Rats: any advice?

Pros: I'm not going crazy!
Cons: We have rats...

Unlike the last time they are in the flat, seen it run, many droppings found under the sink. I've been hearing noises for weeks but put it off as hearing things as i never heard much or clearly.

The advice I want is, is there anything I should be concerned about with Pazu? The droppings seem to indicate the rats were getting in from under our kitchen counters, droppings mainly under the sink where there's holes in the wall for the plumbing. But they seemed to have found a hole out to the rest of the kitchen.

That aside, we have traps all over the kitchen, and one in our bedroom, but every room is connected to the kitchen... and I just found droppings in the livingroom/Pazu's room. None around the cage, which is on it's own stand by the TV, and I've plugged the only holes in the room now. But is there anymore i can do? Compared to where the noises are mostly comming from, and the droppings (3 vs don't know how many under the sink) I think they got into the livingroom via the kitchen rather than a hole (my understanding is most of the livingroom is not connected to the surrounding rooms by empty space).

I've not had much sleep and i'm no less paranoid in my own home... Our land lords are away at the moment and probably not back for another week, but they have been informed.

Summary:
We have rats. Plugged holes. Laid traps. Paranoid+stressed+tired.
I've kept Pazu as far from this as I can, cleaned everything up, showered and tossed clothes in the wash.

Am I missing something? sorry if this is in the wrong topic.

Rats and mice are the WORST!
You're making good steps.
Until you're sure they're vanquished, I might (in fact, I once DID) smear vaseline on the Rb's cage legs and place the casters in pans of water to make sure no varmints got to him.

Do they do that?
I dont think I have any at the moment, I'll add that to my list.

I'm admittedly super-paranoid.
I imagine any weird possibility and take steps.
I have also done these steps during ant/roach outbreaks until I was sure they were gone.

:22:

If it were roaches or ants I definitely would Vaseline the legs, that would be the first thing. I trust insects to get through smaller holes that rats so I would've proofed the living room better and sooner. as there's only 2 holes big enough for a rat to get through and they are both plugged, I feel better (will be better again when they are gone).
Assessed the doors too. when closed properly the living room door is too tight to get through (our bedroom is even tighter again).

Rats definitely take eggs and chicks if they can get them, and I know that they've also killed adult orange-bellied parrots, though those are maybe half the size of a GCC and the birds in question were diseased. I imagine they're more after food scraps than your birds, but I would still definitely be worried if I thought I had rats infesting my apartment.

Oh yeah, rats get into bird cages quite often, in fact if you search I remember a post about a member's cockatiel being pulled through the cage bars and literally ripped to pieces by a large rat...It was awful, she came home and found him in pieces all over her living room. I felt awful. They are very good at making themselves fold up, flatten out, whatever they have to do to get through the opening. And of course they go straight for the cage they smell, whether it be because of the droppings, the seeds, pellets, water, whatever...

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

we don't have rats, but there are mice in the pole barn, and J catches them by smearing a little peanut butter on the trap spring. Mice can't resist, but some rats are smart enough to avoid traps. Might be able to catch them in a live trap? Or a deep bucket with tasty food at the bottom that's easy to climb into but too deep to jump out of?

Keep your bird in the cage until the rodents are gone. Can you have a friend or relative look after your pet for a few days? Then use the following.

Rodent Control | d-CON

You can also talk to a pest control expert.

Good luck, OP. I'm STILL dealing with a mouse problem going back to late November. Our conures love to feed them, apparently...-_-

You sound you probably have covered all the basic steps, but it doesn't hurt to review:

• keep food stored in secure containers with tightly-fitted lids (I haven't found that regular house-mice can gnaw through the goldenfeast containers I feeds M&M with), preferably high up off the ground and in inaccessible areas
• change cage liners daily if not twice so, vacuum thoroughly to remove crumbs
• dispose of droppings where found and overlay with other smells to disrupt scent-runs (how mice return to previous places)
• check your furniture for gaps and crevices that create potential nesting/hoarding sites. I had to throw away two armchairs in January, and am not 100% they aren't somehow in my (brand new) sofa. I've lately taken to using peppermint oil soaked sponge-bits to chase them away, but their efficacy is debatable.

