The Front Garden Is Where It Starts
A front garden on these streets is rarely more than a few square metres: a tiled path to the door, a low wall or railing onto the pavement, and just enough room beside it for two or three wheelie bins. That is where the waste stands all week. Anything torn open at ground level there deserves attention early, because an animal feeding at the front will start looking for somewhere to live at the back.
Under the path, the wall and the steps
Those paths were bedded on sand and made ground well over a century ago. Where a tile has lifted, where the path meets the front wall, or beneath steps up to a raised door, there is loose material that will take a burrow. Look for a hole with a fan of soil outside it and smooth, rounded edges, and for narrow runs pressed flat through whatever grows along the wall. Where rats nest describes what you have found.
The bin standing itself
A cracked bin lid, an open recycling box, bags stacked beside the bins rather than in them and a food caddy that does not close all do the same job. Standing the bins on something solid rather than bare soil, keeping lids down and putting bags out on the morning of the collection removes most of the reason to stop at your address.
The Back Yard, the Rear Wall and the Alley
Behind the terrace the ground works differently. Yard walls run the length of the row, some streets have a gated alley along the backs, and elsewhere gardens meet each other at a fence. Those boundaries are the routes: a rat follows a wall rather than crossing open ground, so one animal can work a whole row without ever being out in the open.
Sheds, decking and what is stored underneath
A shed sitting straight on soil, decking laid over an old yard, timber leaning on the wall or a compost bin at the end of the garden all offer the same thing: somewhere dry, dark and undisturbed to dig, with a bird feeder often supplying the food to go with it. None of it has to be got rid of. Raising a shed clear of the ground, lifting stored material off the soil and sweeping up spilled seed changes what the space is worth. A rat in the garden explains what a sighting outdoors does and does not tell you.
How They Get From the Ground Into the House
The way indoors is almost always low down and at the back. The oversized hole cut for a waste pipe through the back addition wall, a cracked air brick grille at yard level, the vertical joint where the back addition meets the main house, a worn back door threshold, a cellar hatch with a split cover: any one is enough. Where nothing outside is open and the noise is beneath the floorboards, the other explanation is a fault in the old drainage, which Pest Control Kensal Green deals with in full. How rats get into homes sets the routes out in order.
Signs Worth Walking Round For
- Holes with fanned-out earth beside the front wall, under the steps or at the foot of the yard wall
- Smears and gnaw marks along the bottom rail of a yard gate, a shed door or a bin store
- Droppings on a patio, in a shed, in the cellar or in the cupboard under the stairs
- Runs worn through grass, gravel or weeds between the alley and a gate
- Scratching after dark low in a wall or under the ground floor, rather than up in the roof
The first signs of rats covers droppings, smears and smells indoors. Droppings the size of a grain of rice are a different animal, and mouse control in Kensal Green is the booking for those.
What to Do, and in What Order
- Deal with the food first: lids down, bags inside bins, caddy shut, spilled bird seed swept up
- Walk the front garden, the yard and the alley and note every hole, run and gnaw mark before anything gets moved
- Book treatment for the rats that are already there rather than trying to fill holes around them
- Leave the openings as they are meanwhile, because an animal shut out of its usual route will gnaw itself another one
- Clear the ground afterwards, under the shed and along the wall, so there is nowhere easy left to dig
- Close the small openings last, which is what rodent proofing in Kensal Green is for
- Do not put poison down in a front garden, a yard or an alley, where children, pets, foxes and birds can reach it
Booking Rat Control in NW10
What to tell us
Say whether the address is a whole house or a flat within one, whether there is a cellar, and where the activity is: the front garden, the yard, a shed, under the floor or indoors. Mention a gated alley behind the terrace, and whether the neighbours have said anything, since that tends to explain how long it has been going on.
Getting ready
Clear the cupboard under the sink and anything stacked against the cellar door, and make sure the front garden and the yard can be walked round. Unlock the back gate on the day, or have someone there with the key.
Afterwards
You will be told what was found and what happens next. How long the whole thing takes depends on the property, on what is around it and on how settled the rats are, which this guide to timings goes into. Get back in touch if fresh droppings turn up or a new hole opens beside the wall.
Keeping Rats Out of a Kensal Green Terrace
Once activity has stopped, two jobs are left. The first is the ground: clear the base of walls, have loose paving bedded properly and keep stored material off bare soil. The second is the building, which means closing the small openings at the back and at path level. Rat proofing covers what is worth sealing, and whether rats reach flats deals with the floors above.
For rats elsewhere in the borough see Rat Control Brent, and neighbouring Queen’s Park for what building work can open up. If the noise is in the roof rather than under the floor, squirrel control in Kensal Green is the page you want.
