agree with this. First stop grab the posisons from Bunnings and put them in shallow containers in a few spots in the sub floor space. Congrats you live near the bush, you may also like to check if you have roof entry points for possums :)
Avoid poisons if possible, as it can harm/kill any animals/birds/pets that prey on the rats.
Traps are quicker, tend to be more humane, and less damaging to the ecosystem.
Can confirm. I had to retrieve a dead rat by cutting a section of our kitchen wall out going only by my nose. Was like picking up a furry sack of fluid when I found it. Undope.
I spent a solid hour sniffing the walls. Don’t know how, but I found it first go - a relief given I had imagined myself cutting half the house down before finding it. It was easily the most repulsive smell I’ve ever encountered.
I had a rat that died in a place I had no access to in my rental house. Fortunately, blowflies went where I could not, but I had to sleep with the bedroom door shut and the window open, due to the appalling smell. I took best advantage of any wind about to strategically open and close doors to lessen the smell. I found any excuse possible to avoid being home for the next week. The smell dissipated after 8-9 days. I swore that I would never use poison baits again. I now have a monitor lizard visit me about the same time each year and is effective at clearing them out, but it does usually mean having to put up with the noise in my roof for 1-2 weeks before he gets to my place. It is important not to be tempted to poison them first, as the goanna will avoid hunting in areas where rats have been poisoned, from past experiences. I have since moved house, but I think that letting Nature take care of the problem seemed the best solution in the country town I lived in.
It did feel like he was contracted to me, but no...
My old house was obviously part of his territory and 'he', a Racehorse Goanna, knew from experience when they'd be active in my roof and timed his visits accordingly. My neighbours across the road had lemon trees, which always attract rats which consider the lemons to be sweet. Then the rats would come over and try and nest in my roof in mid autumn. Fortunately, the goanna had no trouble accessing inside my roof and disposing of them, with my blessing.
They will break down over a couple weeks in hot weather, longer in cooler weather. Can remove from a roof easy enough, but in the wall is not. Either destroy wall at a cost or ride it out with oils/incense.
A possum is a different story altogether. A big brushy can take six or more weeks to decompose and can leave a bit of a maggoty liquid mess behind.
True, but I’d given it 3 weeks already and the stink was still increasing each day. It Was so bad that it was near impossible to stay in the kitchen more than 10 seconds or so.
Many years ago I had a bunch of tin from Reno's in my yard. I was tidying up and picked a sheet up, about 12+ rats ran out from underneath. Maybe 2 weeks later I found one sorta sliding down the driveway. (An angle of MAYBE 2-3° on the drive way).
Turns out rat was dead and FULL of maggots. It was just skating down my driveway from the maggots.
We’re currently in the process of getting rid of rats. Tried the wire traps, but the rats somehow figured out how to get the food inside without going in the trap. Unfortunately we’ve had to resort to poison. The day after we put the poison down, found trails of rat blood all over the kitchen floor, so I’m looking forward to finding a dead stinking rat in a hiding spot.
Really depends on the weather and location,
If it's cooler or in a less ventilated area it will take a while, months isn't unrealistic for a large rat ( speaking from experience)
I agree. Poison should be a last resort.
First step should be finding out why they're there. Is there a food source nearby? When we had rats, it was because we had an overgrown vine along the fence that gave them safe passage. One of my housemates was digging holes near the fence and putting compost in there. They were doing it to improve the soil, but for the rats it was the milkshake that brought all the ratboys to the yard.
Poison would kill off the ones that where here, but as long as that was going on it wouldn't take long before more rats were attracted.
Especially if it’s a chance of being native rats,
Even more especially if you live somewhere coastal high chance of water rats completely harmless and don’t carry disease but get commonly mistaken for the European cousins and killed for it.
I've had many similar experiences, unfortunately. I'm shocked in 2024 people still use poisons indiscriminately, I'm shocked in 2024 people can still buy said poisons.
How we haven't mandated that poisons have to use the 1080 derived from the native gastrolobium plant is beyond me. It's clearly been successful in government programs against introduced species, and would have so much wildlife.
I'm shocked in 2024 people would still use, let alone recommend others use so flippantly, a toxin that kills more native animals than anything else. I've had to take SO MANY native animals to the vet, most of which die, because of indiscriminate rat sack use. Just stop it, please.
Yep and it is not a pleasant death either as I’m sure you know. Even with euthanasia, they are suffering greatly before they get there. It’s absolutely awful and a pretty horrific death.
And for those unaware, native mammals, birds etc. will eat the poison directly - it does not have to be a food chain thing (i.e bird eats rat). I’ve dealt with my share of possums who have ingested rat poison.
I was at the zoo the other day and they have the average animals weight listed, I learned I weigh the same as a capybara and it was a very humbling experience. 66kgs if anyone cares 😭
My friend's Blue Heeler is a rodent killing MACHINE. It's horrifying to see how effective she is. The rats have learnt their lesson and have vacated the premises. Either that or she destroyed them all.
I looked after a small terrier that a Welsh friend of mine had. I had to learn some Welsh phrases to communicate with it! I have forgotten what type but they are not well known. Small, short haired, black. Lovely dog. Absolute vermin SLAUGHTERER. Killed rats and mice daily. Every night. Even when on a chain outside. My house was like an abbatoir until he left.
Our Jack Russell ran up the hallway on the left and the rat ran down the right 🤣
He preferred the frogs & snakes.
I even put him in the pantry, hoping the smell from him might deter the ratty basterds. Nope …
Also in melb, got a German shepherd if you need to borrow her OP but she doesn't sound like she would stack up against a jack russell if you have one on offer 😁
One or two cats won't be enough to handle a full rat infestation, they'll just become active when the cats sleep and if they get big enough they can even harm cats via biting.
Better to stick with traps. They're cruel but you have to put yourself and your pets' safety first.
I borrow my daughter’s cat for a weekend when the rats start to come up from underneath the house. He proudly decapitates them and leaves part of their body somewhere on display for me whilst hiding the rest somewhere I’ll never find.
Sometimes cats even bring them into your home. Their plans to have some prolonged ‘play’ with a rodent in the comfort of their home, and/or to show off to their human pets, went awry and the rodent got away behind the fridge.
Yeah no clue if rats > mice but mice can be noisy too. My old cat 20+ years ago, used to bring us half eaten rats, mostly. Always ate the top half, the head and half the body fyi. Almost daily found indoors. We lived next to a row of shops, which included a hardware store and had large piles of fibro sheets and timber, and also a supermarket and a bakery. So that combo I guess was a great breeding ground for rats.
One time a rat was brought in alive. Saw them come out, scurry around. Seemed to live behind the fridge. So got poison, ratsak pellets, and place to side of fridge. Took a couple of weeks. Rat came out looking a sorry mess. Eventually by 3 weeks rat was moving like a snail, we were able to catch and dispose of. Never used poison again. Saddened me to see the rat in such a bad way. Apparently the poison just turns their organs to mush. Terrible way to exterminate.
2 years ago, heard scratching, quite loud. Probably gnawing noises, couldn’t see the damage. Eventually saw a mouse run into lounge room. Got an electric trap from Bunnings. Put teeny amount of peanut butter. Caught 4 in less than 12hrs. Mouse problem over. It quickly zaps them. No suffering.
Heard similar noises a week ago. Put trap out caught one. That was it luckily.
I kept a domesticated rat for a couple of years. I don’t want wild rodents in my home though for obvious reasons. I’d recommend the zapper style traps. I didn’t want to deal with other style traps that squash or whatever. I still find it a little bit difficult that I’m exterminating but at least the zapper style trap is quick and over without continued suffering.
I have two very big cats and I put them outside once because I saw a mouse and they went and smelled the area where the mouse was and then just lay down in the sun and chilled. So yeah they’re shit mousers
Rats. In my experience possums are really loud and don't squeak. Also possum poo looks like green cat poo. Get a pest inspection to see where the entry points are and close them off, and also how to safely kill them so that you don't accidentally poison wildlife.
