RATS - any suggestions other than poison

Shotgun, dog?

Give the council a ring, I'm not sure if it's rats or mice but one of them is free pest control.

If you are not wanting to kill them, you can buy a cage, put some peanut butter, cheese or mars bar in then release. If not, just put some on a rat trap.........

Call the Council Lisa as BM says. Rats indoors in not good news and you need them out, fast. They'll know the best way to deal with it.

It's not just that it's not good news, it's very bad news. These things breed at a rate of knots so you really need to get this sorted immediately.

Is there something about your garden or the neighbouring gardens that is providing an environment that is encouraging vermin? If so, address that as well as addreessing your immediate problem as if you don't, you will undoubtedly have a recurring problem even if you manage to get rrid of your present unwelcome visitor(s)

Do you have a compost bin near the house?......if so move it away ASAP.......they are known to attract vermin espescially at this time of year, we all like somewhere warm to stay. (I hear Australia is good at this time of year).........

I think we have one (or more) in the ceiling here. As for dogs....they spend a lot of time 'looking up' which just makes me more nervous since they do the same for snake sin the celing.

No idea what to do either I'm afraid.

Are they living in your garden? A neighbours? Or just running through from the fields/ditches nearby?

If they're living with you, you need to make the habitat a lot less hospitable for rats. Get rid of food left around (bin stores, bird food), block up any access areas with scrunched up chickenwire. Favourite hiding spots are under sheds/decking.

thank you all for your replies...
I live in a council property so I have my housing officer, Environmental Health and now pest express involved. We have literally moved out of our bedroom as about a month ago we ripped the carpet up with the intention of decorating, buying a new bed as ours had broke and new carpet.. then we had major problems with the car so that needed sorting quicker so at present we have a mattress on a rug on the floor boards, so it was literally about 6 inches from my head when it was gnawing... we've moved into our daughters room temporarily cos she has wooden floor fitted and its mainly in our room as it joins the skanky neighbours from the life of grime...
we have had problems with rats on and off outside for a few years, they have dogs in sheds and the garden from hell that is full of random stuff life bits if caravans, boxes, sheds galore.. our loft joins theirs and having briefly looked up there, there is gaps they could be getting into the wall cavities...
The environmental health are coming with pest express beginning of next week to asses the first 6 houses in the row to decide where the problem is..
our compost bin is about 40ft from the house and because of previous problems i purposely only put grass cuttings and newspaper in there, no food at all...
over the year my greenhouse has been invaded by a mole whose been digging the soil up, now there is tunnels through the disturbed soil where the rats are trying to get in to the rabbit and guinea pig for their food i think, one died/got killed last week ... not sure if a rat got her or scared her thinking bout it now... their food is kept in sealed containers, but i think they are after the food in their cages, we have put extra wire mesh up to prevent them getting in but think we may get some more cos its obviously not stopping them...
we have a brick shed outside our back door that the roof space also joins the skanks... and they are eating thru the brickwork, have gnawed a hole in the wooden door frame and i think are using it as access to next door and shelter, there is nothing food wise in there so it cant be that.
we purposely dont feed the birds or wildlife because of the problems...
our neighbours the other side have decking down and they have seen them popping in and out because they have a couple of broken boards, the ones next to them have chickens and rabbits and guinea pigs..
the whole row backs on to farmland and we have a farm about 100 yards away with storage for grain/crops which probably doesnt help..
the council officer has said once the pest express have address where the nest, access points and main problems are then the house repair team will come out and make our house rat proof in the respect of sort the loft, any holes etc..
i think the main ongoing problem is going to be how our neighbours live, their lifestyle has never changed in the 9 yrs we've lived here, if anything its got worse, so i dread to think how its gonna work out..
spose there's always the option to move as the housing officer offered us that the other day, my thing is i dont see why i should have to leave my home because of someone elses behaviour and even if i did move, some other poor b***er would have to deal with it...
the main reason i posted was to find temporary discouragements for these horrible invasive critters, they are making me feel ill and i'm so unhappy at the mo cos of it, all i keep doing is crying ... i have put bait down, inside and out, and its going at a rate of knots... we have a trap set up in the shed and under the floorboards but up to now nothing in them... but i've read they are nomophobic, they dont go near anything new until they are used to it being there...
anyway i appreciate the replies...
thank you all for your concerns

Try not to get too down Lisa, glad things are in the pipeline with the rat problem. With regards to the "skanks", it is up to the council to sort them out & bring them into line.

Well done Lisa for getting the authorities on board with this problem. It really isn't something you can deal with on your own - and why should you try? I've had the Council rat man out regularly - especially when I had chooks - I knew his life history over the years!! He was very discrete, came in an unmarked white van, wearing plain clothes and carrying a tool box so nobody knew why he was there. Not that I worried as we all had rats in our gardens.
I hope your problems are sorted soon - the 4 legged and 2 legged kinds and that you'll soon be having a peaceful night's sleep

Yups, well done Lisa and I hope this gets sorted for you before too long.

unfortunately the skanks own their house, and dont look after it very well... they are really odd bunch, at one point one of their kids lived in a home made shed in the garden, made out of fence panels, bits of caravan, bits of shed!! he proudly informed me he'd even incorporated a "party room" into this contraption!!
I hope its not long cos how we are living at the mo is not good... i've heard they cause house fires when they gnaw the electrics, so as much as poss i've turned plugs off etc...
we gonna have a sort out in the garden on sat, we have a few bits of wood etc sitting about so gonna get rid to reduce their hiding places and my friend is gonna come anything that jumps out with his air rifle

just to let you all know, the EH and pest express have served everyone in the firstr half of our row with a notice to enter the properties to find the nest/s and sort it out, fingers crossed we can go back in our room soon