Hello there, Ive moved into a house and noticed small footsteps and some scratching sounds.

im assuming its rats and i want to put inside the attic and outside the house.

I have a dog and 2 cats, will they eat these stuffs or this rat bait is mae to only attact rats?

Also will there be any effect if the pets eats the dead rats ?

Any experts out here, please kindly advice.

Thank you in advance.

*Pest control service is the last option, as i dont want any toxic chemicals sprayed inside & outside my house

The cats and maybe the dogs if they are hungry could eat the dead rats,

which would not be good for them , in your situation i would use the

sticky traps , they are about size of dinner plate ,two stuck together,

separate them ,put peanuts ,or another kind of bait on the middle

and put them up in your loft, check daily ,you should soon catch them.

they are usually tree rats ,not the dirty sewer rats ,and left the trees to

come in roofs of houses during the raining season.

some people will say the sticky traps are cruel , but these are rats ,vermin.

cause disease and could burn your house down if they chew the electrical wires.

regards worgeordie

Those glue boards are the way to go. You don’t need to check them daily, you will still know when you’ve caught a rat, you will hear it thrashing periodically trying to get out the trap.

Dont use any kind of poison. You will regret it if you do. Rats eat the poison , crawl into an inexcessibe place and die.

As their bodies slowly decompose over a few weeks , the resultant stink is worse than the scratching. A horrible odour of death that can escape through the smallest of holes.

Best thing to do is get some spring loaded traps or cage traps so that you can dispose of anything you catch. Mr DIY sells them and not expensive. Best bait is peanut butter on a puece of bread. This works better rhan cheese.

Rats breed fast and have big litters. You need to be diligent and very pro active.

A couple of years ago I had to leave the country for a couple of minths on business. On my return there was a serious rat and pigeon infestation. Mice even got into the car and built a nest in the air con unit. Cost 2500 to remove the dashboard and clean everything.

Over the following 4 months I was continually catching rats in the ceiling and MILs ceiling. Total was over 40 rats...lost count. Eventually , I got them all and peace returned. Unfortunatrly, rats leave a scent trail so occasionally, even now the odd rat turns up but is quickly trapped.

First 9 years here no rats. I take a couple of months away and infestation due to relatives indifference.

Used the glue traps but the rats sometimes still move about and then that glue gets all over everywhere.

There used to be some really good poison, where once ingested the rats would go looking for water and die elsewhere, pretty sure that got banned as it was killing animals eating the rats.

Yea, the stink of dead rats in the ceiling is horrible, goes on for weeks.

If you have the spare money, use a service.

10 hours ago, bkkryn said:

I have a dog and 2 cats

First of all don't allow pets in the house, pets should live outside.

Place rat food (poison) in ceiling space.

Are you sure the noise is from rats? I had the same sounds which turned out to be a family of squirrels. I live in a rural siruation.

On 6/6/2026 at 9:04 PM, bkkryn said:

Hello there, Ive moved into a house and noticed small footsteps and some scratching sounds.

im assuming its rats and i want to put inside the attic and outside the house.

I have a dog and 2 cats, will they eat these stuffs or this rat bait is mae to only attact rats?

Also will there be any effect if the pets eats the dead rats ?

Any experts out here, please kindly advice.

Thank you in advance.

*Pest control service is the last option, as i dont want any toxic chemicals sprayed inside & outside my house

We had them in our ceiling. My wife's friend came round with a product that is like a soil but it is mixed with cat urine. Sprinkle that around in your ceiling and the rats will vacate.

I don't know what it was called, I can ask tomorrow. I think most Thais would know it.

On 6/6/2026 at 4:04 PM, bkkryn said:

Hello there, Ive moved into a house and noticed small footsteps and some scratching sounds.

im assuming its rats and i want to put inside the attic and outside the house.

I have a dog and 2 cats, will they eat these stuffs or this rat bait is mae to only attact rats?

Also will there be any effect if the pets eats the dead rats ?

Any experts out here, please kindly advice.

Thank you in advance.

*Pest control service is the last option, as i dont want any toxic chemicals sprayed inside & outside my house

Rats could be one thing, however unlikely if you have never seen any around your property.

Much more likely in Thailand would be geckos (as insects in the roof space would be plenty if there is enough space for them to enter), which would be really harmless, maybe even beneficial.