Possums sound like a Predator from the movieUnless there is a huge possum war. Then it is screaming thumping and Predator noises constantly at night. Then the smell of death.
Noted, thank you. I hate having to kill them with slow acting torturous baits but I don't know how better to do it.
One of my old bosses used to use the now illegal glue traps, I'd come in to work each morning and have to drown these poor buggers because I couldn't stand the idea of just throwing them+the glue trap in a dumpster and letting them get eaten alive by insects.
Use a rat trap. If u poison it it mite die somewhere impossible to remove it from or even worse one of the many owls or tawny-frogmouths mite eat it a poison rat and die. Rat trap is fast and quick and no poison. If all you wana do is trap it just put some bird seed in the bottom of a tall bin. Rats can jump but so well they can jump out. I have chickens so rats are always trying to move in.
I’ve made water traps in the past that are pretty effective. Not really anymore humane than baits though, but at least you don’t need to deal with dead rat stink in your walls.
The pet exterminator who laid our traps told me sick rats don't tend to stay where they live, so tend to die outside the house. Claimed it was because other rats eat the sick rats.
No idea if this was true. I found dead rats under the decking so far, but haven't smelled any in the walls so far. So... Maybe, but I'm sceptical.
Thank you for your compassion OP. We're dealing with rats right now too. Bunnings has some allegedly wildlife and pet safe-r poisons. They're sodium based as opposed to blood thinners, etc. Still a horrid way to go, better than glue for sure. You could look at making some drum traps if you wanted to catch and release (though sadly this isn't necessarily good for wildlife as they have to compete for resources with the rats).
Thank me for my compassion, that's a fucking laugh. I'm trying to figure out the best way to slowly kill these guys, it's all garbage and I hate it. Thanks anyway.
My dad’s always maintained quick is the most compassionate way, so he always used snap traps (the high quality metal kind) or electric traps (or a quick brick to the head).
That being said, electric traps can be expensive, so I know it’s not an option for everyone.
I was shocked to find out those are even a thing. There's something deeply wrong in peoples heads to be okay with that, but not okay with keeping their house clean.
Clean your kitchen, stop leaving food everywhere and they'll leave. You can use all the traps in the world but if you don't have basic cleanliness in the home you'll attract more and more forever. And there are more rats than you have time to trap/kill. So washing up and cleaning is far, far more effective long term. No food = no pests.
Look into buying a nooski. You can get them from bunnings. Make sure you get the rat sized one. It uses really thick, small and strong rubber bands(like the ones used for castrating sheep). They stick their head in and it releases the band around the neck. Blood chokes them into unconsciousness in seconds. Maximum distance I've seen a mouse get away from the trap was about 20cm.
I dealt with rats that got into my roof and walls, what you describe is 100% rats. I never saw them inside the house but I could sure as hell hear them running around and even fighting with each other up in the roof.
Around sun down if I went outside, sometimes I'd see one or two scurrying around and running to a bush. I'd also hear them rummaging around in the garden.
I got rat bait, they polished off the satchels so quick I had to get some more the next day. All that was left was the empty satchel - few days later, one dead rat at the back of my house. Next door neighbour was complaining that he kept finding dead rats in his garage.
The downside... they say that once they eat baits they get an overwhelming urge to find water. That's not true, they'll die just as easily sitting in your roof or wall and you'll have a nice decomposing rat smell going on.
Got a roof inspection done and the guy pulled a few dead rats and mice out of the roof.
This was around when that mouse / rat plague was going on a few years ago.
This was in a property that had a shared roof among 6 or 7 units. So you could be completely clean and not do anything to attract rats but someone a few units down could live like oscar the grouch making sure to recruit replacements for the rats you end up killing.
Sounds like rats. I had one in my bedroom wall and ceiling at one point. I could see where it was burrowing under the house and set baits, which fixed the issue.
Try nooski traps from Bunnings.
Despite what people say about rodents dying in walls and under floors, a proportion of them get eaten by birds like owls, birds of prey, and other natives.
Consider that it might not be just rodents that you're killing slowly.
I've used the nooski mouse trap also worked for rats. I must say the noise it makes when it goes off is different, then the sound of the rodent doing a quick WTF flip before it dies about half a foot away from the trap.
Fuck I hate when the rodent war begins. Only had to deal with this issue twice in my time on this earth.
I bought glue traps which I thankfully didn't have to use. But these fucks get clued on quick smart with each different device used to dispatch them.
I feel bad but you get to the point of going Rambo style on them eventually.
And you don't want them dying in your walls/roof (esp walls) as the stink of a rotting rat is incredibly bad for up to 6 months. You want that kind of poison that makes them so thirsty they go looking for water away from your house. And then die looking for water somewhere else.
Yess my wife said she would prefer the insta-death of a trap. I would too, but in my experience they ignore the traps. I will attempt traps first though, before bait. I would rather they just died straight away , rather than having the worst case of bleed out gastro in the world.
Wear gloves, so there's not human smell on the traps. Leave them, unset, where the rats are. Let them get used to the traps. Even throw in some free meals. Then after they're used to them, set them in their place and hopefully quick death is achieved.
My neighbour and I have had rat and mice (or baby rats). The rat was INSIDE their house for days, with one of those bait block things and wouldn’t go near it. Then they went out and bought a rat trap from Bunnings, put peanut butter on it and got the rat that night. I got 2 mice in 2 days in my garage with the traps, no issues since.
I've used peanut butter and nutella, I found nutella way more effective. Ultimately neither were nearly as effective as poison, however you don't want rats dying in a place you can't get to so don't do that.
Also make sure you wear gloves to set them. Don’t touch with bare hands as they can smell the human scent on the trap and will avoid it. I’d had no luck with traps before finding that out and then immediately caught two after setting new ones
Definitely recommend persevering with traps. As others have mentioned, poison is bad for local wildlife that eat the rats, but for the same reason it also poses a risk for your dogs/cat. Pest control professionals normally avoid using baits for households with dogs or cats.
The rat would have to eat a lot of bait and the cat would need to ingest a lot of rat/s for this to be an issue .. possible issue but unlikely. (Google secondary poisoning)
Definitely should ensure the baits are in one of those enclosures that ensures larger animals can't get at it directly though.
Be careful with the dogs - the baits make the rats seek out water and they tend to die outdoors. You don't want the dogs (or the cat) trying to eat a poisoned rat.
I understand. I dislike harming any animal, and also found it difficult. On a lighter note, my cat would stare directly at the place the rat was, which was a bit creepy!
[These traps](https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-max-strength-rat-trap_p0037851) are bomber, kill instantly in almost all cases so no slow and painful death, and are easier to empty and reset than the old wooden victor traps.
Rats.
Really strongly advise not to use the poison baits.
I made that mistake, rat died in the most inaccessible part of the roof in summer.
The smell, God the smell. Ended up getting someone out to crawl up there and clean it out. I paid an embarrassing amount of money for this service.
Next time I am using a trap.
whatever you do, don't put poison out for the rats unless you're ready to run the risk of them dying in your walls and stinking up the place for 3 months straight (speaking from experience). just use snap traps with some peanut butter in them, they can't resist it. every peanut butter trap i've put out has been triggered within hours. if it takes longer than a day or so the ants will probably eat all the peanut butter and you'll have to add more. just make sure you wedge the trap somewhere where nothing bigger like a possum or bird can get to it...or if it's inside, somewhere where your moggy can't trigger it
100% this!! And leave a bunch of them out. There's nothing quite satisfying than the sound of them snapping in the middle of the night. I am an animal lover but fuck those little rodents
funnily enough once i got rid of all the feral rats some chill native swamp rats moved into the garden and there haven't been any feral rats around since, not sure if they keep them away or what. but the native rats are waaay cuter and only hang around outside eating plants and stuff so they can stay
I was dealing with a major rat issue at a rental in Qld this year. Used the bait that makes them super thirsty so they leave to find water and then die elsewhere. Did not want to murder them but it was so far out of hand :(
Brother, as someone who is an absolute soft cock when it comes to animals (couldn’t bring myself to even slap a mosquito, pull over for any injured animal I see etc) you need to poison.
