A FAMILY have spoken of their ‘four weeks from hell’ as rats invaded their home and led to broken drains, flooding, an ‘unbearable’ smell and the death of their beloved dog.
Emily Vause has lived with her husband Gareth and their three children in their Berneslai Homes house on Dell Avenue, Grimethorpe, for seven years.
But last month, the family discovered they shared their house with another family of unwelcome guests - a group of rats.
“It has been four weeks from hell,” said Emily, 35. “The first time we found them, the kids were scared because the rats were making a lot of noise. We realised the drains were all broken downstairs and called someone out.
“The second thing was the smell. The poison the pest control men put down had killed the rats from the inside out, and then they’d just been left there.”
Upon hearing the initial reports, Berneslai Homes sent pest control staff to put down poison.
However, this backfired when the poison began to take effect on the rats, which had found their way underneath the floorboards in a bedroom and the landing.
With nowhere to go, the rats’ bodies began to decompose - leaving the family with a ‘horrendous’ smell permeating the house.
They could no longer stay there - Emily said they hadn’t been able to eat a single meal in the house - and while their children spent time at grandparents’ houses, the couple stayed behind.
Pest control were called again, but after their visit did not turn anything up, the tenants decided to carry out their own investigation armed with an endoscopic camera they had bought.
“They lifted the floorboards in the bedrooms and couldn’t see anything,” Emily said. “We lifted them back up after they went and could see a rat straight away.
“We found two rats and a nest where they said they couldn’t see anything.
“But they didn’t want to know. Every phone call we had someone different coming out.
“The inspectors said you don’t normally see a full family of rats in a house. They didn’t believe me when I said I’d seen at least five.”
The family’s two-year-old Border Collie, Chase, became ill shortly after the rat problem started.
Emily believes he was poisoned by the same chemicals put down to deal with the rats.
Emily said: “He got ill on the Friday night, and as the weekend progressed he stopped eating and drinking and then turned yellow.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do, I’ve never had to have an animal put to sleep.
“It destroyed the kids.”
Emily now says that while the problem may have been dealt with, they have been left with the smell of the dead rats and ‘every little noise’ makes them think they have returned.
“We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” she added.
“We keep thinking it still smells but we’re trying our best to pinpoint where it’s coming from.
“And Chase dying has blended in with everything, we can’t even say we’ve had time to grieve.
“That will be the next battle, but first we’ve got to see what we can do to put the house back together.”
A spokesman for Berneslai Homes confirmed the rat problem had now been ‘resolved’ and it was in discussion with the tenants to review the situation, acknowledging the ‘distress caused to the family’.
