Rats - How To Get Rid Of Them ? Or Make Their Life Unpleasant

[sgtpeppers]

My house is infested with Rats. Nothing to do with hygine, I throw food scraps to the dogs and keep the place tidy.

These rats a big and smart and bold, they will eat through very thick plastic to get to the rice and other items.

I've tried the sticky glue - they dont fall for it.

I've tried the trapdoor trap - only the small ones get caught and very rarely.

The rats basically own the house.

They are so bold, after turning off the lights and the doors before going to sleep, I only have to wait 1 minute, and they start coming out of the hole in the roof and into the kitchen (plugging the holes is impractical, they just gnaw their way through or find another hole).

HOWEVER, if I catch them (by suddenly opening the door and turning on the light), it takes them a while to escape via the hole. More than enough time to get about 3 shots of the water pistol on them. easy.

What chemical do Rats hate the most? ammonia? bleach? vinegar ? chlorophorm? hydrochloric acid ? I want to fill the spray gun and spray them and all nooks and crannies, in order to make their life as unpleasant as possible. Hopefully they will give up and find a new home.

[fred2007]

My house is infested with Rats. Nothing to do with hygine, I throw food scraps to the dogs and keep the place tidy.

These rats a big and smart and bold, they will eat through very thick plastic to get to the rice and other items.

I've tried the sticky glue - they dont fall for it.

I've tried the trapdoor trap - only the small ones get caught and very rarely.

The rats basically own the house.

They are so bold, after turning off the lights and the doors before going to sleep, I only have to wait 1 minute, and they start coming out of the hole in the roof and into the kitchen (plugging the holes is impractical, they just gnaw their way through or find another hole).

HOWEVER, if I catch them (by suddenly opening the door and turning on the light), it takes them a while to escape via the hole. More than enough time to get about 3 shots of the water pistol on them. easy.

What chemical do Rats hate the most? ammonia? bleach? vinegar ? chlorophorm? hydrochloric acid ? I want to fill the spray gun and spray them and all nooks and crannies, in order to make their life as unpleasant as possible. Hopefully they will give up and find a new home.

You can buy Rat poison in any supermarket

[Theyreallrubbish]

Rats are genetically programmed to avoid the smell of cat urine. I had a rat infestation as I had an isolated house for a while. Got a cat and they all avoided the house after that even though I don't think she ever caught a rat.

An alternative I suppose would be to borrow a kitty litter tray from someone else. Don't know if it will work as well as an actual cat though!

[AmeriThai]

Get some cats and let them have free access inside the house as well as outside. I've also read somewhere that rodents like rats and mice are discouraged by the scent of feline urine outdoors. Don't toss out food and scraps as that will certainly attract rodents.

Edited July 26, 2008 by AmeriThai

[mizzi39]

Man, I feel for you. As a kid I had a phobia about rats! There are many things you can try, but an all out infestation may warrant an exterminator to find out why they have decided to make your home their home. Thailand has some good extermination companies and I am sure that this problem is more common than most of us may think. Good luck!

[sgtpeppers]

They have fights in the roof almost every night. They run back and forth at full speed. I wear earplugs.

[Gary A]

Set up a nice buffet for them. Buy several different kinds of rat poison and see which one they like best.

[sgtpeppers]

Thanks for the ideas. My neighbours have a similar problem. They have not reported success with the rat poison. "they are too smart" nieghbors say.

So a cat appears the solution, I just thought some ammonia (or something) sprayed in the rats eyes might scare the crap out of them as much as a cat.

[Guest Reimar]

German Rabbit Breeder using New Guinea pigs to keep the Rats away from the Rabbits.

This is not a joke but simple reality.

Cheers.

[mizzi39]

They have fights in the roof almost every night. They run back and forth at full speed. I wear earplugs.

sgtpeppers, have you talked to your neighbors to find out if they are having the same problem? I had one rat that drove me crazy running back and forth at night, but a simple (no kill) trap took care of the problem. A whole army would probably force me to move! Call an exterminator!

[sgtpeppers]

They have fights in the roof almost every night. They run back and forth at full speed. I wear earplugs.

sgtpeppers, have you talked to your neighbors to find out if they are having the same problem? I had one rat that drove me crazy running back and forth at night, but a simple (no kill) trap took care of the problem. A whole army would probably force me to move! Call an exterminator!

yes neighbors are having the same problems apparently (all two of them) - im on a somewhat isolated hill.

ill do some inquiries about the exterminator. could be better option than the cat.

