Tom, say it ain't so!

I can't answer to the plumbing part of the question--but a while back we had a house with a rat or two (or ten). But I'd think the rats would chew through duct tape even more readily than plumbing.

I recommend using traps as opposed to poison. We had a rat die in the walls; it was most unpleasant. It just reeked! I had no choice but to dig it out of there (talk about unpleasant!) Plus with traps, you get a confirmed kill.

Rats are surprisingly smart around traps; they smell humans well and whether other rats fell victim to the trap. So even trapping isn't easy. Wearing rubber gloves while baiting might help.

It's best to firmly affix the trap somehow; rats can run off with them after being caught.

Good luck; it is an tough, unpleasant thing to deal with.

Regards,

-k2 in CO

Moderator, Miscellaneous Forum

http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Miscellaneous

It's also important to seal holes in plumbing pipes to prevent odor in additional to water leaks. The best practice is to replace those portions of piping using shielded no-hub couplings like the No-Hub brand.

An acceptable practice in some areas may be to cut a solid coupling in two and the half without the stop to cut an inch out of it. This leaves you with a sleeve that can be popped onto the pipe. If PVC you need to prime and cement both sides of the connection.

.....well for those temporary repairs I like to use the "stainless steel" A/C duct tape.......

........Need me to FedEx a good Rat Cat ?

Thanks guys. We had the Clark (we need you) guy pay us a visit, and for an exorbitant sum, he set the same traps I could have bought for $10. But it made the Mrs happy. I have temporarily taped the damage and taken inventory of the tail pieces, Tees and other fittings I will need to use to repair the damage. Problem is going to be the tight access to cut and past the replacements.

Too bad this board doesn;t support pictures, I would post some. Go figure what the attraction would be to gnaw on waste pipe.

It has only been the past year that I have realized that rodents have always eaten on plastic. A California builder had three $800,000.00 houses where the PEX water piping had been eaten through. Rare but it happens.

I agree with Doug. Leave a cat in the crawl space for several weeks. put cat on half rations so that the cat getw very hungry and decides that killing rats is in the cats best interest. While growing up on the farm, I have seen cats sit by a rat hole for 2-3 days waiting for the rat to appear.

JMHO

Carl

Just let the cat have crawl space access......and Please feed and water the cat......

....Our Mousers generally try to impress us by leaving their catches on the doorstep !

Now if they could just do something with the oppossums and a stray armadillo.......

I said give the cat half rations, in other words feed but keep it hungry. and yes give it water and a liter box

JMHO

Carl

Tom, others post pictures on this site. I admit I don't know how to do it myself (computer challenged) but I view the pixs which are a great help.