Stop Rats Climbing Up Drain Pipes – a simple but highly effective solution for homes and businesses

The question here is whether you actually need to stop rats climbing into your property through the drains and essentially there are two factors to consider;

• are rats likely to crawl up through your drains? And
• are there going to be rats near your property that are likely to try?

Looking at the first of these it is worth considering how rats can get into a property and cause all that damage and distress. They can squeeze through holes that appear much smaller than their bodies and are quite adept at making even the smallest hole bigger so they can get in almost anywhere.

Rats and Drainpipes

However one of the favoured methods rats use to gain entry to your home is through the sewage and drainage system. They are superb swimmers and will exploit any damage in the pipe work to gain entry and can even swim right up to the toilet bowl (although thankfully this is a fairly rare occurrence).

One of the reasons they favour using drains as a means of entry is that rats need constant access to a source of water and your plumbing and drainage system makes for a perfect habitat.

Are we really never more than 6 feet from a rat?

Looking at the second factor, according to a very popular urban myth, ‘you are never more than six feet away from a rat’. Like many urban myths, this has grown out of a perfectly reasonable statement being misquoted and then seized upon by people who are only to ready to sensationalise things.

This statement is often attributed to Dr Stephen Battersby, an environmental health and housing consultant who has researched British rat infestation for decades What he actually said in an interview in the 1990’s was that ‘in certain areas you could be as close as 6 feet away from a rat’.

According to figures produced in 2014 by Dr David Cowan, a wildlife leader at the Food and Environment Research Agency, there are an estimated 3 to 3.5 million rats in the UK although only half of those live in and around our homes and in sewage systems. Dr Battersby put the figure at around 10 million, so whichever estimate you believe it makes an awful lot of rats.

Prevent Rats Entering with a Drain Blocker Rat Flap

It is pretty clear that in many areas of the UK protecting your property from rats climbing up through the drains is a very sensible precaution and the simplest way of stopping this type of entry is to fit a rat barrier in the drain.

This needs to something that allows the water out but has a flap that closes to stop the rats getting in. This is why our ‘Ratwall’ drain rat flap makes the perfect solution.

It is easy to install in the main drainage outlet between the property and the main sewer and can be used in 4 inch (100mm & 6 inch (150mm) drainage systems in clay, PVC and cast iron materials. Most properties will feature a single main drainage outlet but Ratwall can also be used in terraces or flats where several outlets feed into a common main drain.

Made from stainless steel, our rat blocker is maintenance free and features an external hinge so that debris does not snag the device. It is the ideal drain protection as it allows the full capacity of the pipe to be employed and ensures that rats cannot infest your home or property through the drainage system.

If you would like more detail on the Ratwall rat flap for drains, you will find a handy installation guide and data fact sheet on the website or you can call 0800 130 3646 (option 4) for further technical assistance.