[AmeriThai]

They have fights in the roof almost every night. They run back and forth at full speed. I wear earplugs.

sgtpeppers, have you talked to your neighbors to find out if they are having the same problem? I had one rat that drove me crazy running back and forth at night, but a simple (no kill) trap took care of the problem. A whole army would probably force me to move! Call an exterminator!

yes neighbors are having the same problems apparently (all two of them) - im on a somewhat isolated hill.

ill do some inquiries about the exterminator. could be better option than the cat.

Keep in mind that exterminators will probably put out poisoned bait, like grain soaked in warfarin. Professionals should be using containers to hold the bait. Just make sure it isn't someone who just scatters the bait around, otherwise other animals (dogs, etc.) might get to it. Also, it's not uncommon to see dying rodents. It might not be healthy if other animals also see them and try to eat them.

[INDI12]

neihbors house had 5-8 (that i could see) were running around on fence... 3 or 4 nights with the pellet gun took care of em. They did get smarter and harder to hit by the last hight however....

[manjara]

We've got a lot of mice (I think, they're not that big and kind of cute), but recently bought a cage trap and that seems to be working well for now.

We caught 5 of them in the last day!

My wife won't kill them so we have to take them a long way out of the village and release them.

Let's see how much running around there is tonight!

[menostay]

Try this exterminator method: get a flat tray and fill it with plaster of paris powder along with good grain of any sort that rats eat. As they eat it they ingest the powder as well. When they go for a drink they make a plug for their internal system and they die. No pets will be poisoned. They die outside as they want more water to relieve the plug...which is not passable.

Shake the tray on occasion and thereafter you will see tracks if some remain alive. Add grain until no critter leaves a trail in the powder.

Rat droppings can be dangerous. Use a mask and vacum the crap if you can.

Cheers.

[onnut]

My house is infested with Rats. Nothing to do with hygine, I throw food scraps to the dogs and keep the place tidy.

These rats a big and smart and bold, they will eat through very thick plastic to get to the rice and other items.

I've tried the sticky glue - they dont fall for it.

I've tried the trapdoor trap - only the small ones get caught and very rarely.

The rats basically own the house.

They are so bold, after turning off the lights and the doors before going to sleep, I only have to wait 1 minute, and they start coming out of the hole in the roof and into the kitchen (plugging the holes is impractical, they just gnaw their way through or find another hole).

HOWEVER, if I catch them (by suddenly opening the door and turning on the light), it takes them a while to escape via the hole. More than enough time to get about 3 shots of the water pistol on them. easy.

What chemical do Rats hate the most? ammonia? bleach? vinegar ? chlorophorm? hydrochloric acid ? I want to fill the spray gun and spray them and all nooks and crannies, in order to make their life as unpleasant as possible. Hopefully they will give up and find a new home.

If you spray neat bleach on them with your pistol, that will get rid of that one rat. it works for sure. you can pour bleach around your home, but its not a good idea. it will clear the rats out though.

pest control companies in thailand are not that good, they are ok for cockroaches and mossies but cant do anything about rats. they always use the glue traps which never work.

do what another poster said and make a poison buffet, try all makes from the supermarkets, that will get rid of them. but do be aware that once they die they will stink, and will not be easy to find the corpses or to remove them because they will crawl into a hole before they croak it.

also make an effort to block any holes that they use, use the expanding foam to fill the holes. before spraying it in throw some poison in first. for some reason they do not chew through this foam, or I have never seen it.

splash neat bleach around the outside of your house if you can.

[haybilly]

My house is infested with Rats. Nothing to do with hygine, I throw food scraps to the dogs and keep the place tidy.

These rats a big and smart and bold, they will eat through very thick plastic to get to the rice and other items.

I've tried the sticky glue - they dont fall for it.

I've tried the trapdoor trap - only the small ones get caught and very rarely.

The rats basically own the house.

They are so bold, after turning off the lights and the doors before going to sleep, I only have to wait 1 minute, and they start coming out of the hole in the roof and into the kitchen (plugging the holes is impractical, they just gnaw their way through or find another hole).

HOWEVER, if I catch them (by suddenly opening the door and turning on the light), it takes them a while to escape via the hole. More than enough time to get about 3 shots of the water pistol on them. easy.

What chemical do Rats hate the most? ammonia? bleach? vinegar ? chlorophorm? hydrochloric acid ? I want to fill the spray gun and spray them and all nooks and crannies, in order to make their life as unpleasant as possible. Hopefully they will give up and find a new home.

