DIYbanter - View Single Post - Rats in the ceiling

HeyBub

wrote:
On 9 Sep 2006 18:14:17 -0700, wrote:

Is there a way to repel rats from inside your ceiling space? I have
heard that possums dislike naphthalene and camphor. Is there anything
that rats dislike? I am definitely not putting rat poison in the
ceiling, so the little critters die in some hard-to-reach wall
cavity, and then perfume the whole house.

If you don't find and repair the hole they are using you are wasting
your time. Then trap them out. These "cat" answers are from people who
don't really want to get rid of the rats. They just want an excuse
fior a cat. A cat may catch a few but it won't ever get them all. Rats
can go where a cat can't and they evolved to survive.

You may be right. But:

"Born on April 21 1963, Towser lived at Glenturret Distillery for almost 24
years and caught a total of 28,899 mice (pity the person who kept score!)
plus an uncounted number of rats, rabbits and pheasants in her life. Her
tally of mice earned her a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the
World Mouse-catching Champion."

Now had I been Towser's, uh, "supervisor," I would have hired a helper! But
at an average of 3.5 mice/day, she had to have been making a dent.

Further, if, as you say, rats evolved to survive, it would eventually dawn
on them that a monster lurks in this house and move on. The fact this
thought didn't occur to the mice at Glenturret is no doubt because they were
stupid Scottish mice.