How long can vermin live in a sealed cavity?

[Jeremy Harris]

I'll lay money on them being able to get in and out, too.  I can't see a mouse living in a dry sealed space for more than a day or two.  Time to go looking for ways in which they are getting in and out, which may well be very challenging indeed, given how small a hole they can get through.

[newhome]

Do you have night vision CCTV you could point down to the bottom of the walls somehow? 

 

And maybe put some bait traps out. 

[joe90]

2 hours ago, newhome said:

Do you have night vision CCTV you could point down to the bottom of the walls somehow? 

 

And maybe put some bait traps out. 

 

No, but as I said before there is no way into the cavity so whatever it is can’t get out, it’s just taking a long time to die !!!?

[Mr Punter]

I am helping from afar by focusing all my thoughts on its death.

[JanetE]

I thought mice could live on insulation (sorry @joe90)

We had one living in our mattress once, long time ago in the old house?. Only noticed it because of the odd smell and the fact it was getting a bit saggy (I'm sure it was living on the foam/cotton filling)  Lifted up the mattress and there was this hole that was between the wooden slats of the base. Moved the mattress slightly so the hole was covered by a slat and put a piece of paper under. Lifted it the next day and found scratch marks on the paper. That was it! Taped up the hole, carried the mattress outside and did a clog dance on it. Terry suggested we cut open the mattress to make sure the mouse was dead but I drew the line at that. Just had to get a new mattress after that.

[Jeremy Harris]

Mice can apparently live without water, as long as they have food that they can extract a bit of moisture from.  They need to eat around 20% of their body weight every day, which seems a lot.  For me that would mean eating around 17kg a day...

[joe90]

Mineral wool insulation (also called rock or slag wool insulation? Made from rock, blast furnace slag, and other raw materials which are melted and spun into fibers to resemble the texture of wool. Mineral wool comes in batts, rolls or loose-fill forms.

 

i can’t see how anything can survive on this!

[joe90]

Oh dear, it’s still alive, kept the wife awake last night, she is convinced it’s a rat. I will be scouring the loft today in case it has got up there, but there is no food up there either. I am really stumped.

[Onoff]

It's probably a rat or squirrel. Likely going out for food at someone's bird table or eating scraps left out for foxes. The chewing is just what they do keeping their teeth down. 

 

Any overhanging trees they can access the roof from, rough cast walls they can run up, badly detailed dormer returns, below ground service penetrations or gaps in footings etc? I have all the above btw!

[joe90]

That’s the rub, there are NO gaps in the outer or inner skin, the warm roof is sealed to the outer and inner skins, as I said before I broke into the outer brickwork to add electric to the conservatory and guess it got in then. Just looked at a rodent control company on tinternet and it said a rat can live up to a month with no food. I suppose we just wait but er indoors wants it caught, I explained we can only do that by knocking down walls ?

[ProDave]

Remove a brick again, pour in some rat poison, and replace the brick again.

[joe90]

Right, got my working orders this morning (she’s not happy) she wants all the pallets and building materials moved away from the house today as she is convinced the rats are living amongst it, she may be right but they can’t get in or out of the house !!!!

[Onoff]

Just now, ProDave said:

Remove a brick again, pour in some rat poison, and replace the brick again.

 

+1 but the smell? How about remove the brick but place a baited live trap against it?

[Onoff]

Just now, joe90 said:

Right, got my working orders this morning (she’s not happy) she wants all the pallets and building materials moved away from the house today as she is convinced the rats are living amongst it, she may be right but they can’t get in or out of the house !!!!

 

Make sure the bottoms of your trousers are tight! Seriously...saw one run up the FiL's leg.

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Remove a brick again, pour in some rat poison, and replace the brick again.

 

Good idea Dave, I think I will wait one more week (hope it dies), I have read their sense of smell is very good and can smell food at great distances, remove a brick and insert a trap with chocolate and poison ?

[joe90]

I did actually kill a rat here last year, I knew they were under my container so set a trap under a ridge tile, peered under it one warm sunny day and the rat was soundly asleep in the warmth next to the trap, I hit it with the tile and killed it, could not believe my eyes, a sleeping rat.

