Rat Control in Manchester

How do I know it’s rats and not mice?

Plenty of people in Manchester first spot rats in the garden: a dark shape running along the fence at dusk, or a new hole beside the shed. Indoors, it’s usually the noise. Rats are much heavier than mice, so scratching and thudding in a ceiling or under the floorboards at night sounds like something with real weight to it.

Other clues:

• droppings about 1 to 1.5 cm long, dark and pointed at the ends, often in small groups along walls or behind the bins;
• burrows roughly 6 to 9 cm across with smooth, worn entrances, under decking, beside compost bins or in a bank;
• dark, greasy smears along skirting boards, pipes and the edges of holes, where their fur rubs as they pass;
• gnawing on door corners, plastic waste pipes, bin lids and bags of bird seed or pet food;
• a sharp, stale smell in a cupboard, garage or under the stairs.

Tiny droppings a few millimetres long in kitchen drawers point to mice instead; our mice control page is the place to start.

Why are rats turning up in so many Manchester homes?

Rats want three things: food, water and a dry, safe spot to nest. A lot of Greater Manchester offers all three within a few metres of the back door.

Start with the houses. Many of the city’s older homes are Victorian and Edwardian terraces, like Levenshulme’s two-up two-downs from the 1880s with back entries behind the yards. Homes of that age often have suspended timber floors, cellars and clay drains well over a century old. A cracked drain, a redundant pipe left from a long-gone outside toilet, or one broken airbrick is all a rat needs to get under the floor and up inside a wall. Even where a back alley is gated, bags left behind the gate still feed rats.

The 1930s and 1940s semis of Burnage and the suburbs bring different weak spots: decking, sheds and garages with gaps under the doors, and side passages where the bins live.

Then there’s water. The Mersey, the Bridgewater, Rochdale and Ashton canals, and rivers such as the Medlock and the Irk, which run through culverts under parts of the city, all give rats water and cover. When the Mersey runs high, as it did when the Didsbury flood basin was filled in January 2021 and again on New Year’s Day 2025, rats living along the banks can be pushed towards homes.

Food does the rest: a grey bin that’s full before collection day, bags left beside it, communal bin stores in blocks of flats and seed scattered on the lawn. Building work and drain repairs disturb settled burrows and send rats looking for somewhere new.

If it feels as though rats are everywhere lately, you’re not alone. Figures from a national pest control firm, reported in October 2026, put Manchester’s rodent-control enquiries up 26% between 2024 and 2025, the biggest rise of the cities it named. They’re the firm’s own figures, not an official count.

What happens when you call us?

We’ll ask what you’ve seen or heard and who lives in the house, pets included, then offer the earliest slot we have, often the same day.

On the first visit we look round properly, inside and out: airbricks, pipes where they pass through the brickwork, decking, sheds, the loft if the noise is overhead, and the drain inspection covers. Treating without knowing where rats live, what’s feeding them and how they get in tends to clear one lot and leave the door open for the next.

Treatment is usually a mix of traps and bait, both inside lockable, tamper-resistant boxes fixed along the routes rats use. Rats are wary of anything new, so it’s normal for nothing to happen for the first few days. We’ll show you where every box is.

About a week to ten days later we come back to check the boxes, move or top them up, and take away any dead rats we can reach. Once there are no fresh signs, everything comes away and we talk you through proofing: what we can fix there and then, and what might need a builder or a drain specialist.

Is it safe with children and pets in the house?

Yes, done properly, and it’s the part we take most care over. There’s never loose bait. Anything we use sits in a locked box, secured so a toddler or a curious dog can’t open it, drag it or tip it over, and traps go inside boxes too. Where pets have the run of the garden, we lean more on traps and proofing.

Most rat baits are anticoagulants, which stop blood clotting, so a dog that eats bait, or a cat that eats a poisoned rat, can become seriously ill. That’s why placement matters so much, and why we leave a note of exactly what was used. If you ever think a pet has eaten bait, ring your vet straight away and tell them the product.

Professional-use baits can only be supplied to people with certified competence under the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime, which the industry body CRRU UK runs with government oversight. Its approach is to survey first, use the least risky method that will work, and take bait away once the job is done, not leave it down for months where hedgehogs and birds of prey might find poisoned rats.

How many visits does rat control take?

Most homes need three visits over two to three weeks: treatment, a follow-up and a final check. A large colony, a drain fault, or rats feeding in a neighbour’s garden can stretch that out. We won’t call it finished while there are still fresh droppings, new holes or bait being taken.

How do I stop rats coming back?

Treatment clears the rats you have; proofing stops the next ones. The usual fixes are:

• replace broken airbricks with mesh-backed ones (never block them, as they keep floor timbers dry);
• pack gaps around pipes and cables with wire wool and seal them with mortar or sealant;
• close the open sides of decking with galvanised mesh buried a little way into the soil;
• fit a metal kick plate or bristle strip along the bottom of garage and shed doors;
• if the drains are the route, get a camera survey to find the break, and ask about a one-way rat blocker.

Day to day, put a tray under the bird feeder, keep cooked food out of the compost, keep bin lids shut and bags off the floor, and store pet food and seed in sealed tubs. In a terrace, have a word with the neighbours too, because rats don’t stop at the fence.

When does DIY stop being enough?

A snap trap set inside a box along a wall can deal with one rat passing through. It’s time to call someone when you see rats in daylight or more than one at once, when they’re inside the walls, loft or under the floor, when there are burrows, when signs keep appearing after a week or two of trapping, or when you suspect the drains.

A few things to steer clear of. Since April 2024 it’s been an offence in England to use a glue trap on a rat or mouse without a licence from Natural England, and those are only for professional pest controllers in exceptional cases. Don’t block a hole while rats might still be inside, either; they’ll chew a new way out, sometimes into the house, or die where you can’t reach them and smell for weeks.

Is it my landlord’s job, or will the council help?

If you rent and rats are getting in through the building, the repair usually falls to your landlord. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 covers the structure, exterior and drains of most lets, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires a rented home to be fit to live in, and councils can assess pests as a hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Where the cause is within the tenant’s control, such as rubbish piling up in the yard, the tenancy may share that out differently. Report it in writing and keep photos. We work with landlords and letting agents too, and our visit notes give everyone a clear record.

Check Manchester City Council’s website for current pest control services and charges. If rats are coming from a neighbour’s rubbish-filled yard, councils have powers under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 to require the owner or occupier to deal with it.

Running a café or corner shop? Food law expects you to have proper pest control in place, so see our commercial pest control page.