Hello,

Rats are a general problem in London even more over the years.

I would advise you to get someone to come and check the holes especially in your Kitchen area underneath the kitchen cabinets behind the plinths and by the waste pipe . Fill the gaps with wire wool. rats don't eat wire wool.
Also install ultra sonic rat repellant which you can buy from a good hardware store and simply plug in.

I hope this helps.

A couple of summers back we had a rat come into our house and make a home for himself, and called these guys: http://www.environpestcontrol.co.uk/the-rat-pack/about-us/. Amazing - we haven't seen a rat inside since. They come with a dog who sniffs out where the rats are actually moving through your property, allowing them to bait efficiently and find the holes where they are getting in. They can also help seal up the holes as part of the service.

Just also worth noting that it's important to be careful when putting poison down yourself outside. Even if you don't have young children who might want to explore what it is, you should be careful about poisoning any local pets.

I wish you the best of luck getting rid of your unwanted guests!

There are rats and mice everywhere in London, in fact, everywhere in the UK. Someone mentioned the electronic noise emitters, I have tried these with mice and they have no effect whatsoever. I've seen the mice more or less walk straight past them.

If you have a house you are probably in a better position than those with flats to do something about it. The main thing you have to do is find all the holes that they are getting through and block them up. Poison bait is effective, but sooner or later another rat will find the same hole and be in your house again.

You may need to pull up the floor boards to do this effectively. Good luck.

I saw a rat in our garden this week. 1st time hope it was just doing reconnaissance. I have put some poison down. We have mice visits as we have a deck and a garage, but rats... yuk

I live near Abbeville Road. We have had intermittent rats for 5 years. Suspect a pipe access but will have to rip up floor to access the [unhelpfully buikt over] manhole and a downstairs cloakroom floor where they also seem to be coming ftom.

Can anyone who usedthe above companies (Dyno, Enviro, Drainage Exoerts) post their experiences of success with them? Did they get rid of the problem thru fixing pipes?

Environ are great at pest control - sounds grusome - but thay have a rat catching jack russell that gets in and does an excellent job!

finding rats is most likely a sign of a drainage problem.

dyno pest in vauxhall is very good - I can't remember their contact details but they are based on Bondway so I am sure you can find them on google.

they'll set traps, proof your house and try to find the drain problem

Here 's an update to our problem and finally the solution. It really took us 10 months to get the right help. We were desperate and willing to move out! I really want to share this if you suffer under the same problem!

After we had about 8 people from four different pest control companies in our house only one gave us the useful hint. Get your sewer checked!

We found a very good company.
http://www.drainage-experts.com

They first fixed the broken sewer. We thought that's it, but after a few weeks problem came back. We found out that traps are better than poison. Disgusting to bin them, but better than rotten ones under the kitchen floor! We had even builders in the house to open the kitchen floor. They removed five dead rats and lots of droppings. :shock:

Finally they put a valve in the sewer outside the house. No more rats, no more smell and we are more than happy!

We've had mice and I was so disgusted I got Rentokil in (not cheap) but they did offer some useful advice on the plug in audio transmitters -

DON'T use them until you've got rid of the mice as it only stops them from coming in to begin with. They won't displce them if already there.

REntokil were good - laid poison which took a while for them to take but eventually when we'd blocked off all other access (air vents, cracked tile near the wall and keeping kitchen crumb free) they had to take the bait and fingers crossed have not been back since.

Good luck. I know how horrible it feels to be sharing your house with uninvited guests.

We have a pigeon problem a couple in a culdesac opposite me feed them everyday and about 40 sit on there house constantly. I approached the guy the other day and asked politely if he would stop. He pretty much said no. The mess all over roof terrace and they even come in the house if windows are open. My wife is pregnant. Some people ... If you live in chivalry rd and want to join my anti pigeon crusade let me know people power will win this war!!

I agree that rats could become more of a problem and like foxes seem to be getting bolder. Perhaps we need to see a return of the old fashioned rat catcher, more humane than poison I presume?...

Thankfully I do not have a rat problem in my house, however, I have noticed an odd smell in my car over the past few days and when I went to Halfords today to have my front headlight bulb replaced the lovely man from Halfords was rather surprised to find a rat sitting in the engine of my car! He scurried off and thankfully the smell has gone. I wonder how long he'd been there??

There is an underground river under Northcote road, you can just about hear it at the eastern end near the libarary, I suspect the recent rain has resulted in rising water levels and thus rat displacement. We did have mice and found very little worked until we got a cat. Don't leave any food out for birds - it attracts rats and be thankful if you have a fox problem , they keep the rat levels down too !

Thank you very much for your posts! We live in the area at the end of Northcote Road.

One company told us that only bate will help. The other company is going to send a specialist with tools and stuff to fix all possible holes when no more bate is touched for a while. Actually my husband told me - we're on holiday - that some bate was eaten. :( I so much hope this will end soon!

I'll try this electrical thing with the noise too. Thank you very much your post!

Rats and mice are a problem everywhere in London...
The only sure fire way of getting rid of them in our experience is to buy a good quality plug-in transmitter which emits noises they detest at frequencies that humans and pets don't hear.
We tried poison, traps (gross!) and also have a highly skilled feline mouser but the transmitter is the way to go...plus they are humane.
The only downside is that your problem will become someone else's when the critters move out!