Hi David, your website is very informative and verifies a lot of the info I have been given by so called rat experts but I have spent a fortune and still have a difficult rat problem to solve. We moved into our property 3 years ago.



After one year we heard noises. We turned property upside down and spent about £800 having drains checked and so called experts help us find point of entry. They were in the wall cavities and in the roof space of a ground floor rear extension and also under the suspended timber door of the main part of the house. We thought we had found the point of entry...no noises for two years then about a month ago we had a scrabbling in a wall...unmistakeable activity...this was same place we heard lots of activity before. Nightmare returns!!!!!!! This is a really difficult problem. The rear ground floor extension on my property has been built over the drains. Although I have had my drains checked by two independent people we have found no obvious breach but we suspect the little buggers are entering our property from here. Problem is, its under a concrete floor so we can't find the entry point. If we dig up the concrete floor it could cost thousands of pounds for the excavation work and restoration work, none of which I can reclaim on my insurance so i am hoping we do not have to resort to this. I have read your site and read never to put poison inside...one expert was adamant we should not do this also but when we could not find the entry point he said it was our only option as we had to 'Take control' so an extermination company put poison inside the cavity walls last June when they cleaned up the roof space. I have no bad smells so I suspect no dead ones at the moment. But I am now very worried again after reading your website. After hearing an 'unmistakeable scrabbling sound' about a month ago we haven't heard that noise again but we hear heard creaks and other weird noises every night that my fella thinks are 'natural' sounds but I think it is the rats moving about in the walls again. I think a new batch have rediscovered the site. This is causing us to argue lots! If they are moving about in the wall cavity how can I prove it? I was thinking of tracking dust ...not to kill them but to detect movement but your site says it can be dangerous. If they are there they are probably going over our patio doors so I thought we could take a roof tile off and put some down the cavity. Would this be okay, can you advise a suitable product ( I live in England) or is there an alternative approach you can recommend. A drains expert is looking into putting flaps on the sewer pipe to prevent them coming up the sewer pipe and thus into our home. Again this is not a straight forward solution because it involves digging up our neighbours garden because of the flow of sewerage and he may not be willing for us to do this. If they are coming in from the sewer pipe ( which we suspect but do not know for definite sadly) this at least would prevent us from excavating our home though. However, if the rats aren't moving about in my walls though, do I need to do this? The experts thought the roof space was what the rats were attracted to before. They were nesting there I think. We had a company come in and clean it all out properly last June. Lots of poo up there. We meshed over the top of the cavity walls all around the perimeter to stop them getting into there again. We hoped even if we hadn't found the entry point ( which we obviously haven't) then they would not have any reason to stay if another later discovered the trail. Do you think the cavity walls would be a good enough reason for them to stay around? They are no longer under our timber sub floor either. We got under there and sealed off that little trail also. Basically, I really need to determine if the noises I hear in my walls are because of rats or simply natural movement in order to determine if we still have a problem. Please please can you help..we are at our wits end....it is causing so many problems in our relationship and I have a six year old girl...I am worried about the health problems associated with rats infestations. Keep thinking they might be breeding and we could have loads of them moving around us....urgh!

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