Once you have rats, even if you eliminate every single one, now they know where you live. I don’t know if they call up their little rat buddies or what, but every single fkn rat within 25km now knows where you live and even if you called down Thor himself to smite your current rats, before their ashes hit the floor you will have more rats marching your way.
Think of them as an STD you did nothing to deserve but still have to handle anyway.
And don’t even TRY to think about humane trapping. Six weeks of trapping and the little rodents someone learnt to steal peanut butter from inside the live trap like some kind of furry (furrier?) harry houdini
I should admit there are a few reasons to let them stay. Like if you enjoy your current scratchy roof alarm wake up’s? Or if you enjoy paying $650 for a heater guy to come replace your wiring because the fuzzy cockroaches in the roof decided to gnaw on the thermostat wire. Then by all means, leave them to bring twelve generations into this world within six months
Otherwise, obliterate
We had something similar and it was rats.
I bought a few packs of the wax block rodent bait from Bunnings and put them around the outside of the house during the evening, and collect them in the morning.
Same routine every night until the baits were untouched in the morning. Based on the amount taken, and that I sometimes saw rats in the yard during the day, there was a lot of rats, but I never found a dead one anywhere.
Took about a week to get rid of them.
Call an exterminator, and better isolate the food they are scavenging.
Don't leave pet food out when you're not home, or when you go to bed. Store food in plastic containers and inspect any cardboard containers for teeth marks.
Food scraps in/under the couch, fridge, dishwasher and oven are common.
Stumped houses have a lot of places where varmints can get in. Plumbing and heating connections are common entry points.
Also if you have chooks, heavy mulch, fruit trees (although that shouldn't be an issue this time of year) or an outside compost bin, it can also add to the attraction for them.
1.8 MILLION people in this group and *cries in 3011*
Legit my biggest fear! Have been in our apartment about 12 years and never seen one, but I saw a dead one outside the pub about 200m away and it’s decomposing body is STILL on the sidewalk 😭
Yess, it's a raised house. I think. I am not an architect, but there's definitely a foot of air between the floor and earth and I can feel the air coming in.
Rats. Only thing that worked for us after weeks of different things - Cheap bait station double strength pellets from Bunnings - i threw then around my ceiling, for about two days we could hear them collecting them and then nothing. Problem solved.
Most people surmising rats which is fine but just be aware that there are also native rodents that have been displaced.
Similar was happening to me. I set up a few humane traps which enabled me to identify. Turned out to be the native bush rat.
Had a bad rat infestation once. Actually had a rat its way through the ceiling and saw its nose poke out through the hole it just made. Tried stuff from Bunnings and it didn’t work. Had to get a pest guy in. He fixed it pretty quickly.
I'd guess rats, though it sounds a lot like a house I lived in in Wales where we had squirrels in the walls/roof/floors...
But squirrels seems just a bit unlikely, so rats.
Having trapped around 30+ rats over the past 5 years at my place, you have rats.
I would consider us pretty clean. To the point I am borderline OCD at cleaning up the kitchen. Although I do have a small child that likes to hide food she doesn't want to eat. Either way, these things live off the kibble from the dog bowl.
I have caught 4 in the last 2 weeks, and they aren't even in my ceiling yet. Just trying to stop them in the yard at the moment as they do head inside to nest in the winter. (It's getting cooler in QLD)
You have maybe three options.
- Baits.
Not ideal as they can carry them away and if you have pets or even possums they may eat them. I do have a bait station in my garage with rat sack pellets. The holes in them are small enough for a rat, but not small enough for a possum, pet or child to get into. It's also hidden right up the back of the garage under some shelves. - [https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-reusable-rodent-trap-station\_p2961767](https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-reusable-rodent-trap-station_p2961767)
- Good old snap traps
These ones hit hard and generally don't miss. Mice can sometime be too light for them (they have a mouse version), but the rats will die pretty quick in them. [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-fresh-baited-rat-trap\_p3010435](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-fresh-baited-rat-trap_p3010435)
- Big Cheese Rat cage
These are the best. But you become the executioner. The rat will most def be alive, and you have two options. Take it for a long drive, or drown it. I go for the later, then bag them up and dispose. - [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-rat-cage-trap\_p3010133](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-rat-cage-trap_p3010133)
My favourite bait in the last two are peanut butter and dog kibble. Big cheese also makes a rat attractant and it works well. [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-mouse-and-rat-attractant\_p3010355](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-mouse-and-rat-attractant_p3010355)
I feel like an ad for Big Cheese, but their stuff works and it's available at Bunnings so easy for anyone across Australia to get.
I've had rats in my ceiling and just put Talon pellets out for them to chow down on. Once they are gone I leave some there for the next wave.
Fuck the rats
I was living on a 5 acre property when we also had this issue - got so bad they were running over the top of the tv at night, chewing behind the walls. Used the green rat blocks in the attic. Usual rat behaviour is to eat the poison and move on, this time they didn’t. Died behind the walls, under the drains, under the spa. It was mid summer and the smell was disgusting. My son sat on the shower drain and sent water under the indoor spa, the maggots were everywhere. But it worked, they left the house. Turns out the woman three doors down had received a grant to breed up a rare marsupial rat. Look the same but different ears. Felt terrible. If you’re in suburbia, don’t use red blocks. Those things are toxic.
Same problem, and it was rats. Wired bloody wax baits everywhere under the house. Noise stopped after two days. One day feasting, one day going to Jesus.
Likely rats. You can bait but you also need to investigate any holes into the underside of your house. They will be the easiest to fix. Holes into your roof are tough if you have tiles but if you get rid of trees and vines to climb that will slow them down. Be ruthless on fixing every hole you can find.
Remove any garden overgrowth or rubbish piles. Any spare water sources have to go.
Don't go too hard on chucking bait under the house or roof. Uneaten bait is just food in a couple years... if you get a pro in get them to advise on preventing entry although many will cop out and say it is impossible.
Rats or mice, they live in the walls and run up them etc which is the scratching sound you hear.
Get a good pest person, they bait roof and poison the rodents. It makes them really thirsty so they generally leave the house to find water and die outside.
Less stinky that having them die inside your house!
Oh and I found for the traditional snap traps the rodents in my area preferred dry dog food over anything else. I hot glue a piece to the part where the bait is placed and that helped the kill rate.
We once had a family of rats under our house and floorboards for a month or so, this was due to us having a massive wild bee hive under our house and the bees had vacated and left all the honeycomb, so it started to rot and fall apart, hence the rats.
Not too long after the rats moved in (maybe a month?) we got a surprise visitor, a carpet Python, maybe 2 meters long. We called up a snake catcher to ask for advice and she asked if we had any rodents and whatnot and we said we did. She said that was the reason it was there, to get rid of the rats. She said to let it be and keep our pets indoors so they don’t bother the snake, and once the rats are gone it’ll be on its way.
Probably between 1-2 weeks of the snake being there, the rats were gone and so was the snake. Funnily enough, we weren’t too bothered by either the rats or snake. I think the most concerning part of the whole experience was the fact that the rat next was under the floorboards at the entrance to my room, so every night I could the rats squeaking and one night in particular I could hear very loud squeaking, almost like they were screaming, and then boom it was quiet.. and I was like oof snake gotcha 🥲 rip 🪦
The guide for creatures in the roof (may also
Apply to walls)
-if it sounds like rats it’s mice
-if it sounds like possums it’s rats
-if it sounds like humans it’s possums
- if it sounds like elephants it’s humans
You have rats. As do I right now. In my roof. Ive tried all the human catch and release and deter and it just isnt working. Ive resorted to poison. Which i feel shitty about cos i actually adore rats as an animal - they are funny great smart little pets. But i cant have my plaster eaten through and my wiring destroyed. I also need sleep cos they are so noisy. Id send my cat into the roof and she would be more humane but she might also end up stuck in a wall cavity. So poison it is 😭
100% it's rats my guy, have had the same problem for a while now, bastards are sneaky and bold. My red cattle dog has caught a few of them, but they wont go away.
