How to get rid of rats/mice?!

[tattoo_mama]

hi all,

well im up at 6am cause there are rats or mice making babies in my walls/roof!
EWWWWWW
ive heard them for maybe a month...started off tiny scratching noises so i thought 'oh mabe theres a mouse in the roof' until maybe a week ago every night/early morning sounds like they are moving stuff around up there and yesterday maybe 4am it was so loud it woke me up, sounded like someone moving furniture!!!!
and then this morning DP got up for work at 6am and there was this horrible screeching and ive had rats as pets before and i knew it was either a rat or a mouse in some sort of pain maybe having babies or making babies or something but it was on the other side of the house to my bedroom and they were so loud and ive had enough!!!!
usually banging on the wall makes them scurry away but noooooo
DP has been saying for ages dont worry about them blah blah but with baby coming soon i really dont want them filtering down from the roof/walls into the house and kitchen yuk yuk yuk
then he said pest control but we are more than likely having to move out of here in the next few months (see my other thread in the boohoo room) so i dont wanna spend a few hundred bucks, not that we have that sort of spare money anyway

my dad said to get ratsac but is there anything else that may work?? anything natural? im shiiiit scared about putting my head up in the roof cavity to check out whats going on lol

any advice would be great, cheers!!

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Hun, the homeowner is responsible for pest control. Double check the rights within your state via REI[WA] ? , because I was recently informed and I wish I had known earlier. We have had them for ages .
We used ratsac but honestly despite its supposedly leading them to water to die two dies in the house so I would try and get some old fashioned traps if you can find them.
But definitely contact the Tenancy Board for your state as I am pretty sure your landlord will need to pay the cost for pest control...

[HotI]

my dad said to get ratsac but is there anything else that may work?? anything natural? im shiiiit scared about putting my head up in the roof cavity to check out whats going on lol

you want to kill them naturally? just go the ratsac. kill the little buggers.

i do not usually delegate jobs as boy jobs and girl jobs, we are fairly flexible here. BUT, this is definately a boy job and not one for a heavily pregnant woman. feel free to purchase the ratsac stations and hand them to your boy, but get him up the ladder and into the roof to put out the stations.

[Salad]

cant think of anything natural apart from maybe getting a snake ....
seriously rastsac is the way to go, get you dp to stick his head up through the main hole and just throw a couple of handfuls around. They will be gone in no time no nasty smell or anything.

[Tinks]

Firstly contact your estate agent if you're renting, they may send an exterminator in.

I was told to add a few drops of Peppermint and Lavendar PURE essential oils to the water when I mopped. Apparenlty they don't like it and will avoid surfaces with the oils on them. So perhaps go right through your kitchen with it. (Sounds like a pain int he bum I know) Then put ratsak stations everywhere, in the roof, cupboards, under the house etc.

OR

Get a cat. We have't had mice since we've had our cat.

[Pandora]

Ring the RE, its not your responsibility if they are in teh roof or the walls I wouldnt have thought.

[Liz]

It's the landlord's responsibility. I would say if they're trying to sell, they won't want a rat/mouse problem! Ring the real estate.

I hear what I think is a possum thumping around in our roof ocassionally.. not sure it lives there tho, coz it's pretty infrequent. Could it be possums? They have a pretty horrid shriek sometimes.

Either way, I'd report it to the real estate. Potential buyers will probably send through pest inspectors too.. so just mention it to them!

[tattoo_mama]

LOL hmmm maybe thats a good way to stop people buying our house so we can stay...subtly mention the rodents whenever ppl are coming thru hahah
no but seriously...they were rooting or something it was so loud and gross agghhh

nah i asked real estate, its in our contract that pest control is upto us, boo!
hmm ok off to buy ratsac i think!!!

[Glamourcide]

Pest control is up to you guys?? That's insane! In my experience it's always been the landlord's respsonsibility unless it's the old 'getting pest control in when you vacate' if you've kept animals on the premises to get rid of flea infestations etc...
Although, the last place we moved into had a serious roach infestation (of course we didn't see any roaches the day we inspected and applied for the property, it had been vacant for a while so I assume the roaches had multiplied while they had free run of the place, the day we moved in we realised they were EVERYWHERE), and numerous complaints to the agents turned up nothing, they just ignored our requests for assistance

I can send you one of the kittens hahaha, they should be able to sort 'em out

[Phteven]

I would lend you my cat but I think that perth is a bit far to travel.

[Inertia]

I really do know how you feel. We went away for Xmas and came home to unwanted house guests. We've just started trapping them to kill because prior to that I had to catch one live to find out of they were mice or antechinus. The difference being Antechinus are protected Australian fauna.

I have found that ratsac simply isnt working. They just ignore it. We plan on getting some of the bait cubes next, see if that works. We had one big one and got a bigger trap for it - a tomcat rat trap - but the only thing its managed to catch is Sam's elbow and Harry's thumb!

I don't want to impose on the landlord with it really - they have been fantastic already.

But we are stepping it up tonight. Think we have worked out where they are hiding so we are hitting it hard with traps and baits. They completely RUINED our night last night. One of the boys has dropped food in their room so there was three of them in the room last night, and they woke Harry first - then CJ at like 3am! I woke up this morning not with my DH, as was the plan, but with my 3 boys around me and DH in the office after having been kicked off the bed.....

[tattoo_mama]

Agh intertia that sucks!!! ours havent made it into the actual house yet, not sure what they are eating up in the roof???
yeah i checked the reiwa agreement pest control is up to us.
i know exactly where they are hiding, theres a grate in the wall in the living room i hear them scratching/sneezing during the day behind it and thats where they were rooting today lol, not sure how to get the grate off but yeah...will chuck a ratsac there and a few up the manhole.....i really didnt mind the when they were quiet and i used to have pet rats so its not like im scared of them but im trying to get my last few days of sleep and its not happening!!! and i dont want them gettin 2 baby

[mrsmac]

I would lend you my cat but I think that perth is a bit far to travel.

I was about to lend you one of our cats too LOL
Actually we had rats in the roof of a house once and DH put our Jack Russell in the roof cavity at 4am and we never heard them again LOL

[Astrid]

Our cats are part of the problem. One of them has a catch and release program in place. She catches them outside and releases them inside, normally in our bedroom

We have been using Tomcat mouse traps. First time we got a hit within 2 hours with peanut butter, but after that they learned how to lick it off without setting off the trap. We are now using dates, they squidge nicely on the trap and they can't seem to get it off.

Whatever happens pray they did not take up residence in your washing machine. It really stinks, even when cleaned out.

[Kazbah]

Make a mixture of cement powder & cornflour, and if you like a little gravy powder. Or custard powder. You may need to put it out a few times, no cement powder the first couple of times to get them eating it.

Make sure there's water in a bowl nearby too.

The rats/mice will eat the cement powder, drink the water and sorta die. (found this on the S.A. EPA website). Safe for use around dogs/cats providing they don't eat the powder - eating the cemented rat is OK.

[missymiss]

I can send you some snake poo if you like! Apparently if you scatter that around, the mice will vacate.

[tattoo_mama]

LOL cemented rats!!!!
we got some ratsac sachets and DP reluctantly put his head up the manhole and threw them around....less than an hr later i heard the little buggers munching away....a few scampers last nite but no squealing, yipee hopefully they have passed on to ratty heaven

[mrsmac]

Prob ratty hell LOL