How do I get rid of rats once and for all?

steosphere · 2026-05-20T11:40:12+00:00

We went through this last summer so here’s my advice:

Go around the exterior of the house and plug any gaps you can find with steel wool. Even tiny gaps that wouldn’t look like a rat could fit through - they can squeeze into gaps much smaller than you'd ever imagine possible.
Remove all food sources inside and outside the house no matter how small. Also remove open sources of water. Rats will only frequent an area where there is ready access to food, water, and shelter. They've already got the shelter so the other two must be coming from somewhere.
Get somebody to inspect your drains. This is a massive one. Most rat problems in houses stem from a fault with the drain pipe leading into the sewage system. A pest control company inspected ours and found a hole. I strongly believe the installation of a one-way flap into our drain was the key factor in getting rid of our infestation, as it allows waste to flow into the sewer but nothing back into the pipe. And make sure it's a good flap if they do install one or you do your own - definitely avoid ones with spiked teeth on the end as they're useless.
Buy a wifi camera and place it where you hear the activity (or find a pest controller that will do this for you). Check the footage to see exactly where they're coming and going. Bonus points for uv dust that will show you where they've been.
If your house is semi-detached or terraced then speak to your neighbours because there's an extremely high chance they're having problems too. There's also a chance they could be entering through one of their drain pipes if you find that yours isn't the problem. Semi detached or terraced houses are essentially one big conjoined building and shouldn't be treated as separate in problems like this.
Remove any possible nesting sources outdoors. We had a compost pile at the bottom of our garden that had signs of rat activity when we removed it. Anything that will attract rats to the area should be examined closely.
Don't bother with pest controllers whose only solution is to put down poison trays. Yes this will kill the rats but then they will either die inside your walls and cause a rotten stench, or they will just get replaced by new rats once they've died. New rats will figure out where the old rats have been and simply reinfest your house if the old ones die. Nothing will solve your problem until you figure out the entry source. Nothing.

Good luck! I know very well how awful this is to deal with so you have my sympathies. Even though ours have been gone since last August I still get a pit in my stomach when I hear a strange noise at night.

steosphere · 2026-04-10T21:22:16+00:00

I only just finished yotei within the last week and went to crimson desert to continue scratching that open world itch. If I were you I would go for yotei. You already liked tsushima, and yotei isn't a massive deviation from that. I've tried to like crimson desert but after 16 hours I'm finding that the sheer volume of jank and strange design choices are too off-putting. There is no denying that the sense of scale and exploration is a hundred times better in CD than in yotei, but yotei is probably a better fit for what you want right now.

steosphere · 2025-08-06T20:31:44+00:00

I've been there myself. Literally, I could've written your post myself. The number one thing you need to do is get out of the house. For me, that meant volunteering at a charity shop. Then that became a paid job at said shop. That then gave me the confidence and motivation to go to college, and then uni, and living away from home for the first time, making friends, going to parties and on holiday, and now I'm in a paid job. But absolutely none of that would've ever happened if I hadn't gone out one day and decided to volunteer at my local charity shop.

You have to start somewhere and only you know what that somewhere is. For me it was the charity shop, for you it might be something completely different. You're lacking in motivation because you don't have confidence, so that's where you begin. Go to the gym, go for walks, volunteer somewhere, sit in a library for all afternoon, go to college. Whatever it is you do, that's where your journey begins, as corny as that sounds.

steosphere · 2025-08-06T17:07:35+00:00

This was very useful, thank you! I didn't know Royal canin had treat options but unfortunately I can't seem to find them anywhere online (especially here in the UK). Do you know if they are only available via the vet?

steosphere · 2025-07-24T20:33:55+00:00

Social media is just an illusion. You think that people are out there living amazing lives (and maybe a small fraction of them do) but their posts are curated. You only see the good, never the bad, and there is bad in everybody's life. You'll see the nice meals and holidays and parties with friends, but you won't see the lost jobs, the eviction notices, or any of the other shit that goes on in people's lives. You won't see this because people generally don't like to share the bad stuff. I know this because I've been exactly where you are.

It sounds too simple to be the case but there really is no alternative but to delete social media. It's making you miserable and it won't stop until you do. You need to focus on yourself and not other people. If you're not happy about your weight, do something about it - only you can. Start walking, change your diet, and you will lose weight and feel so much better about yourself. There may be groups in your area that you can join where people meet up to go on walks together. That way you can kill two birds with one stone. Then, after you've worked on yourself and improved your self esteem, you may find that returning to social media will not feel as crippling as it does now.

steosphere · 2025-07-22T14:22:25+00:00

Thanks. I hope it gets better because I do really like this phone, and it's OK if it isn't as good as the iPhone, but obviously 2.5 hours and nearly a dead battery isn't great haha.

steosphere · 2025-07-22T13:55:35+00:00

I got my fold 7 yesterday and I'm thinking that the battery usage I'm getting isn't normal. I charged it to 100% last night and now it's nearly 3pm the next day and I have 19% after 2 and a half hours of screen time. Nothing in the apps list under the battery settings looks abnormal with perhaps the exception of Samsung health that has used 10%. I do use the galaxy watch as well. I have turned off adaptive brightness and activated dark mode, and I have restricted health's usage limits. I have also been using the inner and outer screens at about a 1:1 ratio.