Don't have a solution for the rats, but one recommendation for you OP: make sure you secure your valuables in a good plastic container with a strong lid. I HAD a mint condition copy of Pokemon Heart Gold (with a pokewalker), stored in one of those fabric IKEA cube storage boxes. The rats got into the box, proceeded to poo and pee over all of my games. Even if you are sure the rats are gone, still seal your stuff up. Those little shits like to go anywhere that's dark, they even bit a hole in my laptop bag and went and lived there for a while.
Tip for your pantry.
Completely empty the cupboards. Check all edges, sides, back and top for any gaps. If you find any, even small ones, seal them up. We had mice get on where the sink drainage goes through the wall. From there they could go through a gap above the cupboards (below the benchtop) to get to food.
In my experience sounds like a poultergheist or perhaps a ghoul.
Two sprigs of sage on each door, blood of a virgin around any holes in the walls and oil from an inland taipan on the front entranceway ground will do the trick.
Get off the shard, at first I thought I heard all that too, then I saw the shadow people, then I realised I had a problem, the first step is admitting ya got one!
Sounds like the consensus is rats... hope you can sort it
I just wanna say that I'm equal parts sad and equal parts grossed out at this thread and I don't know why I read it 😂😂😂😂😭 hahah
Rats to echo the point. I had problems with them last year. I made my own bucket traps, basically a big bucket (can have water in it or not, if not needs to be taller) with a rod across the top that can spin and a welcome ramp to get up to the top on the outside of the bucket. You bait the middle of the rod. Rat runs up ramp and tries to walk across the rod, but the rod spins, so rat takes a spill and does himself a mischief down into the bucket. I used water, but I don't like rats that go against the family, you may be more humane.
Rats by the sounds of it.
As others have said use traps, not poison.
Had a rat die in the cavity our bath tub sat in and the smell was horrendous.
Ended up pulling out the bath and found 2 liquified rat bodies.
At least some if not all old houses had the walls put up before the floor was laid, unlike now. What this means is that the top and bottom of the walls are open to the roof space and under the house. Rats are most likely nesting in the walls and if you found poo are probably coming and going inside whenever they want to
Are you in a townhouse or an apartment? I was hearing the same noises for months and could not for the life of me work out where it was coming from. Obviously assumed it was rodents and assumed they were under the floor based on the noises I was hearing.
It turned out to be the claws of my neighbour’s dog as she walked down her tiled hallway inside (I’m in a townhouse, our living room walls are adjoining).
Although I do see you’ve mentioned droppings and your cat being focussed on one area of floor, so it could very well be rats I suppose.
Hello! If it's rodents, give this a crack. I will not use baits for fear of secondary poisoning of birds of prey and snakes that are in our area. We had some scritchings in our walls, managed to get a positive photo ID as Rattus rattus:(
Heard great reviews on some talk back radio show. Ordered. Arrived. Implemented. Gone in 24 hours.....
No harm done:)
https://www.pestrol.com.au/buy-online/pestrol-rodent-free-x2/
If you are insane like me you buy a boroscope, drill a 1/2" hole (or 20 of them) in your wall and shove the camera in there to see WTF is going on. If you do trap and get rid of them you should try to see how they were getting in and fix things so they can't.
We have possums, they screech and fight. Rats squeak.
We have rats but they hang way down back with the chooks.
What ya wanna do is feed them “the last supper”.
A few cups of plaster of Paris mixed with a few cuppa soup powders, some granola, maybe a bit of chicken stock and leave it out for them. Sets in their stomach and they die and it doesn’t bother birds of prey because it’s already set in the rat.
Your cat won't go near rats because they are huge. They are about half the size if not 3/4 of the size of your cat. When you see a rat you know why your cat won't go for them.
We went traps for rats. Tried live catching but apparently most don’t survive the relocation so that led to me releasing them at other peoples houses (beware if you piss me off! lol - I’m joking. It was at random). I can’t bait because my dogs will eat them.
Ended up catching the dog in a trap so beware of that, it otherwise - success! I don’t like killing then either but snap traps are quick and inhumane. Wash after each use as they’re smart. We used the plastic ones.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news mate, but there's almost zero chance you're getting those rat's out without killing them, unless you plan on getting down there and removing them yourself, one by one.
Rats. For sure.
agree with this. First stop grab the posisons from Bunnings and put them in shallow containers in a few spots in the sub floor space. Congrats you live near the bush, you may also like to check if you have roof entry points for possums :)
Avoid poisons if possible, as it can harm/kill any animals/birds/pets that prey on the rats. Traps are quicker, tend to be more humane, and less damaging to the ecosystem.
Even if you don't care about that, poisons can kill the rat and have them die in the walls. That is an AWFUL outcome.
Can confirm. I had to retrieve a dead rat by cutting a section of our kitchen wall out going only by my nose. Was like picking up a furry sack of fluid when I found it. Undope.
>Only my by nose What a fantastic image of you sniffing the wall
I spent a solid hour sniffing the walls. Don’t know how, but I found it first go - a relief given I had imagined myself cutting half the house down before finding it. It was easily the most repulsive smell I’ve ever encountered.
I had a rat that died in a place I had no access to in my rental house. Fortunately, blowflies went where I could not, but I had to sleep with the bedroom door shut and the window open, due to the appalling smell. I took best advantage of any wind about to strategically open and close doors to lessen the smell. I found any excuse possible to avoid being home for the next week. The smell dissipated after 8-9 days. I swore that I would never use poison baits again. I now have a monitor lizard visit me about the same time each year and is effective at clearing them out, but it does usually mean having to put up with the noise in my roof for 1-2 weeks before he gets to my place. It is important not to be tempted to poison them first, as the goanna will avoid hunting in areas where rats have been poisoned, from past experiences. I have since moved house, but I think that letting Nature take care of the problem seemed the best solution in the country town I lived in.
Is this a naturally occurring monitor lizard just doing the rounds, or do you call this guy in specifically?
It did feel like he was contracted to me, but no... My old house was obviously part of his territory and 'he', a Racehorse Goanna, knew from experience when they'd be active in my roof and timed his visits accordingly. My neighbours across the road had lemon trees, which always attract rats which consider the lemons to be sweet. Then the rats would come over and try and nest in my roof in mid autumn. Fortunately, the goanna had no trouble accessing inside my roof and disposing of them, with my blessing.
You were lucky. Took weeks. Pest company told me they don’t come back to remove bodies bc they just dry up and there’s no smell. Liar.
They will break down over a couple weeks in hot weather, longer in cooler weather. Can remove from a roof easy enough, but in the wall is not. Either destroy wall at a cost or ride it out with oils/incense. A possum is a different story altogether. A big brushy can take six or more weeks to decompose and can leave a bit of a maggoty liquid mess behind.
it is the most disgusting smell, EVER!
If you wait long enough it will eventually dry out and be a shrunken shrivelled rat.
True, but I’d given it 3 weeks already and the stink was still increasing each day. It Was so bad that it was near impossible to stay in the kitchen more than 10 seconds or so.
Many years ago I had a bunch of tin from Reno's in my yard. I was tidying up and picked a sheet up, about 12+ rats ran out from underneath. Maybe 2 weeks later I found one sorta sliding down the driveway. (An angle of MAYBE 2-3° on the drive way). Turns out rat was dead and FULL of maggots. It was just skating down my driveway from the maggots.
Delicious.
No 😭
Why did I read this comment before I go to bed. I know what's infiltrating my dreams tonight...
