OMG--they're back! (Rats)

margecat

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Every year, we go through this nonsense. We keep our yard clean, yet they keep coming into our heating ducts.  They must get in through under/beside the heat pump outside, and get up into the ductwork.  We have plugged the hole with concrete; they still get through. We just had a new heat pump installed last August, and asked the workmen to plug up the hole, which they did; I checked when they finished.  Today, I was sitting in the living room, watching TV. I kept hearing noises coming from the electric fireplace, which is against the stairway/pantry wall. We had a mouse/rat in that interior wall last year.  It chewed a mouse hole in the wall. The year before, the same thing--and I came home to a dead rat in the foyer. (I think it was Sarah Jane's kill!)

Funny--even though several cats are near that area, none of them are hearing the noises. It's something near wires and hitting against metal--which would make sense there (the fireplace has a metal "fire" box inserted into a mantel surround). Did I mention that I'm terrified of rodents indoors?

I'm mostly afraid of my cats touching it. I don't want them to catch any germs and/or get in a fight with a rodent.

I'm ready to sell this house. I'm so sick of this every year.  I feel as if I'm living in some sort of rodential Amityville Horror house! 


P.S., dear rodents: we have ten, count 'em, TEN cats in here. 
 

bbdoll22

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I have 5 cats that couldn't catch a mouse if their life depended on it. I put snap traps baited with peanut butter in our basement, behind the fridge and anywhere a cat can't fit into, or my young children.
Are you sure they are rats. Rats have hairless long tails but field mice have shorter tails with a fine fur on tail. Rats are quite large and mice are smaller.
Good luck getting rid of them.
 

Willowy

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Yikes! I have mice that get in now and then, sometimes the cats catch them, sometimes they just run on by. But they're field mice so I don't think they live in here. They don't do much damage, just chew on the cat food bag if I leave it out. I once had a rat in my garage, and it was destructive! I would hate to have more than one. The dogs got it eventually. I don't think I could put out traps or anything; I'm just too soft-hearted. Maybe a live trap and take it a few miles away.

Cats prefer not to kill rats---they're big, and mean! What you need is a small terrier dog, that would take care of those rats!
 
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margecat

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Yikes! I have mice that get in now and then, sometimes the cats catch them, sometimes they just run on by. But they're field mice so I don't think they live in here. They don't do much damage, just chew on the cat food bag if I leave it out. I once had a rat in my garage, and it was destructive! I would hate to have more than one. The dogs got it eventually. I don't think I could put out traps or anything; I'm just too soft-hearted. Maybe a live trap and take it a few miles away.

Cats prefer not to kill rats---they're big, and mean! What you need is a small terrier dog, that would take care of those rats!
Well, having a terrier could provide hours of free entertainment if we have rats! LOL

Someone asked if the one I found dead was a rat. Yes, it was a rat. Trust me!

We moved the fireplace, but found no evidence of animals back there. I know I heard sounds yesterday. I'm thinking they were coming from the outside wall, not the fireplace wall--or maybe the wind was brushing tree branches against the house in a weird manner.

Things sure have gone downhill since our next-door neighbors moved--their cat was quite a mouser!
 
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denice

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Have you had an exterminator that also does rodents come in?  He may be able to figure out how they are getting in.  It may be a way that you hadn't thought of.  Rats scare me.  They, more precisely the fleas on them, carry disease.  I have also heard of them getting so used to people that people, usually children, have been bitten.
 
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