I had a small break from them sometime around in February, obsessively doing the above three things. Then I got lazy last month, and surprise, surprise, they returned. But I've a relatively big house (for NYC) and with an attic and a basement and a garage (albeit unattached) and yard space all around, there are plenty of hiding spaces and nooks and crannies...just remain diligent, and patient, and make the above habits part of an everyday routine, and you should eventually encourage your unwanted house-guests to find more generous hosting elsewhere.

All that said, it's rats not mice you're dealing with, so you need to do all this, and then some, since rats will attack birds in the wild, to say nothing of the risk of disease transmission etc. Rats are generally said to be more aggressive and territorial than mice, and don't run or scatter like their smaller cousins do. On top of that, rats are more intelligent which means they can figure out how to stay put, avoid traps, etc more quickly and effectively (my next-generation mice seem to be reaching this level...)

I'm a pretty obsessive guy so researching this topic on control and removal has taken up an inordinate amount of my time for the last four months - I've found nothing that indicates the supersonic electronic repellent devices, or the smelly-rodent-repelling granules, or anything like that actually works. Unless you bomb your house with essential oils, it isn't obvious that peppermint does anything but make it smell like you washed your place in Listerine. It'll discourage new mice - maybe - from coming in, but it has to be refreshed continuously, and like anything non-lethal, pests will eventually get used to and ignore it if it's the difference between surviving and not.

Lay down lots of traps, keep an eye on Pazu when they are out of the cage, use many different baits, remove successful traps immediately and sanitize or replace, wear gloves when handling anything.

Ramik or just one bite will kill them. Rats.

The best advice I can give is to be aggressive and relentless. Rats are IMO the worst scourge imaginable. Had an awful infestation at my previous home and finally hired a competent exterminator. They breed like rabbits and chew tunnels to nest in the most difficult places. Adults can compress their bodies and enter a hole less than the size of a quarter. It is necessary to seal every possible point of entry as the first step to control.

I've tried every technique possible but draw the line at edible poisons in the form of warfarin. The risk is a dying rat exits the home to be eaten by predators, particularly birds. Unfortunately warfarin is not fully metabolized by the host and can kill up the food chain.

Having rats in the home are really a headache. Same was the problem happened with my aunt a few months back. As she really got rid of the rats, without wasting any time she consulted the pest control service of the exterminator Vacaville CA on her friend's recommendation. The team gave their best service in exterminating the rats from her kitchen. I was also looking for the pest control service and now I am sure, whom I have to consult for the extermination of rats in my room.

Rats got into my RV once and what an awful disgusting mess they make. Besides for their droppings they urinate on everything also. I found the glue traps worked the best to catch them. I wouldn't use edible poison because if they die in a crawl space that you can't locate then your house will smell like a dead rat for months.

Also when cleaning up their droppings use a wet paper towel or something with some kind of sanitizer. Don't sweep it or vacuum it up because it can create airborne particles and dust which could potentially carry Hantavirus. I think it's rare, but rats can carry it and it can be deadly to humans if they breath it in. I didn't know that before I swept up the droppings in my RV, the exterminator told me about it afterwards. Then I got all scared thinking I may have contracted the Hantavirus lol. It's not likely, but good to know anyway.

Rats and mice are the worst to handle.

Hi Zephyr

Rats are very very very dangerous. When I had budgies in the 90s , they killed at least 3 of them; not directly but the wound they inflicted was fatal.

There is this device invented in New Zealand. Check if you can import it

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-YFbktaAAg"]A24 5 Rats & 2 Mice - YouTube[/ame]

Longer video on what they use it for :

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7MyVgTRLRM&t=5s"]Native Island Rat Control with Goodnature A24 (Full Length) - YouTube[/ame]

Speaking about rats; one beautiful book to buy is Rat Island by William Stolzenburg.

cheers