We have what I think is a rat, or family of rats, that are coming out of an outdoor drain. The outdoor drain is connected into our interior drain system. They chewed through the drain cover, I replaced it and they came through again.
I am in DC so the city sewer system is connected to the surface rain water system and rats are a known problem.
I am worried that sealing the drain in a more aggressive fashion will result in the rats coming out someplace else and would prefer that not to be in my house. The basement drains and plumbing are all buried in the foundation slab and connect to the main drain stack below the main clean out.
What is the proper solution to handling this?
Best Answer
Your drains likely do not go to sewers, they likely go to storm drains or gutters in the street. So putting Drano is going to put in directly into the environment, where it can harm your kids, your neighbor's kids, your pets and neighbor's pets etc. etc. etc. PLEASE refrain from taking that bad advice...
The rat poison is similar. The reason you don't see the dead rats with that is because it makes them intensely thirsty so they seek out water, then die there. Unfortunately things like raptor birds and other wildlife end up eating the dying or dead rats and get poisoned too.
Get rat traps and bait them with candy bars, preferably ones with peanuts like Snickers bars because they smell stronger. Once you get them all (assuming its a family), get rid of those cheap plastic grates and replace them with metal ones.