If you spray neat bleach on them with your pistol, that will get rid of that one rat. it works for sure. you can pour bleach around your home, but its not a good idea. it will clear the rats out though.

pest control companies in thailand are not that good, they are ok for cockroaches and mossies but cant do anything about rats. they always use the glue traps which never work.

do what another poster said and make a poison buffet, try all makes from the supermarkets, that will get rid of them. but do be aware that once they die they will stink, and will not be easy to find the corpses or to remove them because they will crawl into a hole before they croak it.

also make an effort to block any holes that they use, use the expanding foam to fill the holes. before spraying it in throw some poison in first. for some reason they do not chew through this foam, or I have never seen it.

splash neat bleach around the outside of your house if you can.

I agree--once they've eaten the poison some will probably die up in your roof space--prepare to either fish them out--or a stink and plenty of flies.

[kiakaha]

My house is infested with Rats. Nothing to do with hygine, I throw food scraps to the dogs and keep the place tidy.

These rats a big and smart and bold, they will eat through very thick plastic to get to the rice and other items.

I've tried the sticky glue - they dont fall for it.

I've tried the trapdoor trap - only the small ones get caught and very rarely.

The rats basically own the house.

They are so bold, after turning off the lights and the doors before going to sleep, I only have to wait 1 minute, and they start coming out of the hole in the roof and into the kitchen (plugging the holes is impractical, they just gnaw their way through or find another hole).

HOWEVER, if I catch them (by suddenly opening the door and turning on the light), it takes them a while to escape via the hole. More than enough time to get about 3 shots of the water pistol on them. easy.

What chemical do Rats hate the most? ammonia? bleach? vinegar ? chlorophorm? hydrochloric acid ? I want to fill the spray gun and spray them and all nooks and crannies, in order to make their life as unpleasant as possible. Hopefully they will give up and find a new home.

A burning moat of fire. Worked for Indiana Jones.

[wolfmanjack]

I had rats, now i have cats.

It sort of reminds me of the pied piper. Get cats to get rid of the rats. Then dogs to get rid of the cats. Seriously, i did have mice that came in the house. They made nests in the rafters. The glue trays worked but they just kept coming back. Now that i have cats i have not seen a mouse for a long time but some of the cats make a bigger mess than the mice did. They do not carry the disease though so i tolerate the cats.

[HenryLongfellow]

I've tried rat poison before and the rats just avoided it.

Then I added some muesli to the poison. Rat problem solved.

[helitool]

Back on the farm we had rat problems in the grain bins and my Grandfather's solution was an old bathtub half full of water. He attached a teeter-totter to the edge of then tub so that the weight of the rat would drop it into the water when it went for the bait at the end of the board. There was a small piece of wood floating in the water just large enough for one rat.

When the second rat fell in they would fight for the wood block until the larger one killed the smaller one. The only flaw in the design was that at the end of the day we needed a 12 gauge shotgun to dispatch the 20 lb rat that was the final victor!

[YaiJung]

We used to have mice/rats and after getting tired of the smell of them decomposing from death by poison we got cats and now haven't seen a rat in quite a while. The cats have done great jobs of warning us about poisonous snakes in our house too. They don't miss much...

The cats can be one hel_l of a mess themselves, so we let them run around outside too(actually impossible to keep them inside with kids in and out all the time). this means we lose a cat or two per year, but thats the price of a rodent free house I guess.

[pgs]

Try a poison with Bromide in it. (Bromakil in Oz). Bromide dries them out - nothing for maggots to live on. Quite effective.

[Bluelotus]

Back on the farm we had rat problems in the grain bins and my Grandfather's solution was an old bathtub half full of water. He attached a teeter-totter to the edge of then tub so that the weight of the rat would drop it into the water when it went for the bait at the end of the board. There was a small piece of wood floating in the water just large enough for one rat.

When the second rat fell in they would fight for the wood block until the larger one killed the smaller one. The only flaw in the design was that at the end of the day we needed a 12 gauge shotgun to dispatch the 20 lb rat that was the final victor!

