Preventing Rats coming into your home!

Last night, to my complete displeasure I found a very unwelcome guest in my living room as I was about to go to the kitchen to get another beer after a productive evening surfing the net and watching TV.

Thankfully, the intruding rodent was, (or appeared to be) severely ill as I'd left rodenticide behind my fridge and under my sink after a previous uninvited visitor was found lurking in my kitchen sniffing around my compostable food waste bin looking for scraps. That was two years ago, and the previous intruder was but a small mouse. However, the rodent on this occassion was a fairly large rat and I was pretty shaken up and very cross at the same time to be honest!

The filthy pest was comparitively easy to snare being it was clearly afflicted as, after all, it had polished off all the poison behind the fridge and under my sink. An empty shoe box and a slide of carboard underneath, tape up the box and board, chuck into a black bin liner and walk a quarter of a mile and throw the damn thing over the banking. That may have been job done for now but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how I can stop these vermin getting into my flat to begin with.

1) There seems to be a hole in the outside wall to my kitchen and I live in a three storey flat. Is it common to get infestations in a flat more than in a house? What can I do?

2) If so, how would I go about finding where the hole is and how do I fill it up and what should I fill it up with? I think the vermin are coming in through the cavity walls between my kitchen window and the fridge. What can I do to stop that?

3) I live in the middle flat in a three storey block and the neighbours above and below me are adamant that they have never received any nasty surprises of the vermin kind and no trace of it either (ie. rodent faeces). Which is strange as I have been told by pest control before that the point of entry to a block of flats is either above or below and not in the middle.

Any advice someone could give would be most appreciated. I don't want to see any more of these filthy beasts in my home! I can't keep a cat as I live in the middle floor so can't let the feline in or out. And a Jack Russel or something would also be out of the question as I don't have enough time to keep a dog. So no animal suggestions please. However any practical advice on what I can do to block the points of entry would be very welcome.

How are the rats these days?

I live in the Lincolnshire "countryside" (infact, it's just flat, dire, repetitive farm land).

Anyway, with in a month of moving in we had mice, but within a week they were gone, and they haven't returned in over a year. We bought one of those plugs that you plug in, one which makes a really quite sound now and then. I think must shatter rodents heads or something.

Try one. It worked for us.