Our Council don't charge, and made numerous visits until we and our next door neighbours were happy that the visitors were no longer with us. It was a stressful time. It's really not nice to share your home with rats.
Our council rat man was great, explained everything clearly. His role wasn't just to trapping, he gave us a lot of information and advice about how to keep them out in future. Pointing all the likely points of entry and what might be attracting them.
Naturally, we were worried about using poison, this is a rural area, with everything sitting on the doorstep from roe deer to rabbits. And of course most of us have beloved dogs. The bait was placed very carefully where there was evidence of rat activity, and in little sealed boxes with tiny entry and tiny exit, so was perfectly safe. I couldn't get at it, and I did try, just to be sure.
Clearly, you can't muck about with poison, but neither can you muck about with rats.
Always best to work with an expert, someone who actually knows what they are talking about. And as indicated in various posts, poison isn't always the only solution, though in our case we did opt for it because of the sheer numbers.
Snap traps deal with one at a time. Our local game keeper uses these traps to keep numbers down around her feedstores. Last year the body count was in excess of 260. More of a hobby than a solution? Fine to keep a reasonable check on overall numbers, but not the quick fix needed when they are heading for your kitchen cupboards.
