Anybody got experience of using these type of devices ? How effective are they ?

There is some sort of infestation in my property. I get scuurying/scratching sounds mainly coming from behind the ceiling/flank wall junction in the lounge.

There has also been other evidence in the bathroom slightly offset above, where i've currently got the floor up (Due to a leak) - plastic bags have been torn to shreds (For nesting material ?). Also, there was a hell of a commotion coming from the eaves immediately above the lounge at 06:00 this morning, I think due to vermin confronting Swifts nesting in this area.

The house has cavity walls, and it sounds like they are using this as a conduit.

Any other advice on how to get rid would be appreciated ?

Nick

Neighbours had the ultrasonic car deterrent. Ours used to sleep beside it.

Traps or poison. They can't come back if they're dead.

If you think they're going to be in areas you can't easily access I'd stick to traps that you can get to.

In-laws had mice and they poisoned them but then had to rip open a wall to get their little corpses out.

Have a look for their droppings and compare them on the internet. No point in using mouse traps for rats and vice-versa.

edit - I'm not sure an electromagnetic pest controller would work unless you feed the critters ball bearings covered in chocolate and have the magnet from an MRI scanner nearby. Would be a quick fix certainly.

Edited 26 April, 201115 yr by Aspman

edit - I'm not sure an electromagnetic pest controller would work unless you feed the critters ball bearings covered in chocolate and have the magnet from an MRI scanner nearby. Would be a quick fix certainly.

I like your thinking.

The advertising blurb says that the the device works by using the household wiring to create an EM effect that causes the mice to feel uncomfortable and want to depart - sounds about as effective as the Foreign Office policy on Libya

I get the same effect from my local mobile phone masts.

Oh well, its humane traps at £8-10 quid, std ones @ £2 or glue pads - I think I'll avoid poison

Nick

Edited 27 April, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

I got the council pest controllers to come round, quite cheap and their poison seemed to be effective as the problem went away. I can't say I'm that bothered by humane methods, I have crushed several mice with my boots, the little ******s.

The advertising blurb says that the the device works by using the household wiring to create an EM effect that causes the mice to feel uncomfortable and want to depart

That actually sounds like it might be illegal. Anything that can make your wires radiate EM is dodgy territory. You're likely to get nearby HAM radio operators hunting you down.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/04/power_line_networking/

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/spectrum-enforcement/plt/

^refer to power line networking but the emissions issue would be the same.

Kill 'em. If you trap them you'll have to find somewhere to get rid of them and they're hardly an endangered species. Mice are particularly 'orrible little buggers. I don't know why anyone would want them as pets.

Getting the council in is probably a good idea. They'd know the best places to put the bait or traps and probably have licences for more effective poisons than you or I could buy.

Edited 28 April, 201115 yr by Aspman

I had a mouse or two in my loft. They came in through the cavity wall where a waste pipe for a washing machine had been installed, but not sealed back up (previous owner). They climbed up the cavity and into the loft where I could hear there. They also appeared in the kitchen and ate some food. The dogs became very interested in parts of the kitchen, which is how I located the entry point. Once I sealed it up, the problem went away - I guess they came in at night, and were outside during the day.

My parents have some anti-pest transmitter things in the garage after a couple of nice had breakfast/dinner on some of the pipework on my mothers car (they did not fancy my fathers old Polo so much though!). Dunno how well they work, so either the coolant killed the mice, or the devices have scared them off.

Its a big rat (7-8 inches).

Saw it last might running across the temporary bathroom floor. Chased it off. Removed the flooring this morning but can't see any evidence it (Or they) have been there, apart for some of the fragments of the plastic bags it previously chewed up Can't see any holes through skirting board/walls into any of the rooms - that said the kitchen is almost all fully fitted cupboards.

I can hear it scurrying round the ground floor ceiling space perimeter along a track which follows the outside walls in both the lounge and the kitchen.

Trouble is there are a multiplicity of places it could have got in. The property is terraced and back-to-back.

The first floor exterior elevations are tile hung and the soil pipe to the drains runs internally through all storeys, boxed-in with plywood casing - the latter obviously breeches the building's slab foundation. I'll need to shine a light in there to see whether its come from out of the drains and bitten through the plastic soil pipe. If it has, that will be a b*gger to repair as either an access hole will have to be cut in the external wall over two storeys and/or all the plywood casing will have to come out, as will some of the kitchen units near the junction of the soil pipe with the foundation slab in the ktchen floor.

The lower edge of the tile hung exterior seems to have some sort of 2 x 4 wooden sofat running all round the two exterior walls of the property. I previously inspected this sofat for condition/signs of attack but found nothing. However, I suspect that this may horizontally breech/span/be embedded in the cavity wall at ground floor ceiling height and that they are using this flat surface within the cavity wall as a runway to transit along and within the exterior walls.

On the basis of the noise I heard the other morning in the bedroom, it now seems to have reached first floor ceiling height - I suspect that it has ejected/killed the swift that was nesting there.

I can only presume that the cavity wall is filled with polystrene insulation bricks and that it has knibbled its way on a gentle slope upwards through these in order to climb between floors.If the cavity space is empty then its achieved a feat of mountaineering of Chris Bonnington proportions - cause the only way up then would either be jumping from wall-tie to wall-tie within the cavity wall or clambering up the cement block work, or the soil pipe or the frame of its plywood casing to mov between floors.

Let battle begin. I'll get the garden spade out and pop it in the bathroom for future use !

And there was me hoping for an easy convalescence after my recent heart attack.

SOAS !

