Rats in Kidwells Close
Occasionally I showcase the work that I do, delivering my pest control service across the Maidenhead area, and this is the theme of this particular blog.
Are there many rats in Kidwells Close?
With any internal rat or mouse problem, the smaller the property you’re dealing with, then the easier it’s going to be getting down to the root cause of the problem; for example if you live in a detached house then it stands to reason that the problem is yours and yours alone, but what about when you live in a block of flats and there’s properties below you, above you and to the side of you?
That’s a much more difficult prospect and one that will be a challenge, and this is what we got when a customer called up from Stour House which is a block of flats located in Kidwells Close, right in the middle of Maidenhead.
How do rats get into my home?
Rats can get inside a property from just about anywhere; they can climb up walls, climb up plants like ivy, burrow down and get through gaps hidden from sight, swim up through the drains, gnaw their way in through plastic air bricks and exploit service ducts, especially in underground car parks.
All these access points means that your job as a pest controller is to start by thinking like a rat, you have to carry out a detailed survey of the structure looking for any defect that can be exploited; lifting the manhole covers of the drains, looking through cupboards and any access shafts, even pitching ladders to check on areas that you can’t see from the ground. Everything hinges on you finding the route in for the rats and once you’ve got that it’s all gravy.
Can rats live in the drains?
If I had to give a percentage figure for the internal rat infestations that starts from the buildings drains, it would be around 60%. And that’s a lot of rat problems! Yes, rats are ably equipped for life in the drains, they are natural swimmers and they use their tail both as a rudder and as a means of propulsion along with their legs.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, and I hope that you’re not squeamish, but the drains are full of food and I’m not just talking about what you rinse off your dinner plate, rats will happily dine on human feaces. With plenty of water to drink, a steady supply of food and temperatures that never fall below zero, the drains are the ideal place for rats to move around in. If they stayed in the drains I doubt, we’d have much of a problem with rats, but it’s not the type of place to bring up young as there’s little or no space that remains dry, and this is one of the reasons why rats come inside your home.
How do you solve a rat problem?
Three visits and a handful of rodenticide won’t get rid of a rat problem, it will give you temporary respite from the situation, but it won’t cure it and that’s what I’m about: most pest control companies work to a magic formula of three visits. The first to lay rodenticide, the second to top it up and the third to clear it away at the end of the treatment, I don’t do that. My first visit is to survey the site – where are there signs of rats, what’s the direction, where are the rats travelling to and where are they coming from?
The answer to those questions sets up the whole direction of the treatment and at Kidwells Close we could see that there was a great deal of external activity where rats were running through the grounds.
The customer pointed out that a service manhole to the drains had been lifted because of the long-term building works and the need to connect their toilets to the foul drains. Fortunately, we have what’s called tracking dust and this is a UV fluorescent powder that is used to mark routes and areas. Pouring the dust down the sides of the drains would reveal if rats were in the foul system and confirm, or discard that from the investigation.
During the survey, I lifted every service cover, looking into the mains water routes, the rainwater systems, the foul sewers, and the electrical and data cabling routes and it was in there that I could see, very faintly what we call rat runs.
It’s dark in these underground cable ducts and rats will initially grope their way along, using their whiskers to detect obstacles and potential threats. As soon as the rat has travelled that way once, he or she, will continue to use the same path and very quickly, the ground starts to become trodden down and a visible pathway is formed.
Underground trunking that connects all the flats in Kidwells Close; mains electrics and data run through here
Tracking dust is laid down and it shows footprints left by the rats as they travel through the underground network
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To confirm this, tracking dust is placed on these routes, the second visit will start to fill in the blanks, where are the rats travelling to and from? This is answered for us by the rats themselves = they are getting inside the building through the ducting, but how do they get inside there?
Looking around the grounds, hidden inside the bike shed, next to Stour House is a pipe that carries the mains electric cable, the builders left this open and about 9 inches off the ground and despite being like this for over ten years, the rats finally found this opportunity and inside they went.
And that’s it, just trapping and rodenticide is now required to remove the resident population and the customer can ask the Housing Management Company to seal off both ends to ensure that they stay rat free for ever.
You will also see lines left by the rats: this is where the tail drags through the dust and swipes on surfaces as the animal turns
Finally, follow the cables to the open end of the trunking, rats are climbing off the wooden fence and simply walking inside the flats from there
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