Mice or Rats in the Ceiling

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dingo011, Jan 11, 8:31pm
We have people staying at our bach and they have mentioned they have heard mice or rats in the ceiling. I have one day between the next lot of guests staying and wondered what I can do! There is no roof space as in is a mono pitch roof with the ceilings directly onto the roof trusses. I wondered if I put bait blocks in the gutters around the outside of the house ( Town water supply ) If this would draw the buggers out to feed and die! Suggestions!
poolgirl6, Jan 11, 8:35pm
But they may go inside the walls etc to die, VERY smelly for a few days, worse than the present problem.Get in the rat man!
shambles05, Jan 11, 8:42pm
We have the same problem.We have a brand new brick home and they must get in via the small air holes that you have to have in brick homes for ventilation.My Father suggested putting bait in the holes, and I also commented that they would probably die in the walls and stink.He however said that they will come out of the walls looking for water and will die outside (the bait must make them really thirsty).
Haven't tried it yet, but will watch this thread with interest to see what others suggest.
dingo011, Jan 11, 8:53pm
I understand that the bait makes them go looking for water which will either be in the gutters or garden. No sign so far of them inside the house itself i.e. kitchen etc. Looks like it is an excuse for a blast on the motobike to bait the gutters before the next ( paying! ) guests arrive Saturday afternoon. Interested on any other suggestions though!
rons, Jan 11, 9:10pm
I tried all sorts of baits and poison with no luck at all . so i got one of these . http://www.ratzapper.co.nz/ . 2 days later i had a dead rat to tip in the bin . problem solved !
36michelle, Jan 11, 10:00pm
If you use baits you should anchor them so they can't be carried outside and dropped where kids or pets can get them.
shambles05, Jan 11, 11:12pm
36michelle, I wondered about this.We have 2 kids, 4yrs and 9mths. And also a dog who lives outside.My concern was that a mouse could come out and die and the dog would eat it and get poisoned.Either that, or the mouse would be sick, the dog would find it, kill it, eat it, then get sick.
tui93, Jan 12, 2:17am
Is it battery or mains powered!
rons, Jan 12, 12:56pm
battery powered . they work great .
camino, Jan 14, 8:17pm
Traps are much safer and can be used outside because rats and mice dont live 24/7 in the ceiling. You can get rat traps/stations that dont use bait or just use the twang type with some peanut butter .
pauldw, Jan 15, 2:20pm
Do they hear noises at night or during day! On a flat roof there will probably be birds on top bashing the wings and legs off cicadas and the shells off snails.
dagon1, Jan 16, 9:18pm
Yup it sure does i had the little wee ones in the ceiling so put heaps of bait up there before i knew it the drive way was riddled in flat mice lol i was driving over them didn't realize .so yeah they are getting out for water :)
discerning, Jan 17, 10:11pm
Or they stay up there & chew your plastic water pipes. My rat zapper has never zapped a single rodent so far. Was told experienced pest people never bother using them because they consider them generally useless. I was told on here that the gray plastic rat traps are useless. Out of my entire arsenal, it was the gray trap that caught the one & only rat after it had chewed just about every pipe in the house. 8 weeks of pure hell & a monster insurance claim plus what they would not pay for, gave me a new respect for Mr Rat!
pauls_pad2002, Jan 30, 3:01am
rat baits are the only fix. where is your bach. if its in a good location i can staty there and give you a free treatment lol.ill give you a rat trap and small supply of bait to put in it. one lot of bait should do the trick. baits should be in locked traps and kept away from kids and pets. putting them in gutters where it will come into contact with water supply is not good. www.mayfairpestcontrol.com
brucet3, Jan 30, 3:20am
Apparently the poison makes them thirsty story is a myth, but most of them go out of the building a lot so dying in the wall is not a sure thing.
There are probably three very different animals being talked about on this thread.Mouse, black rat and brown rat.
I reckon as they are making a noise at night in your roof they are black rats (Rattus rattus), brown rats (rattus norwegicus) are more often in drains and nasty places, and the mouse(mus) is more often hiding out in the shelves in the kitchen, eating holes in things and leaving little turds and making the place smell.
The best way to deal with rattus in your roof is just chuck up a few of thosebait blocks.
On the first night the bait is usually ignored and then it gets them.
If they are mice, set traps against the wall, baited with peanut butter. Do not clean the trap after the first kill, but just reset, and catch the family.
richard112, Jan 30, 3:26am
Rat baits are great. Used them for years & never had a rat die in the ceiling or wall cavities. But if you have pets take precautions, as eating a poisoned rat can kill a dog or cat. We lost one of each when we thought we weren't using poison. Turned out the rats had chewed through the Talon container & were poisoning them selves. We only use live (cage) traps now & drown them. It works.
pauls_pad2002, Feb 1, 2:59am
lol its funy how people think and what they say when they think they know what they are talking about. rats, mice or watever rodent it is brucet and richard, will eat baits on any given night day or wekk you put them up there. as for poisoning the cat or dog they would certainly have to eat a fair amount of rats that have been eating the baits .the poison acts on the nervous system and builds up over time. vitamin k is the antidote. rats need water regardless. they are highly stressed and often die when caught of a heart attack. throw some baits in the roof its ok the rats will eat them, so will the mice. often rodents go to the nest to die which is usually out of the home. in 8 years of rat work ive never had to extract a rodent from a property inside
dishd, Feb 8, 3:03am
-1
this is what I have found that works throw some moth balls around in the ceiling, the rats/mice hate the stuff and exit pretty smart.Moth balls are cheap if you can find them in the shops.
hanmer, Feb 8, 3:25am
magnamail sells these zappers for 39.95
trade4us2, Feb 8, 3:51am
What sort of roof does the bach have! If corrugated iron, mice and rats just run from the spouting into the corrugations. Block them up with chicken wire and squirt expanding foam in as well.
mardi5, Feb 8, 7:00pm
Go to RD1 store and buy some rakaman bait they will eat it and then go looking for water away from house always works for us and we are rural so inclined to get the problem seasonally
owene, Feb 9, 8:49pm
Yep I got one as well and in first week, got 13 decent mice and one mother of arat. Well worth the $100.
wind.turbine, Feb 10, 2:08am
it is very likely they are birds
landylass, Feb 11, 4:14am
we had rats in house a couple of years ago for the first time.Got in pest dude and he just threw some bait in roofspace and warned us they should be gone in 3 days but another lot might come in after that.Got rid of them and never had any further problems.Also got pets and no issues.We chopped down a tree that was leaning on the spouting as thats where they were getting in.Had no further issues.We live semi rural and cat is always catching rats/mice so they are around in the paddocks.
cantabman1, Feb 11, 6:12am
If you are a Scotsman, you could make up your own poison bait.
Mix up four tablespoons of plaster of paris with cinnamin and sugar and leave in a dish in a dry area. Rodents will eat it all up and then get thirsty and drink. The plaster hardens off in the stomach and they die as they are unable to pee or shit. "Hey its organic too"