Ultimately you have to find the access point and block it.
Its not that hard to kill a batch of rats stone dead but there will be more sooner or later if the access point is not blocked.
Poison may be an option if you feel confident you will be able to access the dead rat at the end of it.
But given that it entered the kitchen, that could be a problem if the kitchen is a built-in one. Iād also tend to err on the side of caution given that you have a three year old.
Itās a rat @Fitzy. Not the biggest in the world, but as the saying goes, You can only kill whatās in front of you.
The crunchies must be tiny in Australia.
I really donāt like to regale peoples with tales of my bravery and undaunted mettle, however I once killed a rat with a spade. I entered the yard by the top gate and for some fortunate reason I immediately spotted the creature some twenty, or perhaps twenty-one yards away. It had itās back to me and was grazing contentedly from a disused electric griddle that had been reincarnated as a receptacle for hen feed. I believe that some primeval instinct took hold. With my right hand I reached unto āThe Tool Houseā and firmly grasped an old spade. I steadily and quietly traversed the twenty, or twenty-one yards until I stood behind the harbinger of pestilence and plague.
I raised the spade, tensed every muscle and sinew and delivered the weapon with such force than sparks flew from the flagged stone floor. The immediate sensation was of a sharp jolt of pain as I jarred my wrists and arms.
The rat was cut cleanly in two.
I picked up both pieces on the spade and brought them or it to the duhall (sp?) where I buried the creature.
I was seriously pumped on adrenalin.
Donāt fuck with Chuck.