What Is the Best Way to Deal With Rats in a Duxford Home or Garden?

The question in the title has two answers, because it contains two situations. Which one you have decides almost everything about what to do next.

Inside the Building

This is unambiguous. Rats inside a structure are doing damage that does not stop on its own — BPCA note that rats have to gnaw to keep their teeth in shape, and that includes cable, plastic and lead pipe as well as timber. The fire risk from stripped cable in a void is the one worth taking seriously, precisely because you cannot see it.

• It needs treating, not managing
• The route in has to be found, because a treated building with an open route is a building that gets repopulated
• Proofing follows, once the property is confirmed clear
• Ordinary hygiene precautions apply while it is going on

Outside, In the Garden

Here the honest answer depends on whether they are living there or crossing it.

The Overlap: A Garden Population Is a Building Problem in Waiting

This is the part that argues against complacency outdoors. A colony living under decking or in a bank is fifteen millimetres away from being an indoor problem, and the trigger is usually the weather turning. Autumn is when a garden population that nobody minded becomes noises under a floor.

So the sensible position is neither panic nor indifference: deal with the harbourage and the food outdoors, close the routes into the building, and treat when there is something established to treat.

What We Would Actually Do at a Duxford Property

1. Survey inside and outside, including drainage covers, outbuildings and the loft.
2. Establish whether the activity is indoors, outdoors or both.
3. Where treatment is warranted, place it on the routes in use.
4. Return to confirm the activity has stopped.
5. Recommend proofing, and say plainly where the answer is drainage or building work rather than pest control.