oh Rats!

Does anyone have a great exterminator for a rat problem? We’ve had rats in the ceiling of our basement rec room. Our exterminator seems good but we still have rats after 6 weeks. The issue is complicated by a difficult neighbour preventing access to a garage which seems to be the source of the rats. So it’s possible our guy is doing all the right things but that dead rats (of which we’ve seen none) are being replaced by new rats from next door. We’ve even blown ZP into joist spaces where we know they hang out. (Ceiling wallboard is screwed directly to joists.) A day or two later we hear them again. Maybe a new approach or a new pair of eyes is required. A new neighbor would help too as finding exact access point from our side involves moving major plumbing/HVAC stuff

Gobbaloon

in Pest Control 12 years and 3 months ago

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Goatcrapp | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Get some possums, then lol.   They really do keep the rats away.
The approach of offering to help is a good first step – breaks down the defensive walls.  I had a neighbor directly behind (abutting yards) who’s tree sized weeds (giant hogweed) were strangling the telephone wires, causing frequent outages for us (when we still had a landline) and creating a mosquito haven such that we couldn’t use our yard any more in the summer.   When i first suggested that these weeds aren’t doing anyone any favors, she got very defensive.  After i told her i had plenty of tools, and nephews with energy, she softened up, and admitted the condition of her yard was a stressor to her as well, but she was just overwhelmed.
Does NYC still run the composting bin program?  if so – it should be coming up very soon.  We got two very sturdy bins years ago at low cost through this program.

snarkolepctic | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Yeah,it wasn’t a possum. Rat the size of a cat was hyperbole. It was a rat.  It’s been a week, neighbor hasn’t done anything to mitigate.  She has a big open bag of bird seed back there, too, so it’s just a feeding frenzy.  We’ll talk to her one more time about cleaning it up and then I’m going to call 311.  There’s so much debris back there. I’ll offer to help her clean it since she seems unwilling to take on the task herself. It’s certainly a more pleasant alternative to having the health department give her a citation. I don’t want to be combative but I don’t want to deal with rats in the garden. I know there’s been a huge increase in the rat population since the hurricane but it seems all the more reason to try to combat the problem. So hopefully she will accept an offer of help and we can put this matter to rest.

Goatcrapp | 12 years and 1 month ago

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**edit – jeanmarine did ask the same thing, but i’ll reiterate the question 🙂 Certain it was a rat, not opossum? I’m not asking to be insulting, just pointing out that in both my area of brooklyn, and my parent’s – the possum population is growing drastically. Several times i’ve had conversations with neighbors about the huge rat they’ve seen, when it’s really an opossum.  Especially at night, or in dim/dusk lighting at a distance, they can easily be mistaken.  The great thing about possums is, that where they are – rats usually aren’t.. and it’s very very rare for them to be rabid (they are marsupials) – so i welcome them, lol.

jeanmarine2 | 12 years and 1 month ago

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This is why we purchased a spinning drum composter, a huge hard plastic one that cost around $160 about 3-4 years ago – it’s got metal legs and a sliding door that isn’t easy to open so is vermin-proof.  It’s totally full now and on rare occasions where I’ve left a plastic bag of food scraps in plain sight for an overnight or a day, before putting them into the composter (or dropping them off through the city’s composting program), within a day the plastic bag has been attacked (by squirrels? we don’t know) and the food scraps are part-eaten.  I think it’s irresponsible in NYC to leave food scraps (even the basics like produce, coffee grinds and eggshells) in open air, and risk attracting vermin. I suggest nicely approaching your neighbor and telling her you saw a rat and are concerned about future vermin, and would love to consider going in with her on a drum composter that perhaps you could share – or something like that.  If you’re willing.  A communal composter might be win-win.  She probably means well (I also garden and compost, and empathize with your neighbor) but she’s putting you at risk, it seems. By the way, are you sure it was a rat and not a possum? My husband said he saw an animal bigger than our cats in our backyard a few weeks ago but it wasn’t a rat, and we think it was a possum (and turns out possums in Brooklyn are a relatively new scourge introduced before 2010 to deal with the rat problem and then creating their own issues).

anotherposter | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Rats can cover some ground so even though you saw it there, doesn’t mean there aren’t several places on the block that are helping support rats.  Just getting her to deal with the compost might not solve the problem.  I frequently see them in the garbage can areas in front of beautiful brownstones while walking my dog late at night.     If y’all go the way of poisoning, it might be worthwhile to contact other neighbors (block email list or flyers) to make it a bigger effort.  Like you I’d rather get rid of what draws them there, but that might be much harder than you think.

Cobblekrill | 12 years and 1 month ago

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 Proper composting (i.e. only vegetables, fruit, leaves) should not be attracting rats.

Bklnite | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I was fortunate enough to take one of these off the hands of a brownstoner who bought an apartment with one in the back that he wasn’t going to use. http://www.amazon.com/Green-Culture-Urban-Compost-Tumbler/dp/B000BWIO7I That one is pricey, but I’ve also used composters like this http://www.amazon.com/Soilsaver-Classic-Composter/dp/B003959G9Y/ without vermin.  Also, from NYC DOS, Low Cost Compost Bins for New York City: Residents: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/edu_equip_order.shtml

eme1million | 12 years and 1 month ago

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So don’t be a jerk by calling 311 on her.  what she needs are vermin-proof composting bins. You should find some online and show her the pictures/links and suggest she do it soon before the rat infestation gets worse and people get worked up about it.  311 is not going to be very much help anyway. An agent might come, but will see nothing and will certainly not see any rats.  It will just tip your neighbor off that her neighbor is a jerk.

snarkolepctic | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Vegetation, by the way…! Can’t figure out how to edit.