If possible get a cat - they do wonders. We lived by a horse racing track. When the horses left after the season, the rats would migrate over to the homes. Yikes - I saw one once. Got two cats (a female and a male - female was much better hunter) - never saw or heard from rats again. I am currently battling mice each winter we get one or two. We had good luck with regular old standard "snap" traps baited with peanut butter - so they can't steal the bait, it sticks to the trap. We get them after a night or two. If you have a landlord - let him deal with the problem that is for sure!!! It's his problem and obligation to deal with it in a timely (immediate) manner. It may even be a law. Or just tell him if he doesn't do anything about it - you are getting a cat whether or not they are "banned" from the premises unless he does do something about the problem. It is a total health hazard - not to mention the fact that they can bite. I just bought an ultrasonic thing - too soon to know how it works. But my neighbors have one and swear by it. Didn't cost much. Good luck!

Replying to anyone with similar issue or: HU-171861020 “last year We have exactly the same problem in 2021. Rats in the loft, poison deployed, dead rat and smell in the upstairs bathroom and downstairs utility room before Christmas. Thought it was going as now in January but seems to be coming back! How is this possible? Horrible sickening smell thats lingered now for over a month” …… I live in a 30O yr old house which suddenly developed mice issues during the pandemic. My home shares a crawlspace with another attacked house and they were having mice and putting poison in crawlspace. Well, either a town of mice or a giant rodent ate the poison and burrowed (I believe) under my bathroom floorspace. The smell of death started a week after poison had been placed. I thought it was a plumbing issue and wasted $400 on wax toilet rings! none of the plumbers thought it was the sewer lines. Dead animal is what they all said. Called pest contol and for $300 he told me to close up holes in my foundation. well, this was during delta/omicron Nov surge and also impossible to get contractors. Finally had foundation rebuilt, but was told they could not plug every hole and mice or rats woukd still get in. its been THREE MONTHS of stank in one bathroom. fans have helped, but the weather is below freezing so i cant air the entire house out. im just horrified that a rodent could take this long to decompose (gag. GAG) It is the bane of my existance. I suppose ill have to have the tile floor ripped up or maybe the walls, which I cannot afford on a fixed income, nor can I find available contractors near Boston. Everyone is putting on additions. Today, the smell, which had been getting milder, is back. Never a smell in crawlspace or sign of dead rodents, so they are def in floor/wall. I just can not believe this is happening. i will never, ever use poison again. i didnt even know it was there. Just venting as I’m petrified the arctic blast in the NE will bring in more disgusting RODENTS! Thank you, pandemic. You've made everything even more unbearable. Rant over, but know you are not alone if you have this issue. Thanks and sorry. i truly hate rodents and old houses. i pray most of you with past issues have solved them.

Well... "it is hard to move an old tree"... is the problem. Long time habits are hard to change and there must be a "logical" reason presented to get rid of stuff. The fact that the house, garage or yard is overflowing... is often not a good reason in the mind of the collector. Looking at all this stuff is hard on the mate too. I know several gals that sneak stuff out to the trash when hubby is not looking. Everyone needs to move every 10 years and that would solve most of the clutter problems. Ha! Some things to help... Buy a shed. Put in garage shelves going up to the ceiling on one side of the garage. I have an old torn out kitchen (cabinets, counter tops and sink etc.) installed in my garage to keep things out of sight. One garage wall is shared by the laundry room so it was easy to have a plumber hook up the sink in the garage. I have done this is every home I live in... find someone tearing out their kitchen and put the cabinets with counter tops in my garage. Some of these cabinets can also be used in a shed too. I have years of memories in my home carried around from a couple of moves. My closets and shelves are over flowing from things I think I have to keep for one reason or another. There are stories that go with the items... but it is basically clutter to everyone else. Then I learned ebay. I still have a lot of things to purge but it is a way for me to live with less clutter in my life. A good way to do some purging is to learn ebay and craigslist. I know a couple of ladies that was able to clear out some areas of their home. They got their husband excited by watching an item sell. Ebay is not what it use to be but there are still buyers looking for treasures no matter the state of the economy. Another friend has a mom with a house full of memories... and due to age and health, it was obvious that the home would need to be sold in the near future. Mom probably paid 50 cents for an old sewing item years ago. Yet this same item sold for much more on ebay as a collectible. Her mom knew what she paid for most of these items, so the price from ebay was always more in the eyes of the mom. It took a while but my friend was able to sell off many unused items... things collecting from over the years. She started out by selling some of her own things and would then tell her mom how much $$ she made on ebay to go into her vacation fund. It was a soft sell to mom and it worked in small steps. Then mom eventually got excited and was actually looking in her shelves and closets for things to sell. Mom enjoyed going shopping with the money and buying presents for her grandchildren. While the family members did not want the stuff collecting in mom's home, the ebay sales was all converted to cash and mom enjoyed giving the proceeds away in the form of gifts to family members. I introduced selling on ebay into my own life and am having fun doing it. It seems easier to part with things if I can get money for it. I am getting older and what happens to my stuff... since no one in the family wants most of it? I started out with books to gain feedback and experience with selling. You need an acceptable reason to get rid of saleable clutter in the eyes of the doer and ebay works for me. I always have a "donation box" in the garage and add to my trash bin if the item cannot be used as a dust or polishing cloth. Ha!

The only way to rid a crawlspace of rats/etc. is to permanently seal your entire foundation, exterior walls, and roof. ANY and ALL points of entry, no matter how small, must be repaired, filled, and sealed. Any overhanging branches from trees must be trimmed back so they do not touch your roof. Yes, it can be expensive, but do you really want to deal with a rodent problem or risk poisoning your pets? Our house was built in 1910. We had a similar problem. A rat died inside one of our walls, and the smell was HORRIBLE. We couldn't find it so we had to wait out the smell, which took a couple of weeks.We hired our exterminator to dig a 12" deep 12" wide trench around the entire perimeter of our foundation. It was then filled with concrete. ALL possible points of entry on the exterior of the house were repaired. This was completed in January 2013 and, knock on wood, we have not had any more problems with rats, squirrels, or chipmunks. I wish you good luck with solving your problem.