Start with the building, not the rat
A rat in a Brent kitchen is the end of a route, and that route depends on the kind of home you live in. A Victorian terrace near the canal, a 1930s semi with a long garden and a flat above a shop each let rats in differently. Working out which one you are dealing with early saves money and makes a second infestation a few months later far less likely.
First, make sure it is rats
Droppings, gnawed packaging and scratching after dark could just as easily be mice, and noise in the roof could be squirrels. The size and shape of the droppings settle most cases, as how to tell rats from mice shows. If you are still collecting clues, the first signs of rats explains what each one tells you. Mice have an overview of their own: mice in Brent homes.
South Brent: when the drains are the route
The terraces in the south of the borough sit on drainage that is often more than a hundred years old. Clay pipes crack, joints shift and tree roots push through, and a pipe cut off during building work is sometimes left open underground. Rats living in the sewer can use any of these to reach the soil under a house and climb from there into a floor void or a wall cavity.
The giveaway is activity indoors with no hole outside: scratching beneath the floorboards, a smell under the stairs, droppings behind a bath panel. It runs right through the terraces of Kensal Green, and the suspended timber floors of Willesden let a rat travel under several rooms unseen. Every route, above and below ground, is laid out in how rats get into Brent homes.
North Brent: gardens, sheds and decking
In the interwar houses of Kingsbury, Queensbury, Preston and Kenton the route is more often above ground. Rats settle under decking and shed bases, feed on bird seed and fallen fruit, and then find a gap into the house. Many of these homes have gained rear extensions, and the join between the old wall and the new one is a common weak spot, as the Queensbury page describes. A rat on the fence is not always a resident, though: rats in the garden helps you tell a visitor from a colony.
Flats, shops and blocks
Living upstairs does not rule rats out. In the larger blocks, bin stores and service ducts link one home to the next, and a flat above a shop in Harlesden can share a rear yard, bins and floor structure with the business below. The answer then involves the building as well as your own front door, and sometimes a managing agent or the shop owner. Can rats get into flats covers who needs to act.
Businesses are a separate case again. Warehouses, food units and trade premises on the industrial estates are quoted per site after a conversation about the building, because no two are laid out the same way.
Getting rid of them: the order that works
- Confirm the animal, and note where and when you see or hear it
- Take away easy food: bird feeders, split bin bags, pet bowls left down overnight
- Book treatment rather than laying poison where children, pets or wildlife could find it
- Leave any holes you have found open for now, so no rat is sealed inside a wall
- Once activity has stopped, close the route: proofing above ground, a repair below it
The last step is the easiest one to forget once the house goes quiet, and it is the one that decides whether the rats return.
While treatment is under way
Rats do not all disappear on the day of a visit, and nobody can honestly name a finish date without seeing the property. It depends on the size of the problem, the building and whether more rats can keep arriving. How long rat control takes explains what shapes that and how you can help. If you are wondering where they are living meanwhile, where rats nest covers the usual places, without any need to lift floorboards to find out.
Keeping them out once they have gone
Treatment removes the rats that are there; it does nothing to the gap they used. Above ground, that means sealing holes around pipes, worn door thresholds and broken air brick covers with materials rats cannot chew. Below ground, a drainage contractor can survey the pipes with a camera and repair the fault or fit a one-way rat blocker. Where a pipe is shared with neighbours or runs beyond your boundary, it may be the water company's responsibility rather than yours.
Rat proofing sets out the checklist in full, and our rodent proofing service deals with small, accessible gaps.
If rats come back anyway
A return months later nearly always has a cause: a drain fault nobody found, a hole that was missed, food still on offer, or rats living next door. Read why rats come back after treatment before assuming anything has failed, and have a word with the neighbours. In a terrace, their garden and their drains are part of your problem too.
Booking rat control in Brent
Rat control anywhere in Brent is £190 for a flat and £240 for a house; the rest of the detail is on the Brent rat control page. When you book rat control, mention any drain smells, damp patches or a recent extension, because each of those points towards the route.