Postscript

I must have the only insomniac rat cause its up at midday, making a hell of a noise scurrying about and by the sound and looks of it ripping shreds off of the paper-lining of the kitchen ceiling plaster board (Presumably for nesting). I've got access to the kitchen ceiling via the already lifted floor in the bathroom and so have observed the damage. But can't see how its got into the inter floor cavity. Prime suspect is the soil pipe enclosure which occupies a corner of the bathroom and onto which the wall cavities abutt. All I can presume is that the end of the wall cavities that abutt the soil pipe enclosure aren't closed-off with brick/block work and the rat has simply moved out of the cavity into the soilpipe enclosure and then exited into the bathroom/kitchen floor space via the bathroom piping runs.

Anyway, sprayed some pungent Dettol bathroom spray onto the effected area and into the general inter-floor cavity and the ripping and scurrying seem to have stopped.Pro temp.

I've got some rentokill bait (Anti-coaugulant type), so perhaps I can devise my own type of "Non-return" trap using an old tupperware box and some lazzi bands.

I'm going take a look at the canvass bottom of the divan bed just in case the little sod(s) have decided that would be a good place to nest during my recent absence in hospital. Last thing I want when laying in bed is Roland rat sticking his snout up parts adjacent to my gentleman's area.

Nick

Edited 30 April, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

I can only presume that the cavity wall is filled with polystrene insulation bricks and that it has knibbled its way on a gentle slope upwards through these in order to climb between floors.If the cavity space is empty then its achieved a feat of mountaineering of Chris Bonnington proportions - cause the only way up then would either be jumping from wall-tie to wall-tie within the cavity wall or clambering up the cement block work, or the soil pipe or the frame of its plywood casing to mov between floors.

My mice seemed to be capable of climbing from the ground level up to the loft of my 2 story house via a hollow cavity. I have since had the cavity filled with insulation, so I know at the time it was empty. I assumed paws on the wall, and they used their back to stop them sliding down by pressing against the other internal side of the cavity.

problem with poison is that the b@ggers will stink if you don't find all the dead ones. Traps might be the answer

My mice seemed to be capable of climbing from the ground level up to the loft of my 2 story house via a hollow cavity. I have since had the cavity filled with insulation, so I know at the time it was empty. I assumed paws on the wall, and they used their back to stop them sliding down by pressing against the other internal side of the cavity.

On reflection, I think the cavity walls in my place must be empty because I can hear odd bits of mortar being dislodged and falling inside the cavity as the rat(s) scurry past.

You'd think that Building Regulations would ensure that the houses where constructed so that the cavities weren't continuous and were bounded i.e the ends and top of cavities were sealed with brick/block work and steel dividers and that all cavities should be filled with vermin proof/repellant material.

I think your lucky if the cavity is topped-off with a type of silicon board in most designs nowadays.

Certainly, the extra movement within the cavity won't do the wall ties any good - I hear them ping (Indicating a breakage) at regular intervals and that's without the infestation.

Builders. Don't you luv 'em ?

Nick

Edited 1 May, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

Whatever I use, i.e. conventional trap, electronic trap, ultrasonics, poison, I think I'm going to have to do something quickly, as the bloody thing was very aggressively ripping the paper lining off of the top of the kitchen ceiling plasterboard, presumably for nesting.

Initially, I tried spraying the first area attacked with some pungent smelling bathroom cleaner and that seemed to stop it. But then it just found another area of the same ceiling board to attack.

I have got some rentokil poison. I think I'm going to have to move fairly quickly and use that today, because once they start breeding . . .at a potential 12 litters a year with 5-10 young per litter. The only saving grace is a 95%yearly mortality rate. Only trouble is that the only point I am seeing them is in the bathroom. And I know that is probably the end of a run into the building. So if I bait it there with an attractant based bait, I'll just be drawing more of them into the building.

The mains operated electronic traps (US) as shown on You Tube look like the business - unfortunately the only ones avaialble on the retail market over here seem puny c-cell powered things.

I may even try an ultrasonic repellant (although there are mixed reports on effectiveness), when the current infestation has been cleared

Nick

I have a couple of the ultrasonic ones you are welcome to borrow if you are anywhere local to me. Otherwise I picked mine up off ebay.

My Husky caught me one rat (and a mouse too), good doggie :-)

I think if your can hear the wall ties actually breaking then you have bigger issues than the rats, as the wall might collapse instead!

It is worth getting a man in from the council, even if you don't take on their services, as I think you can get the advise for free. Generally a council man will just use poison though....

fwiw: my house is an old Victorian place (yes, I know cavities are uncommon in property of this age)

Rats are clever buggers (on a par with dogs) and some of them are quite resistant to the warfarin based poisons these days.

Thought about a cat? or a Jack Russell?

I'd suggest you get onto the Council before Ronald and Mrs get jiggy with it.

Get an ultrasonic/electromagnetic device mid week and started using it continuously straight away.

The scratching and sound of rat-running seems to have gone.

I think I'll give it another week and then switch it off to see what happens.

If they return, then i will have the opportunity to test out the electronic rat trap which I got (4 x "C" cells + a big capacitor and 2 metal plates - when the rat simultaneously alights on both plates in pusuit of the bait then it completes the circuit and the charged capacitor unloads.)

I've also got glue boards and poison in reserve - but that would be a last resort.

I think I also found how they were getting into the Kitchen/bathroom roof/floor space. The plywood cladding around the main internal soil pipe hasn't been accurately finished off around the adjoining pipe run to the bathroom. So that they appear to be getiing into the soil pipe vertical shaft from the cavity wall and from there into the bathroom void.

Fixing that will have to wait - I'm not in condition at the moment to lift the remainder of the bathroom floor and the toilet, which is what would be required in order to gain access to this breach.

Nick