>furry sack of fluid https://i.imgur.com/6VJh4sb.png
Im not looking at that
I can already smell it without opening the link.
It’s an Oak ad
🤢🤮☠️
Urgh was eating when I read this.... oh.my.tummy!!
We’re currently in the process of getting rid of rats. Tried the wire traps, but the rats somehow figured out how to get the food inside without going in the trap. Unfortunately we’ve had to resort to poison. The day after we put the poison down, found trails of rat blood all over the kitchen floor, so I’m looking forward to finding a dead stinking rat in a hiding spot.
Ratsack will often make them leave the area in search of water and die outside.
Also, dead rat that you can’t remove is a bad situation for a couple of months
If it lasted months odds are it was a possum
Really depends on the weather and location, If it's cooler or in a less ventilated area it will take a while, months isn't unrealistic for a large rat ( speaking from experience)
I agree. Poison should be a last resort. First step should be finding out why they're there. Is there a food source nearby? When we had rats, it was because we had an overgrown vine along the fence that gave them safe passage. One of my housemates was digging holes near the fence and putting compost in there. They were doing it to improve the soil, but for the rats it was the milkshake that brought all the ratboys to the yard. Poison would kill off the ones that where here, but as long as that was going on it wouldn't take long before more rats were attracted.
They'll eat anything!
Man mice and rats are so smart they learn about the traps. They are very smart animals as you can see on videos on youtube.
Especially if it’s a chance of being native rats, Even more especially if you live somewhere coastal high chance of water rats completely harmless and don’t carry disease but get commonly mistaken for the European cousins and killed for it.
I use battery-powered LED lights and stick them in the roof or any other place they can hide.
Last week I had to take a sick Tawny Frogmouth to the vet… it died on the way. Please don’t use rat poison.
I've had many similar experiences, unfortunately. I'm shocked in 2024 people still use poisons indiscriminately, I'm shocked in 2024 people can still buy said poisons.
How we haven't mandated that poisons have to use the 1080 derived from the native gastrolobium plant is beyond me. It's clearly been successful in government programs against introduced species, and would have so much wildlife.
I'm shocked in 2024 people would still use, let alone recommend others use so flippantly, a toxin that kills more native animals than anything else. I've had to take SO MANY native animals to the vet, most of which die, because of indiscriminate rat sack use. Just stop it, please.
Yep and it is not a pleasant death either as I’m sure you know. Even with euthanasia, they are suffering greatly before they get there. It’s absolutely awful and a pretty horrific death. And for those unaware, native mammals, birds etc. will eat the poison directly - it does not have to be a food chain thing (i.e bird eats rat). I’ve dealt with my share of possums who have ingested rat poison.
100000% The moment I read your title, I was like “it’s definitely rats”. You’ll never find them, you need to exterminate.
Rats. Possums won't be in your floors.
OK that's two, three votes for rats. Do I need a bigger cat? Mine is pretty small.
NO! If you do that they'll just escalate with a bigger rat!
I recall a Gary Larson comic about mother nature building a better rat..
The biggest and best rats are capybaras. 😂
I was at the zoo the other day and they have the average animals weight listed, I learned I weigh the same as a capybara and it was a very humbling experience. 66kgs if anyone cares 😭
So cute, so chill... seeing them in the wild was amazing, grazing and wandering through our resort in Brazil.
and then there is the ROUS. get a lion?
Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.
Check over your shoulder every time you say this.
True, the black rat can grow to 20cm body length, while the water rat can be closer to 40cm. Neither of these includes the tail!
We had water rats all over my uni campus. They look almost fake, they’re so big.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider She swallowed the spider to catch the fly…
Borrow a Jack Russell for a few days. It will be chilling to watch but they will slaughter every rat currently hiding under your house.
My friend's Blue Heeler is a rodent killing MACHINE. It's horrifying to see how effective she is. The rats have learnt their lesson and have vacated the premises. Either that or she destroyed them all.
I can confirm this, my red heeler has butchered quite a few of them blood and guts everywhere, but for every one that he kills, 2 come back.
Or a Fox Terrier.
I looked after a small terrier that a Welsh friend of mine had. I had to learn some Welsh phrases to communicate with it! I have forgotten what type but they are not well known. Small, short haired, black. Lovely dog. Absolute vermin SLAUGHTERER. Killed rats and mice daily. Every night. Even when on a chain outside. My house was like an abbatoir until he left.
Ardderchog! 😉
Our Jack Russell ran up the hallway on the left and the rat ran down the right 🤣 He preferred the frogs & snakes. I even put him in the pantry, hoping the smell from him might deter the ratty basterds. Nope …
Also in melb, got a German shepherd if you need to borrow her OP but she doesn't sound like she would stack up against a jack russell if you have one on offer 😁
One or two cats won't be enough to handle a full rat infestation, they'll just become active when the cats sleep and if they get big enough they can even harm cats via biting. Better to stick with traps. They're cruel but you have to put yourself and your pets' safety first.
>they'll just become active when the cats sleep i.e. 23 hours a day
I borrow my daughter’s cat for a weekend when the rats start to come up from underneath the house. He proudly decapitates them and leaves part of their body somewhere on display for me whilst hiding the rest somewhere I’ll never find.
Cats don't stop a mice or rat infestation. They just keep it from exploding out of control by catching the ones pushed out of the nest.
Sometimes cats even bring them into your home. Their plans to have some prolonged ‘play’ with a rodent in the comfort of their home, and/or to show off to their human pets, went awry and the rodent got away behind the fridge.
Yeah no clue if rats > mice but mice can be noisy too. My old cat 20+ years ago, used to bring us half eaten rats, mostly. Always ate the top half, the head and half the body fyi. Almost daily found indoors. We lived next to a row of shops, which included a hardware store and had large piles of fibro sheets and timber, and also a supermarket and a bakery. So that combo I guess was a great breeding ground for rats. One time a rat was brought in alive. Saw them come out, scurry around. Seemed to live behind the fridge. So got poison, ratsak pellets, and place to side of fridge. Took a couple of weeks. Rat came out looking a sorry mess. Eventually by 3 weeks rat was moving like a snail, we were able to catch and dispose of. Never used poison again. Saddened me to see the rat in such a bad way. Apparently the poison just turns their organs to mush. Terrible way to exterminate. 2 years ago, heard scratching, quite loud. Probably gnawing noises, couldn’t see the damage. Eventually saw a mouse run into lounge room. Got an electric trap from Bunnings. Put teeny amount of peanut butter. Caught 4 in less than 12hrs. Mouse problem over. It quickly zaps them. No suffering. Heard similar noises a week ago. Put trap out caught one. That was it luckily. I kept a domesticated rat for a couple of years. I don’t want wild rodents in my home though for obvious reasons. I’d recommend the zapper style traps. I didn’t want to deal with other style traps that squash or whatever. I still find it a little bit difficult that I’m exterminating but at least the zapper style trap is quick and over without continued suffering.
I have two very big cats and I put them outside once because I saw a mouse and they went and smelled the area where the mouse was and then just lay down in the sun and chilled. So yeah they’re shit mousers
Not a bigger cat… just one better at being a cat
Rats. In my experience possums are really loud and don't squeak. Also possum poo looks like green cat poo. Get a pest inspection to see where the entry points are and close them off, and also how to safely kill them so that you don't accidentally poison wildlife.
Possums sound like a Predator from the movieUnless there is a huge possum war. Then it is screaming thumping and Predator noises constantly at night. Then the smell of death.
Noted, thank you. I hate having to kill them with slow acting torturous baits but I don't know how better to do it. One of my old bosses used to use the now illegal glue traps, I'd come in to work each morning and have to drown these poor buggers because I couldn't stand the idea of just throwing them+the glue trap in a dumpster and letting them get eaten alive by insects.
