How to Get Rid of Rats in Cambridge

Most people start with the last step or the wrong one. They buy a bait box, block a hole, or put a trap where they saw the rat. Sometimes that is enough for a single visitor in a garden. For anything that has settled in, the order you do things in matters more than what you buy.

Step One: Be Sure What You Are Dealing With

Rat, mouse or squirrel changes everything that follows. Rats leave larger, darker droppings in groups along a route, greasy marks on surfaces they brush past, and burrows outdoors. Mice leave small scattered droppings almost everywhere they go. The signs of rats post covers how to read the evidence, and a pest inspection and survey settles it if you are unsure.

It also helps to know whether the activity is current. Dust a thin layer of flour on the floor where you suspect a run and look for footprints the next morning. Fresh prints tell you far more than old droppings.

Step Two: Take Away the Reasons to Stay

A rat stays where it can eat, drink and hide. Removing those does not clear an established population, but it makes every other step work better, and it costs nothing.

• Stop feeding birds on the ground and clear spilled seed from under feeders.
• Keep cooked food, bread and meat out of compost, and use a closed compost bin.
• Store pet food, poultry feed and bird seed in hard, sealed containers.
• Keep bin lids shut and bags off the ground.
• Clear log piles, rubbish and dense cover from against the house and shed walls.

Our post on what attracts rats goes into this properly.

Step Three: Treat Where They Travel

Rats run the same routes every night, usually tight against a wall, fence or piece of cover. Anything placed in the open, or simply where a rat was spotted, tends to be ignored. Treatment belongs on the run itself, in a secure position that pets, children and wildlife cannot reach.

This is where DIY most often falls short. Retail products are placed in the wrong spot, removed too soon, or used against more rats than they can cope with. Snap traps set along a wall can deal with one or two animals. They rarely finish a population living under decking or in a wall.

Step Four: Check the Drains

In a city with as many older terraces as Cambridge, the drainage is worth looking at every time. Brown rats live in the sewer network, and a cracked pipe, a loose joint or an old connection left open under a floor gives them a route straight up. If rats keep appearing indoors with no obvious gap, or keep returning after treatment, the drain is the first suspect. Lift the inspection chamber cover and look for droppings, debris or a damaged channel. Our post on drains and rat blockers explains what can be done when the drain is the route.

Step Five: Close the Way In

Only once activity has stopped should the gaps be sealed. Proofing too early traps rats inside the building, where they gnaw out somewhere else or die somewhere you cannot reach. Proofing that holds uses metal: mesh, plate, or wire wool packed tight and sealed over. Foam and sealant on their own are chewed straight through.

When to Call Us

Call if you have signs indoors, activity that has lasted more than a few days, a burrow near the house, or anything in the loft or under the floor. Our rat control service covers the whole sequence above: the survey, treatment on the route, the follow-up visits rat work needs, and advice on proofing and drains.

Rat control is £260 with no call-out fee, confirmed before anything is booked. The rat control cost guide sets out what that covers. The treatment is guaranteed: if the problem comes back within 14 days of treatment, we return and re-treat free of charge.

Food and cover first, treatment on the route second, proofing last.