Author Topic: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?  (Read 14740 times)

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #25 on: 10 March, 2019, 08:51:54 pm »
Except in Ascot where rats are something you have to pay to the local authority.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

vorsprung

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #26 on: 10 March, 2019, 09:03:09 pm »
Poison is a bit variable, the trouble is that rats are immune sometimes

Agree about traps but getting the buggers to trigger it is difficult

If you see the rat and want it caught on the spot, forget the cat.  You need a terrier

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #27 on: 10 March, 2019, 09:58:07 pm »
So I rammed a lot more coarse steel wool into that hole then put a whole tube of that sealant into it.   I didn't notice that there was a protective cap on the bottom of the tube & squeezed the caulking gun so hard I bent the handle, making it useless.  I ended up cutting the top off the tube, pushing the gunge out & pushing it into place with a spatula. 


There's a 2nd large hole where the kitchen sink waste goes through the wall.  I've put more steel wool into there but would need to take the back of the unit off for access to do anything else. 


I'll be a lot happier if I can keep them out of the kitchen.  It's the only room we know they've been in, and the health implications for 2 elderly people, one with a compromised immune system are not pleasing. 


Guess I'll have to check the bathroom pipes as well.  My sister who lives with them has read that they can swim out of a toilet & is now insisting that lids be left down at all times !
Not fast & rarely furious

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #28 on: 10 March, 2019, 09:59:44 pm »
https://twitter.com/parveenkaswan/status/1104263284864122885?s=21


Like this?

One of these will do

(click to show/hide)

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #29 on: 10 March, 2019, 10:14:16 pm »
Don't see why you cant seal pipe surrounds with this.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-builders-silicone-clear-310ml/83710
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Mrs Pingu

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #30 on: 10 March, 2019, 10:21:30 pm »
I thought that rats had form for chewing through all this non metal stuff like expanding foam, electrical insulation etc?

Rentokil agrees with your sister and would agree with your decluttering
https://www.rentokil.co.uk/rats/prevention/
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #31 on: 10 March, 2019, 10:26:28 pm »
The Rentokil stuff was extremely gloopy & appeared to have something fibrous mixed in with it.   They certainly seem to like chewing cables,  I found 2 different ones that had been nibbled down to bare copper.  Another thing to fix.
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #32 on: 10 March, 2019, 10:39:50 pm »
Worth asking why they have suddenly arrived. We had some in the garden who came because of building work further up the road.

Council man came round and was excellent.

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #33 on: 11 March, 2019, 08:16:18 am »
Cats are variable; when we lived on a boat (moored on a farm), the farm cats caught few rats. Our 'ships cat' caught 1-2 a day during summer (horse feed and manure provides perfect conditions for rats). The landlords lamented us moving away and taking our cat with us.

Rat poison has something in it that 'burns up' the corpse. The stink doesn't last long.
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ian

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #34 on: 11 March, 2019, 09:33:20 am »
Someone did a study recently – cats generally don't catch rats, they view the risk as too high, especially when there's smaller less bitey prey around, or stuff that comes in pounches and is served up by humans twice-a-day. Rats however, will avoid places where cats roam, on the basis they're risk-averse. So where people think cats are catching rats, the rats are just moving away or keeping a lower profile. Cats are inadvertently effective.

Rats won't attack humans unless they're cornered or threatened. Apparently, a big source of them in urban areas are those stupid areas of garden decking people seemed enamoured with. They love making nests under that stuff.

Mr Larrington

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #35 on: 11 March, 2019, 01:48:21 pm »
Don't use poison.  Post-Brexit, rats will be a valuable protein source, and you may need to keep some aside for bartering with an allotment-owning neighbour or a FOAF who keeps chickens.
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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #36 on: 11 March, 2019, 01:59:10 pm »
From the post title it sounds like you've written most of a Half Man Half Biscuit single.  So what you should do is finish it and send it to them.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #37 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:16:38 pm »
I thought it was UB40!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #38 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:17:53 pm »

Oh dear, is it actually already a song!

"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #40 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:19:52 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHwPYze5M9s

I've already sent my sister some recipes  :demon:

The holes I plugged yesterday are untouched, but it looks like they came down the duct where the pipes from the central heating boiler go. I think that's going to be a tiling job.   

A trap I left outside had been sprung , but there was nothing in it.    More traps in the garden then.
Not fast & rarely furious

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hellymedic

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #41 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:21:29 pm »
Rats won't attack humans unless they're cornered or threatened. Apparently, a big source of them in urban areas are those stupid areas of garden decking people seemed enamoured with. They love making nests under that stuff.

If David's observatory is anything to go by, decking is adored by rats, mice and feral cats.

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #42 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:22:10 pm »
Don't use poison.  Post-Brexit, rats will be a valuable protein source, and you may need to keep some aside for bartering with an allotment-owning neighbour or a FOAF who keeps chickens.

<Discworld> Rat onna stick? </Discworld>
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #43 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:30:07 pm »
Rat au van...
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #44 on: 11 March, 2019, 02:55:52 pm »
Roll over rat au van.......

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #45 on: 11 March, 2019, 03:35:23 pm »
Karadzic ?

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #46 on: 11 March, 2019, 04:03:36 pm »
Rat at tooey?

Gattopardo

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #47 on: 11 March, 2019, 04:22:04 pm »
Get your warfarin via your food.

Kim

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Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #48 on: 11 March, 2019, 06:27:01 pm »
Don't use poison.  Post-Brexit, rats will be a valuable protein source, and you may need to keep some aside for bartering with an allotment-owning neighbour or a FOAF who keeps chickens.

<Discworld> Rat onna stick? </Discworld>

With ketchup.

Re: There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
« Reply #49 on: 11 March, 2019, 07:52:45 pm »
We've got an escapee hamster