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Rats and mice can squeeze through tiny cracks, such as commonly occur when plumbing pipes pierce a wall. The metal trim rings sometimes seen in good plumbing are more than cosmetic.
If the space is a sealed space, and there is no electric in it, you can kill the rat by drilling a small hole and gassing it. CO2 from a paintball canister would be safest, but a spray can of starting fluid could be immediately effective. Once the rat is dead, drill a larger hole and remove it. Verify that the space is in fact sealed. I question whether it is.
This week I discovered a rat had built a nest in the wall behind the dishwasher. Fortunately it was only 1 rat from the looks of it. I ripped everything out including the insulation, disinfected, enzyme washed and sealed the affected wood with kilz. Then I put in new bat insulation, covered with hardwood panels and emptied a couple of cans of spray foam into the remaining cavity before caulking every edge.
Now he's in the adjacent cavity under the sink with no escape route, aside from chewing through the drywall. From the sounds of it, that's what he's trying to do.
What now? Drill a hole under the sink and let him out? Drill a smaller hole and drop some poison in there? While that will certainly result in a dead rat in the wall, it's almost winter and the wall is now sealed, so maybe it's fine if he rots in there?
If it was nesting, it was a female and SHE cannot nest unless there was a HE. Trust me...there was/is.
For every rodent that a person sees or hears, there are likely 100 more. They are not always in the house at the same time, however. Sometimes none of them are.
Do not assume that you have that critter cornered. It can get out in an instant, and be back again.
They only smell bad if they die. That only lasts for about a week. Don't listen to these guys.
I had a mice that died in a cabinet in my old yucky apartment. Gives me chills just thinking about it. Anyway, the smell got worse and worse and definitely DID NOT disappear in a week. On top of that, flies started appearing out of nowhere in the apartment. So I don't think letting it stay in the wall - live or dead- is a good idea.
Professional exterminators and or suppliers have various odor control chemicals that deal with the stench of rotting dead rodents behind walls/under floors, etc... The problem is *not* new and very common. It is also the reason why professionals prefer to trap rodents if possible rather than use poisons indoors. It is also why fumigation once very common is held off for all but extreme cases of residential infestation.
If the OP is totally sure the rodent is "cornered" and cannot get out then sooner or later it will die from lack of food and water. OTOH that process can take days or weeks and just as with a any other living creature the thing will continue to try and get out. Nothing living likes being buried alive so you can imagine the urgency.
If you make any hole to "let the rat out" it cannot be sure the thing will fall directly into a trap and or be caught once free. Nor is it assured to vacate the premises either.
Though not for the squeamish the best thing would be to either kill the rat where it is (gas, dropping poison, etc...) and after death is assured removing the carcass.
Even remotely considering any sort of gas one would hire a professional exterminator. In fact one would simply do so from the start and allow him to sort out how to deal with the situation. Again rats in walls are not uncommon to that profession and they will best know how to handle.
Eww...gas it and clean it up once it is dead. Call an exterminator, though, because you might have a whole nest!
Also, make sure your "rat" isn't a baby squirrel or other cute woodland creature that does not infest houses but can sometimes be mistaken for a rat by homeowners.
Do you really thing the rat is still in that wall?
Yes, I'm absolutely sure and both cats are sitting there staring at the wall. This is also why I'm fairly sure there is only one in the house. The cats tend to sit there and watch intently when they know one is around even if they can't get to it.
The rat is fairly small, only about double the size of a mouse. The adults we usually see in the yard are 2-3 times this size. Because of the cats we don't see many in the house but occasionally one gets in and finds a hole we haven't sealed off yet. In the past, closing off the safe hiding spot quickly lead to the cats killing whatever was in there. This time is different unfortunately.
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Originally Posted by kmb501
Eww...gas it and clean it up once it is dead. Call an exterminator, though, because you might have a whole nest!
Also, make sure your "rat" isn't a baby squirrel or other cute woodland creature that does not infest houses but can sometimes be mistaken for a rat by homeowners.
Definitely a rat. It was sitting behind a cabinet cornered by the cat the other morning. I tried to shoo it out the door but it knew all the hiding spots and raced from one to another before heading to it's den. At one point I had the flashlight on it under a cabinet and he just sat there looking back at me. Dumb ones that wander into the house by mistake act differently. This guy was on home turf.
When you SEE one rat, know that there are many others. Just like mice.
Nope. Definitely not true. I had one rat, ONLY one, under my house a couple of years ago. Freaked me out when I saw him running through my garage! He was eating birdseed that was spilling out of a bag, and living near a tiny puddle of water under the house in the back corner. He had chewed a hole in the screen door crawlspace panel. I made a new panel of plexiglass, and and put rat bait under there. 4 days later, he was dead. BF crawled under and got him, and we closed up the little hole that was around the irrigation line that went out under the deck (we figured that had to be the point of entry - no other openings). Anyway - one rat, and one rat only. Thank goodness!
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Sounds like ...
He was eating birdseed that was spilling out of a bag, and living near a tiny puddle of water under the house in the back corner. He had chewed a hole in the screen door crawlspace panel. I made a new panel of plexiglass, and and put rat bait under there. 4 days later, he was dead. BF crawled under and got him, and we closed up the little hole that was around the irrigation line that went out under the deck (we figured that had to be the point of entry - no other openings). Anyway - one rat, and one rat only. Thank goodness!