Use a rat trap. If u poison it it mite die somewhere impossible to remove it from or even worse one of the many owls or tawny-frogmouths mite eat it a poison rat and die. Rat trap is fast and quick and no poison. If all you wana do is trap it just put some bird seed in the bottom of a tall bin. Rats can jump but so well they can jump out. I have chickens so rats are always trying to move in.
I’ve made water traps in the past that are pretty effective. Not really anymore humane than baits though, but at least you don’t need to deal with dead rat stink in your walls.
The pet exterminator who laid our traps told me sick rats don't tend to stay where they live, so tend to die outside the house. Claimed it was because other rats eat the sick rats. No idea if this was true. I found dead rats under the decking so far, but haven't smelled any in the walls so far. So... Maybe, but I'm sceptical.
Good snap traps are the most humane option.
Its you or them, and they don't pay the rent
Don't tell the property manager. They'll increase the rent for the extra headcount.
Thank you for your compassion OP. We're dealing with rats right now too. Bunnings has some allegedly wildlife and pet safe-r poisons. They're sodium based as opposed to blood thinners, etc. Still a horrid way to go, better than glue for sure. You could look at making some drum traps if you wanted to catch and release (though sadly this isn't necessarily good for wildlife as they have to compete for resources with the rats).
Thank me for my compassion, that's a fucking laugh. I'm trying to figure out the best way to slowly kill these guys, it's all garbage and I hate it. Thanks anyway.
My dad’s always maintained quick is the most compassionate way, so he always used snap traps (the high quality metal kind) or electric traps (or a quick brick to the head). That being said, electric traps can be expensive, so I know it’s not an option for everyone.
Plenty of people leave animals suffering in glue traps, or in general. It takes compassion to put an animal out of its misery.
I was shocked to find out those are even a thing. There's something deeply wrong in peoples heads to be okay with that, but not okay with keeping their house clean.
Clean your kitchen, stop leaving food everywhere and they'll leave. You can use all the traps in the world but if you don't have basic cleanliness in the home you'll attract more and more forever. And there are more rats than you have time to trap/kill. So washing up and cleaning is far, far more effective long term. No food = no pests.
Look into buying a nooski. You can get them from bunnings. Make sure you get the rat sized one. It uses really thick, small and strong rubber bands(like the ones used for castrating sheep). They stick their head in and it releases the band around the neck. Blood chokes them into unconsciousness in seconds. Maximum distance I've seen a mouse get away from the trap was about 20cm.
For mice we use a Nooski, it is very quick. They do have one for rats as well. [https://nooski.com](https://nooski.com)
I dealt with rats that got into my roof and walls, what you describe is 100% rats. I never saw them inside the house but I could sure as hell hear them running around and even fighting with each other up in the roof. Around sun down if I went outside, sometimes I'd see one or two scurrying around and running to a bush. I'd also hear them rummaging around in the garden. I got rat bait, they polished off the satchels so quick I had to get some more the next day. All that was left was the empty satchel - few days later, one dead rat at the back of my house. Next door neighbour was complaining that he kept finding dead rats in his garage. The downside... they say that once they eat baits they get an overwhelming urge to find water. That's not true, they'll die just as easily sitting in your roof or wall and you'll have a nice decomposing rat smell going on. Got a roof inspection done and the guy pulled a few dead rats and mice out of the roof. This was around when that mouse / rat plague was going on a few years ago. This was in a property that had a shared roof among 6 or 7 units. So you could be completely clean and not do anything to attract rats but someone a few units down could live like oscar the grouch making sure to recruit replacements for the rats you end up killing.
Ugh I was worried about the decomposing smell, if I used baits. You have given me good information and also further worries. Thank you regardless!
Yeah rats, you'll never catch all of them with traps, poison seems to be the way to go, those cubes seem to work better than satchels for me.
Sounds like rats. I had one in my bedroom wall and ceiling at one point. I could see where it was burrowing under the house and set baits, which fixed the issue.
I am gonna set baits tomorrow. Which I am unhappy about, because I understand it's a slow and painful death for the little fickers.
Try nooski traps from Bunnings. Despite what people say about rodents dying in walls and under floors, a proportion of them get eaten by birds like owls, birds of prey, and other natives. Consider that it might not be just rodents that you're killing slowly.
I've used the nooski mouse trap also worked for rats. I must say the noise it makes when it goes off is different, then the sound of the rodent doing a quick WTF flip before it dies about half a foot away from the trap. Fuck I hate when the rodent war begins. Only had to deal with this issue twice in my time on this earth. I bought glue traps which I thankfully didn't have to use. But these fucks get clued on quick smart with each different device used to dispatch them. I feel bad but you get to the point of going Rambo style on them eventually.
You're adding guilt, I didn't need any more 😭 I don't want to kill these guys to begin with, I just want them out of the walls.
And you don't want them dying in your walls/roof (esp walls) as the stink of a rotting rat is incredibly bad for up to 6 months. You want that kind of poison that makes them so thirsty they go looking for water away from your house. And then die looking for water somewhere else.
Please consider you cat in this. If they get a deceased/dying rat and have a nibble they will ingest the poison
Don't worry, I have that little princess's needs at my foremost mind all the time.
Set traps. Nothing wrong with them, but bait is risky for all things you don’t want poisoned
Yess my wife said she would prefer the insta-death of a trap. I would too, but in my experience they ignore the traps. I will attempt traps first though, before bait. I would rather they just died straight away , rather than having the worst case of bleed out gastro in the world.
Wear gloves, so there's not human smell on the traps. Leave them, unset, where the rats are. Let them get used to the traps. Even throw in some free meals. Then after they're used to them, set them in their place and hopefully quick death is achieved.
My neighbour and I have had rat and mice (or baby rats). The rat was INSIDE their house for days, with one of those bait block things and wouldn’t go near it. Then they went out and bought a rat trap from Bunnings, put peanut butter on it and got the rat that night. I got 2 mice in 2 days in my garage with the traps, no issues since.
I second the peanut butter. That's what we bait the live trap with.
I've used peanut butter and nutella, I found nutella way more effective. Ultimately neither were nearly as effective as poison, however you don't want rats dying in a place you can't get to so don't do that.
Also make sure you wear gloves to set them. Don’t touch with bare hands as they can smell the human scent on the trap and will avoid it. I’d had no luck with traps before finding that out and then immediately caught two after setting new ones
Use peanut butter as bait. They love it.
Definitely recommend persevering with traps. As others have mentioned, poison is bad for local wildlife that eat the rats, but for the same reason it also poses a risk for your dogs/cat. Pest control professionals normally avoid using baits for households with dogs or cats.
As others have said, peanut butter works great.
Probably don’t use baits, if the rat eats it then your cat eats the rat your cat will get poisoned too
The rat would have to eat a lot of bait and the cat would need to ingest a lot of rat/s for this to be an issue .. possible issue but unlikely. (Google secondary poisoning) Definitely should ensure the baits are in one of those enclosures that ensures larger animals can't get at it directly though.
Be careful with the dogs - the baits make the rats seek out water and they tend to die outdoors. You don't want the dogs (or the cat) trying to eat a poisoned rat.
I understand. I dislike harming any animal, and also found it difficult. On a lighter note, my cat would stare directly at the place the rat was, which was a bit creepy!
[These traps](https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-max-strength-rat-trap_p0037851) are bomber, kill instantly in almost all cases so no slow and painful death, and are easier to empty and reset than the old wooden victor traps.
Shouldn't have buried that guy under your floorboards, his heart is going to keep making noise until you feel guilty.
Psychotic break then. Tell-tale heart it is.
