How Can You Confirm Rat Activity Around a Property in Ely?

You cannot identify an animal from a noise with certainty, and anybody who says otherwise over the phone is guessing. What you can do is narrow it to one or two possibilities, and know where to look for the physical evidence that settles it.

The Two Questions That Do Most of the Work

1. What time of day?

2. How heavy?

What Rats Sound Like Specifically

• Heavier than you expect, and lower in pitch than a mouse
• Under floors and in ducts more often than high in a roof
• Gnawing — a sustained rasping or grinding, sometimes for minutes at a time. This is the most characteristic sound and the most useful
• Movement along a line, rather than random scuffling in one spot
• Mostly after dark, with activity picking up an hour or two after the house goes quiet
• Occasionally a squeal or a scuffle, where there is more than one

How to Listen Properly

1. Note the time, every time, over several days. The pattern is worth more than any single instance.
2. Note the location as precisely as you can — which room, which wall, floor or ceiling.
3. Note the type: scurrying, scratching, gnawing, thumping.
4. Try a wall or floor with an ear against it, or a glass, which helps locate depth.
5. Check whether it stops when you knock. An animal goes quiet and resumes after a minute or two. A building does not respond at all.

Then Go and Find the Physical Evidence

Noise narrows it down; droppings, smear marks, gnawing and runs confirm it. Look in the part of the building the noise comes from, and outside at the corresponding wall or roofline. If you find nothing at all after a proper look, a pest inspection and survey is a fixed cost and settles it, including the possibility that there is nothing there.