Thanks the 3 of you. The Big Cheese I have is only for mice, the entrance is too small for rats I think. If I get the larger, rat sized (and powered), one I’ll remember about the gloves. I have a box still from when I had to clean the ears of my dear old, now departed Rottie, Boss. However, my scent hasn’t stopped the little buggers running all over the worktop, has it? 
Yup I found this too . Same if dispensing bait - try not to handle it with bare hands for the same reason
I don’t think you need a trap as such just some killer bait. They do like tunnels though so if you’ve got a bit of the right size pipe around you could put some bait in one.
What you use will have instructions if you use bait and you don’t normally have to buy anything but the bait. Those little plastic dishes or even a small bowl they’ll take the bait from - and it can get scattered depending. You do not have to pay 70 euros or anything approaching it for some overpriced lump of plastic and I wouldn’t.
NOOOO! David has dogs. Never, ever have rat poison in a house with dogs. One of our neighbour’s dogs (a Rhodesian Ridgeback) died appallingly because the idiot put down poisoned bait. Such a stupid, stupid thing to do.
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If you are talking poison Karen, then it is a definite nono for me. Bad enough for me to kill anything unless absolutely forced, but if I have to kill the only way is if it is instantaneous.
Apart from that there is the dog to consider, he may not be able to get at the bait but he might worry a carcase that died in an accessible place. He does not eat carrion but he has been known to grab and shake live animals to death, as a Blackbird and a Robin found to their (and my mental) cost.
The so-called humane traps are out, have had a bad experience with those with an animal that was to quick for its own good, and was gruesomely injured, the same with the snap traps, not always fatal with a quick, but not quick enough, animal.
Electrocution is the only way to go, short of a pied piper to lead them off to Germany. 
Crossed with my slow typing @SuePJ 
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Good morning. A few things to consider here, most of the previous comments are correct, but a little caution is needed.
Firstly, Cheese: Cheese as a bait was invented by Hanna and Barbera for Tom and Jerry, you note Tom drinks milk (bad) but it’s easier than drawing water. Jerry eats cheese with holes, because it’s easier to animate. Most rodents will ignore cheese but head for Nutella, peanut butter or chocolate.
Professional bait vs Amateur: The professional bait can have up to no more than 50ppm (parts per million) of active ingredient. Amateur can have no more than 30ppm (0.003%) composition.
With all anticoagulant rodenticides the antidote is Vitamin K1. All vets carry it in stock.
The active ingredient usually takes effect after several days (4-5) so if a non-target species eats a block or sachet, you have a couple of days to get to the vet for a jab of K1.
Snap traps are effective, but they need to be kept away from non-target species and curious children.
Rodenticides, there are lots of different active ingredients, flocomafen (3rd generation) anticoagulant for example 25ppm is a professional product. Unfortunately the Brico stores and garden centres sell it because it’s below 30ppm.
Gloves, yes, exactly to eliminate your odour, they hate even more tobacco fingers.
Tubing: Great idea. All bait should be ‘safe and secure’ there are bait boxes available, but if you have some spare plumbing pipe (100mm is good). Secure [thread] it with electrical wire to prevent it being carried away.
Burrow baiting, high risk but can be effective.
Some products are for inside and some for outside use. It is imperative to read the instructions on the packet, treatment for mouse is different o black rat, which is different to brown rat.
Rodenticides kill, the Pest industry has long been advocation banning them from shop shelves, but the manufacturers make more money selling to the public than the Pest Control industry.
Photo from @David_Spardo is a brown rat, a black rat has rounder ears and a more pointed snout (think Ratatouille).
Wildlife cameras are brilliant, I have loads of them which I place to diagnose before treatment.
Rats are actually useful, they clean up all the cr*p left behind by humans. They are also more hygienic than mice. Out of rat and mice in my house, I’d take the rat everytime - similar argument to bed bud, flea, fly mosquito and cockroach; the bed bug is the only one which doesn’t spread any pathogens. It gets the worse rep but give me that compared to the others any day! ewww.
Finally, I have a DIY brochure ‘RPM Rodent Pest Management’ available in English/French and Dutch in .pdf, unfortunately the file is too large for SFN so if you want to PM me, I can email a copy in your preferred langue.
Hope some of that helps
Rob
PS, ultrasound thingies are rubbish, don’t ever, ever buy them, despite what anybody says. I have yet to meet a professional Pest Controller who has ever used one!
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Thank you Rob, that is the most useful part of your very useful and interesting post. For the rest of it I knew some, and found helpful what I didn’t know especially the bit about rats as garbos, my work surfaces and boards have never been so clean and what you say bears out the lack of droppings but I will continue with a quick anti-septic wipe each morning.
Finally I will hold off with the electric assassinator unless we are overrun and maybe just treat him/her/them as wildlife worthy of video watching now and again. 
One thing you didn’t mention though, are they rapid breeders and, left alone, can I expect to be overrun in the near or distant future?
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Ah…I had forgotten about the dogs. TBH rats are such a serious problem I’d wonder if dogs could be kept away for a week or two in hopes of sorting the problem.
