Rat in GH has eaten pots in pots

[Billy's lad]

I am fuming I started some rocket potatoes 6 weeks ago in the green house and have heated it etc and they were just doing nicely stalks about 18 inches tall now

Last night I have been burgled by a rat that has smashed them to bits burrowed down and eaten the seed potatoes

I am gutted and the rat is going to get it now

Any ideas other than poison as I have dogs about ?

[Jay-ell]

Break back traps would be your best bet. Put them into tunnels to prevent the dogs setting them off with their noses or tongues

P. S. A rat trap needs to be more powerful than a mouse trap and can give your finger / dogs noses more than just a painful nip. Make sure that the trap is designed and licensed for rats in order to finish them off instantly.

Live trapping would give you the problem of dispatching the rat - you need to make sure that they are killed instantly and humanely.

You may see some DIY traps involving buckets of water. THIS IS NOT Humane

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/18...ned-a-squirrel

[nickdub]

I have mice, rats etc around the place - mostly its impossible to control them completely given all the bird feeders etc put out by us or neighbors.

Its a pain, but I use shelves and buckets suspended from the roof of the poly-tunnel for things like potatoes I'm chitting - even then I lost over half of the early pea plants which I had growing in a corner of the tunnel.

[Scarlet]

I can't chit any beans or peas in the greenhouse. They all have to be started off elsewhere or they will be eaten in an instant.
Lots of flowers stems were eaten this year along with dahlia tubers. Holes burrowed everywhere. If you have a gun, the live traps are very good.

[Billy's lad]

It also burrowed down for some lilys and in the other gh I have dahlia tubers

I will go to the local agricultural merchants later and get armed to the teeth

[nickdub]

It also burrowed down for some lilys and in the other gh I have dahlia tubers

I will go to the local agricultural merchants later and get armed to the teeth

As I said before controlling the problem with traps or whatever is definitely worth it, but if your situation is anything like mine you'll never be completely free of these pests in the GH etc. Houses can be made rat-proof but that's not a practical option in most GH's, so you have to work around the issue - my method is to suspend some stuff out of reach on string - I currently have a wicker basket with most of my chitting spuds in it hung from the roof of my poly-tunnel with binder twine for example.

[Snoop Puss]

Cats and traps in places where the cats can't get to.

[Jay-ell]

There's a silver Tom that's claimed my plots as part of his territory and I can put up with a bit of cat poop on the beds when every now and then I see him trotting around with a big furry thing in his mouth

[Scarlet]

^^ that's why I like live traps.( I don't want to cause offence ) but it's a good way to keep the numbers down.

We have a serious problem here.

I take my birdfeeders in every night but they still use it in the day if it's quiet - I set up all sorts of contraptions to stop them getting at it. It's amazing how they can climb up a metal pole!

[Jay-ell]

Scarlet - what do you do with them once you've caught them? Round here releasing them elsewhere would just be passing the problem onto someone else. Of course if they're black rats you can't release them back into the wild at all.

[Logunner]

Baking soda, peanut butter, choc powder and cornflour. Mix it with a little water and make bait balls with it.


It won’t come back

[fishpond]

Use these (they work)
RAT MICE MOUSE RODENT PROTECTOR BAIT BOX and SNAP TRAP NO POISON SOLUTION
Buy them over the internet, not cheap, but they worked for me.

[Billy's lad]

So I have set my live trap with a nice potato smothered in peanut butter just outside the green house and have moved all the spuds from the gh up to the potato plot

I got most of them set in until it started pouring down

[fishpond]

So I have set my live trap with a nice potato smothered in peanut butter just outside the green house and have moved all the spuds from the gh up to the potato plot

I got most of them set in until it started pouring down

Problem with your plan is it can't differentiate between a rat and anything else that happens to be passing by.

unsure why you didn't set them inside the greenhouse?

[Billy's lad]

fishpond

Its a live trap with an emtrance about 6 inches by 6 inches so unlikely to trap a roe deer