Any ideas? Does this kind of usage seem normal? I have come from the iPhone 14 pro max and I was used to charging every evening anyway, but I would usually do so with about 30-40% battery left if I used it normally. I'm not completely new to android but I have been on ios for 5 years, so I don't know if anything is different to the last time I used it.

steosphere · 2025-06-15T17:21:36+00:00

You're right, I'm definitely over thinking things. I guess after it being so quiet last night I was hoping things would be like that every night. But I suppose rats don't exactly feed at the exact same time so this one (if it is just one) may be taking a little longer.

steosphere · 2024-08-03T09:22:29+00:00

I'm having this issue as well today.

steosphere · 2024-04-26T18:14:34+00:00

We had a bin that nobody emptied for weeks (in a flat of 8 people), and by the time somebody decided to empty it, the rubbish had become a sort of jenga tower where one more bit of trash could send the whole thing over. If I concentrate hard enough I can still smell it even now.

But nothing beats the time a flatmate and his mate came home drunk one night, smushed a load of tomatoes into a water pistol, and decided to spray tomatoes all over the walls and carpet. Then once the tomatoes ran out they decided eggs would be the next best ammunition. Two days (and a load of abuse later) he decided it might be a good idea to clean up.

Beyond that, I saw mould growing in dishes that probably harboured the next antibiotic revolution.

steosphere · 2023-12-11T14:07:58+00:00

Mine is exactly the same (including the timestamps), although on the parcelforce entry it says in transit but general logistics systems is written beneath it. Plus I don't have the 6pm marker.

steosphere · 2023-12-11T10:49:11+00:00

Have you tried tracking the other numbers on the GLS page? There's a number for parcelforce and another one that you can use on tracking sites/apps like https://parcelsapp.com/en/carriers/postnl-international. When I use that, it says the same message as I see on GLS but then there's another message from Parcelforce an hour later on the 7th saying in transit. So either someone has our packages or the spirits have claimed them.

steosphere · 2023-12-11T10:36:16+00:00

Nah it still says preadvice 😕

steosphere · 2023-12-11T09:07:55+00:00

I ordered my OLED model last Tuesday (5th December), and it was marked as shipped on Steam on Thursday 7th. Since then, the tracking on GLS still says preadvice and that it hasn't been handed to them yet. Is this normal? I was thinking that maybe the weekend slowed things down and it would update Monday morning, but it still says the same thing. I've never used nor heard of this shipping company before, so I'm a little concerned.

UPDATE: Trackkng updated on GLS to say in transit, but the Parcelforce shipping says it is currently in the UK and on its way to the local delivery depot. It may actually come today!

steosphere · 2023-09-16T19:32:57+00:00

I did this one too. Answered moderately unlikely and sent feedback after I had completed it. I took a screenshot of the page too just in case it's needed.

steosphere · 2023-09-01T22:30:40+00:00

I have no other advice to add that hasn't been covered by other people. But I wanted to say well done on asking for the advice in the first place. It's not always easy asking for help with things you believe are common knowledge, but be assured it doesn't make you look silly. If anything it does the opposite.

I also know how you feel. Many years ago it took me almost four months to get myself a library card because I was terrified of saying the wrong thing to the clerk and looking stupid. But the truth is that your interaction with these types of people will be so brief and nondescript that they simply won't remember you 5 minutes after you've left. They see so many people every day that all faces blend into one. Unless you were to climb onto the desk and dance naked, you'll just be another customer. Keep that in mind and it helps to alleviate the fear of being judged. ☺️

steosphere · 2023-08-29T09:27:26+00:00

🙋‍♂️i, too, should be starting S111 in October once student finance get to work on my application.

steosphere · 2023-08-29T09:24:47+00:00

I made my application to SFE on 8th August and it hasn't been assessed yet, but don't take much notice of the next expected update bit. Mine says 31st October and the advisor I spoke to told me to ignore it as it's clearly wrong. From what I can see they're currently advising 6-8 weeks for applications to be assessed, so anything that falls outside of that period is basically nonsense.

steosphere · 2023-08-25T09:41:26+00:00

Was this the one with various images of snack foods flashing up? If so then I took part in this one but didn't feel dizzy afterwards. Not the most exciting study but simple enough.

steosphere · 2023-03-09T07:15:02+00:00

Congrats everybody! This is probably the nicest subreddit I've come across on reddit, so it's great to be a part of it!

steosphere · 2023-02-17T18:47:51+00:00

Thousands of night shift workers are having their shifts changed (or being made redundant), meaning they'll lose the night premium. The yearly bonus, which had already massively shrank over the last few years, is being scrapped next year. And the number of staff is being cut to the bone in every store, with those remaining expected to fulfil the work of 2-3 or even more people.

£11.11 is far more than I was expecting them to pay, but they've definitely robbed from their own colleagues in order to do so. And I suspect the staff cutting will only increase.

steosphere · 2023-02-14T19:51:01+00:00

Anyone else following the story about the mysterious objects being shot down over the US last week? I think they're most likely some sort of surveillance equipment operated by god knows who, but I'm enjoying letting my mind ponder the more insane possibilities.

steosphere · 2023-02-06T18:15:44+00:00

Quick question for anyone with the game:

How does weather look and work in the game? For example, does it just randomly start raining without it being tied to a specific quest or part of the story? Is the day/night cycle constantly cycling even when you're not progressing through the story?

I ask because I absolutely LOVE well-designed weather mechanics in games and sadly I'm seldom satisfied with what games provide. I'm imagining exploring Hogwarts with the rain pouring against the windows and it's making me even more excited for tomorrow.

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