I used a similar method in Central Mexico at Greenhouse for a plant preservation organization but I ran a wire through a large beer can smeared with peanut butter the rats would try to jump to the beer can it would spin on the wire and they would fall into a 55 gallon drum , the most I would get in one night would be 2- 3 , you know you are winning when the ones you catch start getting smaller. The locals would show up to get the fresh rats and I became known as " The Rat Hunter "

Steel wool works good for blocking small holes. A big hungry cat , as a last resort a photo of Dick Cheney (this will scare most anything away )

[jitagon]

I have a lot of big sloping timbered ceilings with gaps (so the wooden lathes won't twist) and can hear the rats, particularly when it rains. I have a cat and he's very good at demolishing whole any rat coming within his paws. BUT he can't get up a sheer wallface to the 12 metre high ceilings and through the little gaps in the wood. And no, I don't want to start tearing down the wood to make space form him I agree that poison is dangerous for the other pets particularly, and the glue thing's old hat, but does anyone know if Thailand has some other creature, ferret/mongoose? which will be able to get through the little holes? I'd invest in one

[missismiggins]

I would be especially worried about rat urine if I were you, it can carry a fatal disease - Ask a Thai about "heeow noo" sorry about the transcription, but I believe it is extremely dangerous for young children.

Another suggestion to rid yourself of the pests is to have a word with the locals and see if anyone around you keeps a ratsnake, Gnu Sing I think they are called, I have seen them put the snake in the roof space, and after a while it eats every one of them, no mess no stink, and the snake will generally keep well away from people, when the rats are gone, the snake will leave of it's own accord.

[wasabi]

Some of the rats on my soi are so big and bold they have fought off the cats. The cats instinctively perch on trash cans licking their chomps but are terrified to go for the kill on these massive beasts. One made a go for me on a rainy night but fortunately I had my umbrella and after an extended battle it retreated. . The rats seem to like fast food best of all. I saw one scurrying towards a hole with a Big Mac yesterday all the while squealing with delight. Hopefully they will die off from obesity soon.

[onnut]

Try a poison with Bromide in it. (Bromakil in Oz). Bromide dries them out - nothing for maggots to live on. Quite effective.

where can you find this in Bangkok please? I would like to test this.

[cheshiremusicman]

Some of the rats on my soi are so big and bold they have fought off the cats. The cats instinctively perch on trash cans licking their chomps but are terrified to go for the kill on these massive beasts. One made a go for me on a rainy night but fortunately I had my umbrella and after an extended battle it retreated. . The rats seem to like fast food best of all. I saw one scurrying towards a hole with a Big Mac yesterday all the while squealing with delight. Hopefully they will die off from obesity soon.

Quite obviously an 'American Imported Rat' - Ratus Macatus' or 'Ratus Burgerus' filthy eating habits all of them!

Seriously, take the advice and get a couple of cats, they will clear the area quickly. We had rats when we moved in and so did our neighbours, but after some 4/5 months we were all virtually clear and only now do we see the odd one after the cats have left it as a present for us - dead of course and usually minus its head. they don't seem to have any trouble no matter what the size of them is! Once they start to catch th beggars the rat population will plummet quickly as they kill either of the sexs the breeding rate goes down and if they kill the female then the offsprings don't get to feed and they die.

Other advantage of keeping cats is they extend your life if you enjoy stroking them - proven fact not just heresay!

Must confess that we have had NO problem with the 'Mess from the cats'. Ours do there business outside and most cats are very fastidious about covering up there mess and only unhealthy cats leave a mess according to vets.

[Andrew Hicks]

Some of the rats on my soi are so big and bold they have fought off the cats. The cats instinctively perch on trash cans licking their chomps but are terrified to go for the kill on these massive beasts. One made a go for me on a rainy night but fortunately I had my umbrella and after an extended battle it retreated. . The rats seem to like fast food best of all. I saw one scurrying towards a hole with a Big Mac yesterday all the while squealing with delight. Hopefully they will die off from obesity soon.

Quite obviously an 'American Imported Rat' - Ratus Macatus' or 'Ratus Burgerus' filthy eating habits all of them!

Seriously, take the advice and get a couple of cats, they will clear the area quickly. We had rats when we moved in and so did our neighbours, but after some 4/5 months we were all virtually clear and only now do we see the odd one after the cats have left it as a present for us - dead of course and usually minus its head. they don't seem to have any trouble no matter what the size of them is! Once they start to catch th beggars the rat population will plummet quickly as they kill either of the sexs the breeding rate goes down and if they kill the female then the offsprings don't get to feed and they die.

Other advantage of keeping cats is they extend your life if you enjoy stroking them - proven fact not just heresay!

Must confess that we have had NO problem with the 'Mess from the cats'. Ours do there business outside and most cats are very fastidious about covering up there mess and only unhealthy cats leave a mess according to vets.

Stroking pussy extends your life? Tell us another!

I've got a lazy cat and you can see the marks on the wall where they come down from the roof space. It's leptospirosis, the rats' piss disease that worries me. It can damage the liver and can shorten you life.

Better stop looking at this silly forum and go down and block up the hole.