Rats near you

Weight and rhythm are the giveaway. A possum is heavy and slow, lands with a thump, and often makes a guttural hissing or coughing call; it also tends to leave at dusk and return before dawn, which you can hear as two distinct events. A rat is lighter, faster, and produces continuous scurrying and gnawing rather than thumps. The distinction matters enormously because a possum is a protected native animal and cannot be dealt with the way a rat can. If you are not sure, get somebody to look in the roof void before anything is set.

The outside is usually where the problem is fed. Fallen fruit, an open compost heap, spilled poultry feed, an accessible bin and a pile of timber against the fence support a population that simply uses the roof as a bedroom. Treating indoors alone gives you a quiet few weeks and then a return, because the resources that made the property attractive are still there. Deal with the food and the harbourage first, close the routes second, and control what is left third.

There is one worth taking precautions about. NSW Health notes that mice, rats and other rodents may carry infections that can spread to people, either through direct contact with the animals or through contact with soil, food or water they have contaminated. Its practical advice is to wear gloves, waterproof protective clothing and footwear, and to cover cuts and abrasions with a waterproof dressing, and it suggests that anyone pregnant or immunosuppressed should not handle carcasses. Throw out any food a rodent has reached rather than washing it.

Unfortunately, not a great deal quickly. If the carcass can be located and reached, removing it is the only real fix, and a technician with an inspection camera can sometimes find it through a ceiling or a cavity. If it cannot be reached, the smell will fade over a period of weeks, and ventilation, an odour-absorbing product and patience are what is left. It is the strongest practical argument for trapping over baiting in a roof void or a wall: a trap keeps the animal somewhere you can find it.

Very possibly. A poultry run with feed available during the day and spillage overnight is one of the most reliable rat food sources in a suburban street, and so is an aviary, an open compost heap or a neglected fruit tree. The unwelcome implication is that a fix confined to your property may not hold. The conversation is easier if it is framed around feed storage and spill clean-up rather than blame, since covered feed bins and evening tidying solve most of it without anyone having to give up their chickens.