A rat in my house!!

We live on several acres and have been trying to manage a rat problem outside (primarily in the garage and near the animal feed). I can live with that... I don't like the little critters, but figured if they stayed outside I could cope. About 6 weeks ago our ducted heating stopped working and we had a repairer come to look at it. He apparently disconnected the duct from the unit and did not reconnect it. There is now a rat (I *think* it is only one!) in our heating duct! DH discovered it last night when he came to the family room in the middle of the night to check what the dog was barking at outside and heard something under the couch. He lifted the couch and saw it run back down the heating vent. It has chewed the lining from the bottom of my couch! I know it has been attracted by the food that my kids drop when they sit on the couch and eat snacks, so I have had a stern talk to them about where they can eat and not dropping any crumbs!

I am standing in the kitchen right now and I can hear him running through the ducts looking for a way in (we closed all the vents). I bought some Ratsak today and DH is going to bait under the house (it is the ONLY way we have been able to reduce numbers). We need to be very careful that none of the other animals can access the bait. I hope he goes away to die so he doesn't stink up under the house or (please no!) in the heating ducts.

I have a cat but she is old and likes her food to come from a box, she has no interest in chasing vermin. The dogs bark at the rats around the garage sometimes but don't seem to be able to catch them.

Have you had rats? How have you managed them?

Eeeew!
Can you put the bait in the duct itself? The other animals or the kids wouldn't be able to get it in there and it seem the rat likes the ducting!

What about those plug in pest things? No idea if they work, but might be a safe option if you are worried about pets.

LS, I'm worried if we put the bait in the duct the rat will die in there and stink! If we can entice him out of the duct to eat the bait, hopefully he will go elsewhere to die! The cat is the only animal who could get under the house but I have never seen her do so, she spends her time sleeping in the sunshine.

I did a fair bit of research on the plug in repellants but by all reports they are useless!

i had a rat in my car...
ratsac was a snack to the blasted *bleeper*
Brommer (brommar??) kil was the only thing that killed it. yes it stank but it was in my car...

DO you have a cat? or know any one who'd lend you one? and open *one* vent with some penutbutter/cheese/ratty snacks then lock the cat with some water/food/litter in the room for a day or two??

We had a rat in our kitchen... our JRT caught it and killed it. one of the three (that i know of) that in the a grarage was killed by our kitten and a second the JRT chased down and killed (and the third one is now being extra sneaky)

Honestly there isnt much you can do - they come in looking for food and will chew though anything to get it (they chewed through a skerting board that already had a small hole in it) to get into our kitchen!! i then put borommar kill in the hole and filled it up with expanda putty stuff and *touch wood* havent seen them again - we also have our two cats in 90% of the time too. good luck i know how horrid they can be!

I'm not sure where you live, but some local government/council areas offer free rat baiting services, worth a phone call. We had a ratty problem (mostly roof, I'm guessing also walls, and there was one having a party on top of our dishwasher but fortunately got no further into the house). Anyway the exterminator came out and threw baits into the roof cavity. He said never ever use Ratsak because it kills them on the spot and then you get the stink. The one he uses has a dry ingredient so they have to leave the building to find water and they die away from the house. He explained that they collect little food hoards so it can take a few days before they actually start eating the bait. You have to leave them in the general area they're active in, but not along one of their runs, as they are territorial and suspicious of things left directly in their path. The roof cavity is good cos it's high and dry and good spot for their little food piles. You could stick your head up into the roof and if there's rat poo lying around, that's as good a place as any to bait, since it's well out of the way of any other pets or humans.

I don't know what kind of animals you have, but i would also be looking at improving your feed storage arrangements if at all possible, and try to remove any other food sources or hidey holes. I know that might not be 100% achievable on a larger block but worth a shot to keep the overall numbers in your vicinity down.