[Pete]

Many years ago the building to the rear of the fire station where I worked was being completely stripped and it was full of rats. One of the lads came running into the brew room and said come on there is a rat under the I beam that we used to cut up when training. So three of the largest firefighters went outside armed with shovels and got ready to turn the I beam over to give it a smack and when they saw the size of it they all run like mad and the rat just run off. Needless to say the banter was very good when we got back in the brew room.

[joe90]

Aha, started clearing stuff around the house and found a hole where the kitchen waste pipe goes into the house which will be below ground level when we do the paths etc, a bit of mortar missing but it could well be where the buggers are getting in, I,m off to mix some mortar. ?

[lizzie]

I so feel for your dear lady.  She is being very understanding. Get rid of all the rubbish near the house and get some professional advice about getting rid of whatever is in the walls.  Some poisons are designed to be slow acting, they eat the poison then go away back to their nest and die there so you dont get any smells.....if yours is trapped then it will stink if it dies in the wall. If it is a squirell they dont generally poison them they trap them.I find a one man band pest controller usually more help than big national company.

 

Having the eps base it is the thing that has bothered me most, i worry about rats nesting underneath and chomping their way through.  I used to live next to a river and was constantly on my guard about rats getting into the house although they never did. My neighbours were more cavalier about things and they got them in the kitchen under the cabinets came in via gaps around the wastes behind the backs of the cabinets........

 

Oh and another method of rat catching which was what we were given by the local man in Doha when we lived there. Rats were a real problem and you could hear them all night.  method is....good size piece of ply, spread some contact adhesive (evostick I think we used) some tempting titbits on top, put it where ratty can get at it, watch and wait and when he comes for the delicacies his feet get stuck in the glue.  When he is stuck bash him on the head with something heavy. Job done, start again and wait for the next one LOL

[Declan52]

6 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Aha, started clearing stuff around the house and found a hole where the kitchen waste pipe goes into the house which will be below ground level when we do the paths etc, a bit of mortar missing but it could well be where the buggers are getting in, I,m off to mix some mortar. ?

Put some chocolate down at the hole with some more in a trap and try to entice your lodger out. 

[pudding]

Peanut butter works a treat.

[lizzie]

They do like chocolate too.... the cheap stuff not the expensive high cocoa ones and yes smooth peanut butter and cheddar cheese all gourmet delights to ratty

[Jeremy Harris]

59 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Aha, started clearing stuff around the house and found a hole where the kitchen waste pipe goes into the house which will be below ground level when we do the paths etc, a bit of mortar missing but it could well be where the buggers are getting in, I,m off to mix some mortar. ?

 

That is exactly where we found mice getting in at our old house.  The gap was really small, too small to poke a finger up, but the little buggers could get in and climb up inside the cavity with ease.  I filled the gap with expanding foam, to get really deep penetration, let it cure, then cut it back just below the surface of the brick level and sealed all around the pipe with a thick bead of silicone.  The reason I used silicone is that the gap was a consequence of the original mortar having fallen out, probably because plastic pipe expands and contracts a fair bit with heat, so over the years it had cracked the mortar.

[joe90]

I have just cleared the area, created a cover with blocks and put in a rat trap baited with “bounty” (only chocolate I could find in the house). I would prefer to catch it then block up the hole rather than they die in the cavity. If I don’t catch it within a week I will fill the hole anyway.

[Onoff]

29 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I have just cleared the area, created a cover with blocks and put in a rat trap baited with “bounty” (only chocolate I could find in the house). I would prefer to catch it then block up the hole rather than they die in the cavity. If I don’t catch it within a week I will fill the hole anyway.

 

Ideally the trap wants to be sited along a wall rather than open ground.

 

You can often see a mark at the entry hole where the dirt and grease off their belly leaves a mark.

 

If you catch a juvenile then likely there's more along with the parents. Reset the trap whatever.

 

Worth placing some grub outside the hole and watching from a downwind vantage point.

 

What flavour Bounty btw, blue or red, we love details!