Rat in compost bin.

[Scoot]

Not seen the or seen evidence of the rat for over a week now. Might put a bit more drinking chocolate, flour and baking soda down in the compost bin to see if its eaten ( or knocked over again).

I took the lid off the compost bin too. Not sure how much that would help, if at all.

[nickdub]

I made some bins by putting a steel pole horizontally through the centers of some plastic barrels, and setting it a few feet off the ground on a stand - it does the job on rat prevention and you can tip them up a bit when they're ready to be emptied - you do need lids and a couple of holes in the bottoms to let water drain out.

[4Shoes]

Rats need shelter, food and water. Remove one and they will move on. Don't put food products in compost and lift bins, you remove 2 sources. They should not be happy.

[1Bee]

We had a rat problem associated with our bird feeder.

We were told if the rats didn't have cover, they wouldn't come near the bird feeder, and they would only come out to feed at night. Within a week we'd gone from one solitary rat to six, all feeding in the middle of the day, two feet from our living room window, with no cover available. We had to call pest control and stop feeding the birds, which really upset me because seeing the birds was always such a boost for me, I loved it, and loved supporting them with food.

Ho hum.

We live next to a farm, so rats are a fact of life. But we can't afford to have them settle into our tiny front garden where our boys could come into contact with their leavings.

[4Shoes]

Again exception to rule.
If the Rats are hungry and there is a source of food, they will exploit it. There must have been a lack of food on the farm.
The problem with bird feeders is that birds have bad table manners, scatter food everywhere and make a mess.
Reduce the volume of food available, this will force the birds to clean up as they go, leaving no food for the vermin. Could also try trays under the feeder to collect the food and prevent it falling to the ground.
I watches sparrows discarding wheat and oats so that they could get the food they liked. Perhaps buy food more suited to the birds you are feeding.

[1Bee]

I think they just liked the bird food better. We tried all of those, but some of the birds are just messy feeders even with trays and only giving them exactly what they like. In any case, the rats were climbing up the pole and knocking the bird feeders onto the ground...

[Philthy]

I had a rat a few years ago, tunneled into the enclosure from underneath, which at the time was made out of pallets. Wasn't sure how to get rid of / deter it (or others), so I pulled all the compost out, put a layer of concrete in the bottom, and lined the inside with chicken wire. No more rat/s.
I've got a plastic dalek at the moment; where it sits on the ground it's on top of a piece of chicken wire pegged down. Not noticed any break-in attempts so far. I think those bins are fairly sturdy though, fully enclosed with a twist on lid. It'd be a determined rodent to go to the trouble of chewing a way into it...

[Issy]

We had rats under our decking (decking now removed). We put poison down but they were coming back - they got into,our shed where the poison was stored (gnawed the box open and ate the lot! But- we did not see another rat!!

[bikermike]

We found evidence of a rat (one tunnel, half a dozen droppings) in my compost heap (4 corner poles and chicken wire).
I dug that out, removed it, put slabs down and put a plastic compost dalek in its place (with chickenwire round the lower third to further deter gnawing). Not had a problem since (2 years ago)

In our case, there were big building works a little way away which probably disturbed a lot of them, so I assume they were looking for a new home.

[4Shoes]

(With chickenwire round the lower third to further deter gnawing). Not had a problem since (2 years ago)

If by chicken wire you are talking about 25mm stuff, it will not stop rats.

A Rat can go through a hole the size of a 2p

Squashed up or layered, it will give some protection.