If it is more "heavy" footsteps, it could be a Tokay (then you would likely hear it call though); getting rid of those would be non-trivial as long as they have food (for example then you would have none of the smaller geckos around).

Even big insects like large centipedes are a possibility; careful, one bites you, it is a trip to the hospital and really nasty pain.

The first things I would check for:

- are there lots of geckos around (eg do your cats bring any they caught?)
- are there visible spaces where animals could enter; rats can climb even vertical walls in corner spaces, better along or in rain pipes, so I would start looking in corners and roof connections to neighboring buildings; but there still would have to be some kind of opening at least 3-4 cm wide)
- if there is any such opening, I would look for rat or mouse droppings; those are dirty animals and they always leave unmistakable traces; it would be a lot worse if the rats are able to enter your house and start gnawing on open food laying around, their droppings are quite toxic.

Either way, happy hunting!

Edited June 7Jun 7 by jts-khorat

On 6/6/2026 at 5:04 PM, trucking said:

Best bait is peanut butter

Agree on the peanut butter; if you have it, Nutella will do the same trick much better than cheese or meat.

Also, as others have written: glue traps before cage traps before poison (especially as you have cats).

Works wonders, you can put it in drains etc, so they don't make it to your ceiling.

https://shopee.co.th/product/201317601/29277146826

We get rats in the ceiling every year.

We use one of those spring-loaded oblong cages. They're really cheap. We put it in the ceiling space. We bait it with apple or banana (field rats love banana).

Pretty ease to catch the rat. We hear the noise of the rat rocking the cage, and we take the cage down. Put cage in back of car, drive a decent distance from home, release the rat (and hope it's not 'a homing rat' 😁).

Edited June 8Jun 8 by Bredbury Blue

Can't believe so many are recommending glue traps, awful indiscriminate things. I've caught birds, snakes, geckos, tokays, tree shrews etc in those things.

I've long switched to cage traps which are very effective and give you a clean disposal option to get rid of the rat as you see fit. I still catch the odd tree shrew (vicious little sods) or squirrel but I can release them easily and without any harm.

I use the spring loaded traps bought from shopee or lazada. They are cheap and reusable unlike the glue traps. They don't kill the rats just catch them. The problem is where to release them but we live in the countryside. Poison and sticky traps are an awful way to die.

I has rats/mice in ceiling.

I used live traps (thaiwatsadu) to catch and release. After third on no more. I worried if i used poison they die and smell if i couldnt find them

Edited June 9Jun 9 by thjames007

I have monitor lizards in my ceiling! Any advice on how to get rid of them?

simple. Buy a cat. Rats can smell Cats and leave immediately.

6 minutes ago, Mentors65 said:

simple. Buy a cat. Rats can smell Cats and leave immediately.

I think he's got 2 cats

On 6/6/2026 at 9:04 PM, bkkryn said:

Hello there, Ive moved into a house and noticed small footsteps and some scratching sounds.

im assuming its rats and i want to put inside the attic and outside the house.

I have a dog and 2 cats, will they eat these stuffs or this rat bait is mae to only attact rats?

Also will there be any effect if the pets eats the dead rats ?

Any experts out here, please kindly advice.

Thank you in advance.

*Pest control service is the last option, as i dont want any toxic chemicals sprayed inside & outside my house

I thought I had rat in ceiling occasionally. Then my dog was barking at something in tree next to house. I big jump the squirrel made the roof easily and disappeared under the bottom of tiles. They not like rats and leave after a short time and don't touch wires.

My house same in beginning! depended how the house is designed to be vented. Many Thai houses have areas that are opened to the ceiling from outside to vent the heat, the openings are too big in my opinion and easily allow mice or rice into the area, I went through my house and place large glue traps then I netted the openings. I have two cats and a few more from neighbors that they care of them from the outside. I seen the cats with them in the mouth, dangling them from their mouth playing but not eat them.

On 6/6/2026 at 9:48 PM, JBChiangRai said:

Those glue boards are the way to go. You don’t need to check them daily, you will still know when you’ve caught a rat, you will hear it thrashing periodically trying to get out the trap.

The cruellest way to eliminate any animal is a glue board, causes unnecessary suffering. You still have to drag the glue board with a live rat out of the ceiling and then kill it.

