The Thames towpath and riverside streets
Rats travel easily along the Thames towpath and the older drain runs beneath Kingston's riverside streets and market town centre, where waterside businesses, moored boats and riverside bins all give them a reliable food source close to housing.
Norbiton and the dense terraces near the university
Around Norbiton, terraced streets sit close together with shared boundary walls and small back yards, and student housing in particular can leave food out for longer stretches between occupants, which keeps a colony fed even when one house is quiet.
New Malden and Chessington: garden and shed routes
Further out in the 1930s semis of New Malden and the interwar houses of Chessington, gardens back onto open green space and a rat is just as likely to have come from a shed base or a compost heap as from a fault in the drains.
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
That last step decides whether rats come back, and it is easy to forget once the house goes quiet.
Keeping them out once they have gone
Around the town centre, sealing gaps where old pipework passes through a party wall or a cellar airbrick has worked loose deals with most above-ground routes. Further out, gaps under bay windows and around garage and utility room doors typical of the 1930s suburbs matter more. Our rodent proofing service covers this work.
Booking rat control in Kingston upon Thames
Rat control anywhere in Kingston upon Thames is £190 for a flat and £240 for a house, and because around Kingston, where the riverside market town centre, mentioning that when you book rat control points us towards the likely route in, with the rest of the detail on the Kingston upon Thames rat control page.