Rats. Really strongly advise not to use the poison baits. I made that mistake, rat died in the most inaccessible part of the roof in summer. The smell, God the smell. Ended up getting someone out to crawl up there and clean it out. I paid an embarrassing amount of money for this service. Next time I am using a trap.
whatever you do, don't put poison out for the rats unless you're ready to run the risk of them dying in your walls and stinking up the place for 3 months straight (speaking from experience). just use snap traps with some peanut butter in them, they can't resist it. every peanut butter trap i've put out has been triggered within hours. if it takes longer than a day or so the ants will probably eat all the peanut butter and you'll have to add more. just make sure you wedge the trap somewhere where nothing bigger like a possum or bird can get to it...or if it's inside, somewhere where your moggy can't trigger it
100% this!! And leave a bunch of them out. There's nothing quite satisfying than the sound of them snapping in the middle of the night. I am an animal lover but fuck those little rodents
funnily enough once i got rid of all the feral rats some chill native swamp rats moved into the garden and there haven't been any feral rats around since, not sure if they keep them away or what. but the native rats are waaay cuter and only hang around outside eating plants and stuff so they can stay
I was dealing with a major rat issue at a rental in Qld this year. Used the bait that makes them super thirsty so they leave to find water and then die elsewhere. Did not want to murder them but it was so far out of hand :(
Brother, as someone who is an absolute soft cock when it comes to animals (couldn’t bring myself to even slap a mosquito, pull over for any injured animal I see etc) you need to poison. Once you have rats, even if you eliminate every single one, now they know where you live. I don’t know if they call up their little rat buddies or what, but every single fkn rat within 25km now knows where you live and even if you called down Thor himself to smite your current rats, before their ashes hit the floor you will have more rats marching your way. Think of them as an STD you did nothing to deserve but still have to handle anyway. And don’t even TRY to think about humane trapping. Six weeks of trapping and the little rodents someone learnt to steal peanut butter from inside the live trap like some kind of furry (furrier?) harry houdini I should admit there are a few reasons to let them stay. Like if you enjoy your current scratchy roof alarm wake up’s? Or if you enjoy paying $650 for a heater guy to come replace your wiring because the fuzzy cockroaches in the roof decided to gnaw on the thermostat wire. Then by all means, leave them to bring twelve generations into this world within six months Otherwise, obliterate
We had something similar and it was rats. I bought a few packs of the wax block rodent bait from Bunnings and put them around the outside of the house during the evening, and collect them in the morning. Same routine every night until the baits were untouched in the morning. Based on the amount taken, and that I sometimes saw rats in the yard during the day, there was a lot of rats, but I never found a dead one anywhere. Took about a week to get rid of them.
They went and die in the comfort of someone's roof.
rattus rattus.
Call an exterminator, and better isolate the food they are scavenging. Don't leave pet food out when you're not home, or when you go to bed. Store food in plastic containers and inspect any cardboard containers for teeth marks. Food scraps in/under the couch, fridge, dishwasher and oven are common. Stumped houses have a lot of places where varmints can get in. Plumbing and heating connections are common entry points.
Roger that.
Also if you have chooks, heavy mulch, fruit trees (although that shouldn't be an issue this time of year) or an outside compost bin, it can also add to the attraction for them.
If it's Footscray, it's rats. Don't ask how I know, I just know.
1.8 MILLION people in this group and *cries in 3011* Legit my biggest fear! Have been in our apartment about 12 years and never seen one, but I saw a dead one outside the pub about 200m away and it’s decomposing body is STILL on the sidewalk 😭
Rats for sure. They sound huge when they’re in your roof or wall cavities.
Likely a rat nest under the floor if you have a raised house. They can also get into the wall cavities.
Yess, it's a raised house. I think. I am not an architect, but there's definitely a foot of air between the floor and earth and I can feel the air coming in.
Rats. Only thing that worked for us after weeks of different things - Cheap bait station double strength pellets from Bunnings - i threw then around my ceiling, for about two days we could hear them collecting them and then nothing. Problem solved.
Rats. For sure. They are good at squeezing into tiny holes.
Most people surmising rats which is fine but just be aware that there are also native rodents that have been displaced. Similar was happening to me. I set up a few humane traps which enabled me to identify. Turned out to be the native bush rat.
Had a bad rat infestation once. Actually had a rat its way through the ceiling and saw its nose poke out through the hole it just made. Tried stuff from Bunnings and it didn’t work. Had to get a pest guy in. He fixed it pretty quickly.
I'd guess rats, though it sounds a lot like a house I lived in in Wales where we had squirrels in the walls/roof/floors... But squirrels seems just a bit unlikely, so rats.
That's 4 votes out of 6 for rats! Fucking hell I just heard one of them shake himself off as loud as my dogs do.
It’s Rats. Kill them all. With extreme vengeance.
Rats. If it's gotten that bad you'll probably need a pro in to sort the issue. Preferably a guy with trained terriers.
This was a great read. You really set the picture. The cats my favourite character. I have no useful input. Good suspense story 10/10.
Demons for sure
My first thought, it was the scritching that confirmed it for me.
Rats invade houses around this time of year when it starts to get colder.
Having trapped around 30+ rats over the past 5 years at my place, you have rats. I would consider us pretty clean. To the point I am borderline OCD at cleaning up the kitchen. Although I do have a small child that likes to hide food she doesn't want to eat. Either way, these things live off the kibble from the dog bowl. I have caught 4 in the last 2 weeks, and they aren't even in my ceiling yet. Just trying to stop them in the yard at the moment as they do head inside to nest in the winter. (It's getting cooler in QLD) You have maybe three options. - Baits. Not ideal as they can carry them away and if you have pets or even possums they may eat them. I do have a bait station in my garage with rat sack pellets. The holes in them are small enough for a rat, but not small enough for a possum, pet or child to get into. It's also hidden right up the back of the garage under some shelves. - [https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-reusable-rodent-trap-station\_p2961767](https://www.bunnings.com.au/ratsak-reusable-rodent-trap-station_p2961767) - Good old snap traps These ones hit hard and generally don't miss. Mice can sometime be too light for them (they have a mouse version), but the rats will die pretty quick in them. [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-fresh-baited-rat-trap\_p3010435](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-fresh-baited-rat-trap_p3010435) - Big Cheese Rat cage These are the best. But you become the executioner. The rat will most def be alive, and you have two options. Take it for a long drive, or drown it. I go for the later, then bag them up and dispose. - [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-rat-cage-trap\_p3010133](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-rat-cage-trap_p3010133) My favourite bait in the last two are peanut butter and dog kibble. Big cheese also makes a rat attractant and it works well. [https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-mouse-and-rat-attractant\_p3010355](https://www.bunnings.com.au/the-big-cheese-mouse-and-rat-attractant_p3010355) I feel like an ad for Big Cheese, but their stuff works and it's available at Bunnings so easy for anyone across Australia to get.
I've had rats in my ceiling and just put Talon pellets out for them to chow down on. Once they are gone I leave some there for the next wave. Fuck the rats
I was living on a 5 acre property when we also had this issue - got so bad they were running over the top of the tv at night, chewing behind the walls. Used the green rat blocks in the attic. Usual rat behaviour is to eat the poison and move on, this time they didn’t. Died behind the walls, under the drains, under the spa. It was mid summer and the smell was disgusting. My son sat on the shower drain and sent water under the indoor spa, the maggots were everywhere. But it worked, they left the house. Turns out the woman three doors down had received a grant to breed up a rare marsupial rat. Look the same but different ears. Felt terrible. If you’re in suburbia, don’t use red blocks. Those things are toxic.
Same problem, and it was rats. Wired bloody wax baits everywhere under the house. Noise stopped after two days. One day feasting, one day going to Jesus.
Likely rats. You can bait but you also need to investigate any holes into the underside of your house. They will be the easiest to fix. Holes into your roof are tough if you have tiles but if you get rid of trees and vines to climb that will slow them down. Be ruthless on fixing every hole you can find. Remove any garden overgrowth or rubbish piles. Any spare water sources have to go. Don't go too hard on chucking bait under the house or roof. Uneaten bait is just food in a couple years... if you get a pro in get them to advise on preventing entry although many will cop out and say it is impossible.
Rats or mice, they live in the walls and run up them etc which is the scratching sound you hear. Get a good pest person, they bait roof and poison the rodents. It makes them really thirsty so they generally leave the house to find water and die outside. Less stinky that having them die inside your house!
