Rats!

[eskymo]

Hi All

We spotted a Rat in the garden yesterday! It came out from under the neighbours shed and picked up a load of seeds that had fallen to the ground from the bird feeder and ran back under the shed again! It's been doing this periodically all of this morning as well.

What to do?

We think a hedgehog was hybernating under the shed with it's wee ones, but not sure if they are still there or if the rat would have killed them and eaten them.

Should we remove the bird feeders from the garden?
Shoud we lay out traps?
Do you call the council about these things?

I'm worried that it's going to knaw through my plastic compost bin, but not aure rats go for rotting vegetables and vegetation.

Help!

[smallblueplanet]

Hi eskymo

brrrr, I hate rats (don't listen sewer_rat!) - we had the same thing happen when we lived in a small village in Derbyshire. It was semi-rural and people would feed birds and keep rabbits etc, so there was lots of 'stray' food about.

The rats weren't breeding in our garden (but under a pigeon coup) - although they'd been in the compost bins (we turned them out and forked them over to check) - they were coming for the dropped birdfood.

We tried getting rid ourselves but its not easy. The bloke next door lent out the upstairs window after spotting one and offered to get his gun - but I thought better of it.

We called in the council and they put down poison in covered containers - now I hate killing things, I'm a veggie and we're organic but rats are vermin and carry disease, so it had to be done. I'd have preferred to let the old boy at them with his gun, better than poison, but that wasn't practical.

We still fed the birds but from hanging feeders not a table and I wouldn't put any 'edible vegetable matter' (they'd been eating cut up bits of cabbage stalk) in our compost bin. But we did get a worm bin we're our 'food waste' was put instead - but there's not much because there's only two of us and we don't peel owt!

Good luck with what you decide. But be careful, its true what they say about cornered rats they will go for you (and they jump).

Manda

[eskymo]

Thanks for the info.

Our compost bin is a covered plastic affair, and I checked around it today and there is no sign of entry at the bottom, but I firmed down the soil around it again just in case and we're taking the bird feeder down later on today.

Our neighbours says he's got some enclosed traps at work - the ones where you put poison in and the rat gets trapped within it - so he's going to bring those home and try them. I don't like the idea of killing animals either especially as I think it's a mother with young, but I suppose it has to be done or the situation might get worse.

e

[smallblueplanet]

One thing about calling the Council is they're free (well at least ours was)!

sbp

[eskymo]

I'd rather avoid the hassle. Everytime I've called the council about stuff, they've been totally useless and I've been transferred to countless other departments or numbers and I just can't be bothered with it.

[poultrychat]

I would get yourself some rat poison and put it under the shed, you can buy special 'boxes' that the poison goes in so no other livestock can get it except mice I think.

[blackkitty]

We get the odd rat from the stream near our house. Fortunately (or unfortunately) depending how you look at it, they tend to be headless under the diningroom table when we spot them. Something to do with a cat who's a phycopath....

[smallblueplanet]

Unfortunately some rats do fight back - the OH's cat was killed by a rat.

[sewer rat]

Eskymo
You may kill at will - all my relations are in Glasgow - "weegie rats"
Poison is your best and safest option. I would give the Council a buzz as they are duty bound to come out, lay their bait traps and keep coming back on a regular basis until there are no signs of any rats. And they're free - it's what you pay your Council Tax for.

[eskymo]

Our neighbour's wife knows someone who deals with rats and so we discussed the issue this morning and decided to call him - he's from the council and came straight away - but is costing us £30 - but I will query this with him in the morning as I agree with sewer_rat that our council tax should cover it.

He laid some bait traps down under the shed and is coming back tomorrow morning to check on them. Apparently there's been a rat issue down the road just a few houses away so he wasn't suprised that some rats had made a home underneath the shed here.

[eskymo]

nice avatar sewer_rat by the way - I only noticed that after I posted my last thread.

[Janette]

Anybody tried sonar or sonic deterrant? There is aparently a rat problem at our allotment and we did have signs of digging when we took over. They seemed to have been digging up the potatoes that the previous occupant left in the ground. Aparently they come off the railway embankment but I haven't seen one yet - thankfully.

[Green gardener]

[QUOTE=Janette]Anybody tried sonar or sonic deterrant? There is aparently a rat problem at our allotment and we did have signs of digging when we took over. They seemed to have been digging up the potatoes that the previous occupant left in the ground. Aparently they come off the railway embankment but I haven't seen one yet - thankfully.[/QUOTEIt would be so nice if people would think about kinder, more humane ways to deter so called 'Pests' they don't want around their gardens or homes, rather than just straight away say "Poison them!" or "Lay traps!" After all, these so called 'pests' are just trying to survive like the rest of us!

[Squirrel]

But what is the answer? If you chase them away they will just come back and they bring disease with them. If they don't come back they are going to cause distress elsewhere! Before the country was so built up, I am sure that the natural predation took care of them.

[eskymo]

Having rats on an allotment is one thing - having rats in your back garden meters away from your home is another. I understand that a humane way of dealing with the problem would be ideal, but if there is an infestation on the way I doubt you'd want them in your back garden and would get the rat catcher in to deal with the situation. We got rats simply by having bird feeders in the garden and the dropped seed was free food and attracted them in. When we got the ratcatcher round we found out we were not the only people affected - most of the gardens in our street were having a similar problem.

I'm all for being human, but rats can spread disease and we had to deal with the issue very speadily.