I should have known this for David’s situation because there’s a chance I’ve lost cats due to neighbours leaving illegal poisons out. Plus I witnessed that previous neighbour’s dog (Alsatian-type breed young dog) watching the dog harassing horses and not stopping him. Now that David has said dogs can even shake other small animals to death, I’ve got another worry!!
Thanks Rob for all the info I have kept it in case I ever find myself catless and rat-adorned here.
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1 January 1 pregnant female rat 31 December same year over 10,000 rats are possible.
Sexually active at 6 weeks and have 6-8 pups per litter. Adult is sexually active again immediately.
Mouse over 30,000 (10-13 pups per litter).
Think Australia 2021, perfect conditions, perfect storm = plague.
It would be rare though. Clear away food, don’t leave anything out for them. Pest Control is all about common sense and reading what’s on the packet. It sounds simple, but too many people don’t.
Pesties get a bad rep, I am usually called out after “we’ve tried everything, and it’s cost a fortune, can you fix it?” We then have to undo what has been done before and start again then I get “but I’ve just done that”. Yes, but I’ve read the bloody instructions!!!
Sleep tight! 
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OK, I’ll put aside the temptation to treat them as pets , and strengthen my current precautions of keeping many foodstuffs in plastic containers, that is, buy some more and use them accordingly. I’ll have to get used to the idea of not allowing crumbs to build up in order to put them out for the birds, but collect them as I go along and then take them outside later.
Thanks again for the good info and advice.
Several nights of habitual visits later and, as Rob says, rats carry lots of diseases and can multiply at an alarming rate I decided something drastic had to be done. I had thought that I could simply disinfect the worktop each morning but as it goes all over the kitchen that is not enough and I purchased an electric rat killer.
The first night he arrived as usual but ignored it. The second night I laid a trail of nuts and raisins leading towards it. It came no less than 5 times in 15 minutes taking away one item at a time. Finally, after taking the last nut which was just inside the entrance he ventured further. The result was, I am sure, instant death.
I have my trail cam set to 1 minute videos only and, as luck would have it its final entrance coincided with the end of that video so we are mercifully spared its demise.
At first I was disapointed, not because I wanted to see it die but because I wanted to be sure that it was instant. But then I realised that the camera is triggered by movement but only starts to record about 1 second afterwards. And, as the next video (not shown here) started with him lying totally still in the tunnel I conclude that only one second can have passed between its last movement, thus triggering it, and death.
So I am pleased but at the moment of removal and disposal felt really sad, but there is no choice.
I had gone to bed after setting it to read as usual for a few minutes. As I put down the Kindle Jules let out a mournful howl, he must have heard a slight noise, so I got up and went through to the kitchen.
You are necessarily spared the removal and disposal of the corpse, if there is anything worse than seeing an animal killed, it is watching a 79 year old naked man disposing of it, so you are doubly blessed. 
All the above assumes you can see the video, for some reason it won’t play for me on YT, but neither can all my others, so something wrong at this end. Please let me know if it works for you.
EDIT: I withdrew this video because I couldn’t see it and re-uploaded it below.
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The video worked for me David. And I think you did the right thing (especially with regard to the aftermath, disposal etc) !
Thank you Fleur, I can’t access all my other videos either although I can access everybody else’s on YT. Just tried on the discarded laptop where everything used to work, but like this it doesn’t now. Better transfer my questions to a techie category, no guarantee that I will be able to understand the answers though.
Back to the Rat. After disposal and before I went back to bed I reset the trap in case there is more than one on the prowl. The bait in the tray is still intact, he didn’t get that far, but I didn’t place a trail of enticements this time. Maybe tonight.
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Very well done David.
Ummm…can you leave the electric thing and continue baiting the route to it for another month? Perhaps moving it between attractive sites from time to time, wearing gloves to keep your scent off as much as possible.
Just in case it has friends… this is always an abundant time of year for my cats, I am far more likely to see them with.“finds” in their jaws around now.
Certainly Karen, it only takes a moment to set it up, and for several days I will be setting the video up as well. If there are no captures I will at least be able to see if it is because there are no more, or if they are refusing it.
Edit: On the subject of gloves, I wear them where I can but this particular trap is very good in that it splits in half lengthways giving unfettered access to the plates and the bait tray. Much easier to place bait accurately and also to clean the plates thereby keeping them at their most effective. I also use a pair of cooking pincers to place small pieces of bait precisely.
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Sounds like you’re doing a good job.
Just bear in mind there are some sensitive people about who might not appreciate euthanising anything, by whatever means, so well done in keeping in clean!
I’m off to the UK tomorrow for a pest Control expo in London to give a lecture on Asian hornets, It appears that I’m a Poster Boy!!!
I’ll be back with fresh ideas and ‘toys’ for the ‘control’ of unwanted critters
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I had a couple of rats as a young teen. They made good pets. I left their cage in the garden one day and went out not realising they could be exposed to the sun later. They perished - very sad.
I think I’ll pass on rats as pets, but now that I hopefully have got the final video sorted (see the thread in the tech category), here is the video again. I withdrew the one above because it didn’t work for me and then re-uploaded it.
Fingers crossed.