I had the same problem years ago and found the easiest way was to deter the rats coming in at all. I found a scattering of mothballs throughout the ceiling cavity did the job, the rats disappeared and have never come back.

Could be a bird. Agree with some of the others; those glue boards are pretty rough especially if you catch an 'innocent' party just having a wonder. Rats are not nice, but surely better to kill the thing outright with a spring trap...

On 6/7/2026 at 8:07 PM, Maybole said:

Are you sure the noise is from rats? I had the same sounds which turned out to be a family of squirrels. I live in a rural siruation.

And I have a family of three or four geckoes above the ceiling. We sometimes hear them scuttling about, and there's a gap where they come out to s*it (which says something about them keeping their 'home' clean, I suppose) or when it's too hot up there. At least one of them is very dark as they live in the dark - it isn't only chameleons who change colour to match their environment, and so do chingchoks - one of those lives under the microwave and darts out each evening for rice while I'm preparing the dog's dinner. So far there hasn't been the big stink after any die.

Don't be concerned about the rats. Be concerned about the snakes you can't hear scurrying around.

1 hour ago, peterinbangkok said:

I have monitor lizards in my ceiling! Any advice on how to get rid of them?

Consider burning the house down 🤔

we have something in the roof especially in the wet season, thing is the foot steps are a lot heavier than rats but they do scurry about at times and it can start in the late afternoon. We have had specialists come and they threw a lot of baits into the ceiling, apparently they kill the rats and the body dries up and doesnt smell but while it does stop it for a while it soon returns. The thing is it is not all the time & only on occassions, if it is rate wouldnt they be there consatantly all year round

On 6/6/2026 at 9:04 PM, bkkryn said:

Hello there, Ive moved into a house and noticed small footsteps and some scratching sounds.

im assuming its rats and i want to put inside the attic and outside the house.

I have a dog and 2 cats, will they eat these stuffs or this rat bait is mae to only attact rats?

Also will there be any effect if the pets eats the dead rats ?

Any experts out here, please kindly advice.

Thank you in advance.

*Pest control service is the last option, as i dont want any toxic chemicals sprayed inside & outside my house

I put a camera in the roof space to confirm the noise was rats, a Tapo 200 works well.

As @Trucking suggested cage traps are the best option, I had little option as wife's family are reluctant to kill anything.

You would need to take any caught some distance away. I had one get it's tail trapped and it chewed it off. A couple of days later saw a rat on the camera with a short tail, found it's way back.

I had 15 years without rats until someone built a chicken coup on the other side of our wall. Fortunately they never paid the rent and has been gone a couple of years now.

On 6/7/2026 at 7:46 AM, SAFETY FIRST said:

First of all don't allow pets in the house, pets should live outside.

Place rat food (poison) in ceiling space.

BS, my Dog lives in and around the house, as he likes. He does not like to share its territory with rodents and kills or drives them away. So have neither mice nor rats in the house... do you have any other "useful" tips?

Edited June 9Jun 9 by ujay

On 6/6/2026 at 10:04 PM, trucking said:

Dont use any kind of poison. You will regret it if you do. Rats eat the poison , crawl into an inexcessibe place and die.

As their bodies slowly decompose over a few weeks , the resultant stink is worse than the scratching. A horrible odour of death that can escape through the smallest of holes.

Best thing to do is get some spring loaded traps or cage traps so that you can dispose of anything you catch. Mr DIY sells them and not expensive. Best bait is peanut butter on a puece of bread. This works better rhan cheese.

Rats breed fast and have big litters. You need to be diligent and very pro active.

A couple of years ago I had to leave the country for a couple of minths on business. On my return there was a serious rat and pigeon infestation. Mice even got into the car and built a nest in the air con unit. Cost 2500 to remove the dashboard and clean everything.

Over the following 4 months I was continually catching rats in the ceiling and MILs ceiling. Total was over 40 rats...lost count. Eventually , I got them all and peace returned. Unfortunatrly, rats leave a scent trail so occasionally, even now the odd rat turns up but is quickly trapped.

First 9 years here no rats. I take a couple of months away and infestation due to relatives indifference.

Yes. Best advice. You use poison, you have dead vermin in the walls and ceiling, and they slowly decompose, stinking for quite awhile. Trap and remove. Had this problem in house in Texas and it took awhile to get rid of them, as they smell the other rats. A cat or two is a good idea, as they'll catch them like my dog did.