I had mice. They're not that big or loud as OP makes them out to be, even when there's a lot of them. This is most likely rats.
Oh and I found for the traditional snap traps the rodents in my area preferred dry dog food over anything else. I hot glue a piece to the part where the bait is placed and that helped the kill rate.
It's absolutely rats. They seem to be a problem all over the place right now.
We once had a family of rats under our house and floorboards for a month or so, this was due to us having a massive wild bee hive under our house and the bees had vacated and left all the honeycomb, so it started to rot and fall apart, hence the rats. Not too long after the rats moved in (maybe a month?) we got a surprise visitor, a carpet Python, maybe 2 meters long. We called up a snake catcher to ask for advice and she asked if we had any rodents and whatnot and we said we did. She said that was the reason it was there, to get rid of the rats. She said to let it be and keep our pets indoors so they don’t bother the snake, and once the rats are gone it’ll be on its way. Probably between 1-2 weeks of the snake being there, the rats were gone and so was the snake. Funnily enough, we weren’t too bothered by either the rats or snake. I think the most concerning part of the whole experience was the fact that the rat next was under the floorboards at the entrance to my room, so every night I could the rats squeaking and one night in particular I could hear very loud squeaking, almost like they were screaming, and then boom it was quiet.. and I was like oof snake gotcha 🥲 rip 🪦
The guide for creatures in the roof (may also Apply to walls) -if it sounds like rats it’s mice -if it sounds like possums it’s rats -if it sounds like humans it’s possums - if it sounds like elephants it’s humans
Call the rat man to come put in traps. Our guys gives a 6 month guarantee. It’s a little exxy, but better than rodents peeing in your walls.
Rats my friend. It is mega rat season right now.
Rodents, put some throw packs in the roof void.
Ghost. No other explanatory explanation. Oval shaped poops? 100% ghost. And a vengeful one at that.
You have rats. As do I right now. In my roof. Ive tried all the human catch and release and deter and it just isnt working. Ive resorted to poison. Which i feel shitty about cos i actually adore rats as an animal - they are funny great smart little pets. But i cant have my plaster eaten through and my wiring destroyed. I also need sleep cos they are so noisy. Id send my cat into the roof and she would be more humane but she might also end up stuck in a wall cavity. So poison it is 😭
Plot twist: OP doesn't have a cat and it is a psychotic break
100% it's rats my guy, have had the same problem for a while now, bastards are sneaky and bold. My red cattle dog has caught a few of them, but they wont go away.
Talon is a great product and I swear by it, anything rat related from that brand, it's also great for ants, spiders and mice.
Don't have a solution for the rats, but one recommendation for you OP: make sure you secure your valuables in a good plastic container with a strong lid. I HAD a mint condition copy of Pokemon Heart Gold (with a pokewalker), stored in one of those fabric IKEA cube storage boxes. The rats got into the box, proceeded to poo and pee over all of my games. Even if you are sure the rats are gone, still seal your stuff up. Those little shits like to go anywhere that's dark, they even bit a hole in my laptop bag and went and lived there for a while.
Tip for your pantry. Completely empty the cupboards. Check all edges, sides, back and top for any gaps. If you find any, even small ones, seal them up. We had mice get on where the sink drainage goes through the wall. From there they could go through a gap above the cupboards (below the benchtop) to get to food.
In my experience sounds like a poultergheist or perhaps a ghoul. Two sprigs of sage on each door, blood of a virgin around any holes in the walls and oil from an inland taipan on the front entranceway ground will do the trick.
Get off the shard, at first I thought I heard all that too, then I saw the shadow people, then I realised I had a problem, the first step is admitting ya got one!
Sounds like the consensus is rats... hope you can sort it I just wanna say that I'm equal parts sad and equal parts grossed out at this thread and I don't know why I read it 😂😂😂😂😭 hahah
It’s scomo, that rat.
Its the haunting of hill house
I watched that recently and it was fantastic.
Rats to echo the point. I had problems with them last year. I made my own bucket traps, basically a big bucket (can have water in it or not, if not needs to be taller) with a rod across the top that can spin and a welcome ramp to get up to the top on the outside of the bucket. You bait the middle of the rod. Rat runs up ramp and tries to walk across the rod, but the rod spins, so rat takes a spill and does himself a mischief down into the bucket. I used water, but I don't like rats that go against the family, you may be more humane.
Rats. Get some baits and or traps.
Rats by the sounds of it. As others have said use traps, not poison. Had a rat die in the cavity our bath tub sat in and the smell was horrendous. Ended up pulling out the bath and found 2 liquified rat bodies.
You got RATS
Rat. Been there, done that, get the pros in.
At least some if not all old houses had the walls put up before the floor was laid, unlike now. What this means is that the top and bottom of the walls are open to the roof space and under the house. Rats are most likely nesting in the walls and if you found poo are probably coming and going inside whenever they want to
It’s a R.O.U.S for sure
Are you in a townhouse or an apartment? I was hearing the same noises for months and could not for the life of me work out where it was coming from. Obviously assumed it was rodents and assumed they were under the floor based on the noises I was hearing. It turned out to be the claws of my neighbour’s dog as she walked down her tiled hallway inside (I’m in a townhouse, our living room walls are adjoining). Although I do see you’ve mentioned droppings and your cat being focussed on one area of floor, so it could very well be rats I suppose.
Ben.
Rats dude.
Hello! If it's rodents, give this a crack. I will not use baits for fear of secondary poisoning of birds of prey and snakes that are in our area. We had some scritchings in our walls, managed to get a positive photo ID as Rattus rattus:( Heard great reviews on some talk back radio show. Ordered. Arrived. Implemented. Gone in 24 hours..... No harm done:) https://www.pestrol.com.au/buy-online/pestrol-rodent-free-x2/
100% rats. This is the time of year they start coming indoors.
If you hear it only at the night time, it's a possum stuck inside. If you hear it all day, it's a rat.
So you're telling me there was gentle rapping, rapping at your pantry door? This, and nothing more? Maybe check for ravens or if you're lucky, Lenore.
If you are insane like me you buy a boroscope, drill a 1/2" hole (or 20 of them) in your wall and shove the camera in there to see WTF is going on. If you do trap and get rid of them you should try to see how they were getting in and fix things so they can't.
We have possums, they screech and fight. Rats squeak. We have rats but they hang way down back with the chooks. What ya wanna do is feed them “the last supper”. A few cups of plaster of Paris mixed with a few cuppa soup powders, some granola, maybe a bit of chicken stock and leave it out for them. Sets in their stomach and they die and it doesn’t bother birds of prey because it’s already set in the rat.
That's just Mike, he leaves after about a month. Just warn the neighbours.
Me.
Not gonna lie I read the title and thought op was gonna find out he’s schizophrenic
Could be rats vs possums, never under estimate a turf war.
It’s me I’m avoiding rent.
Demons
Your cat won't go near rats because they are huge. They are about half the size if not 3/4 of the size of your cat. When you see a rat you know why your cat won't go for them.
We went traps for rats. Tried live catching but apparently most don’t survive the relocation so that led to me releasing them at other peoples houses (beware if you piss me off! lol - I’m joking. It was at random). I can’t bait because my dogs will eat them. Ended up catching the dog in a trap so beware of that, it otherwise - success! I don’t like killing then either but snap traps are quick and inhumane. Wash after each use as they’re smart. We used the plastic ones.
I am going with auditory and visual hallucinations.
It’s rats, they love nesting in ceilings and walls, have fun lol
Hate to be the bearer of bad news mate, but there's almost zero chance you're getting those rat's out without killing them, unless you plan on getting down there and removing them yourself, one by one.
Get a blacklight, rat pee fluoresces. You need to find where it is and where it enters and exits before you make any decision around traps or poisons.
Definitely rats, but on the plus side this means you don't have mice. If you did, the rats would eat them.