribblescribble…plop
It turned out that one of the big mice had gone in the kitchen trash can after some tasty morsel and couldn’t climb back out again.
A couple of nights later we caught the last one the same way.
They let them all out far from human habitation, where they very likely soon became owl food or something similar, but my daughter could live with that. She likes owls, too.
They certainly are hard to discourage, though. We put everything away and they still found stuff to eat–playdoh, for instance. I found three or four ornamental pinecones tucked into odd corners. I don’t know how they did that. The pinecones were bigger than the mice.
Amen to the fuckning mice in the attic.
I have had them every winter in the attic and under the house. Not many places I can get to with the small attic and the crawl space under the house. (the access door to the crawl space is 2 inches long and 10 inches high. No I am not kidding)
So Poison has been the way to go for me. The best way to get ride of that not so wonderful Dead rotting body smell. Grind up and cook coffee beans.
I have since been plugging holse with steel mesh and spray foam. to seal the attic and such. The fuckers do not come in the house anymore. I went to a dopefest many years ago in Tuscaloosa and over the weekend my Jack Russell cought and killed 5 of them and left them on my bed. Nice and far from where the dog sitters would see them.
Slowly I shall have my rat proof house.
FUzzy little fuckers.
The problem with poison is that the little fuckers carry the poisoned food with them. DaveW0071 (Hired Killer for a pest control company) advised us against using it in our house - we have kids. Not to mention, I’d rather not end up with poisoned grain in my bed or my shoes or my dishes!