Rat seen in the garden!

I don’t want to frighten you but we have just gone through the same problem and it didn’t end well. One of the rats got into the house somehow probably via the drains or airbricks. I heard something between the downstairs and upstairs floors and then in the hall wall. My husband told me I was stupid and/or imagining things this went on for a few weeks. Then I noticed a smell but couldn't work out where it was coming from once again my husband said I was imagining things. Over a few days, the smell got worse and worse and eventually, I discovered the source. Not before going all around the kitchen on hands and knees with my nose to the ground! My husband still denied there was a problem until I more or less forced him onto his hands and knees in the kitchen, then he recoiled in horror! We tried to remove the skirting boards but the kitchen units are built in around and over them. We then tried lifting the floors out of one of the units but those units are built to last. One broken unit later we discovered an enormous very dead rat wedged into the base of the units. It took weeks to get rid of the smell and several more weeks to rid the garden of rats (thanks to the local council).
The council workers were incredibly careful with the poison. They put it deep down in the drains where no cats or birds could get. That is not without problems because the rats are likely to die in the drains! We think the one in the house found it’s a way in and then couldn't get out again. It was well and truly stuck – poor thing.

I can sympathise. Rats have a "run" from there nest to their food supply, so this rat is cutting across your garden from his home to where ever the food is.
Experts say remove food firstly, so perhaps make neighbour's aware of the problem and ask nicely not to feed birds (they are extremely good climbers), also remove any rubbish laying about where they can nest. Under huts and decking are popular for them, but ant old wood or stones piled up will suffice, and I agree compost bins are a bad attraction for them. You can buy bait boxes that small animals cannot access

My husband has done the course to be able to use strong rat poison. We used to have chickens and for long periods we had no rats but three lots in succession was enough. I hate them and go all girly and jump on chairs if I see rats or mice! They like to live under sheds etc. The course was just 1 or 2 days and showed you how to use strong poison safely, avoiding secondary poisoning of other animals. We found none of the proprietary rat traps worked but there are some ingenious things on the internet which do work, you need a strong stomach though, one involves a plank leading to an empty dustbin which they fall into and you dispose of them as you wish. If I were you I'd have a chat with whoever is putting food down for them & use traps & chemicals safely first and then get someone in if they're still a problem. Many local councils no longer have pest control services but tell you to use a private one. The poison doesn't give them pain, they just go to sleep, we came across one that had made a nest with straw in a box in the shed and curled up inside it never to wake up. It looked very sweet, I could just about manage to look at it without screaming!!!

Mr Barmey was pushing the compost down in the compost bin and heard a noise, so he poked into it with a stick and a rat ran out. My fault I had left the little hatch thing at the bottom open. Not seen him since.

I like rats but I had a rats' entrance to the underneath of my house concreted over last week. I don't want rats visiting or nesting in my loft or wall cavities. The main reason being they sometimes gnaw through electric cables. also when they die it causes a bad smell.

Many rat poisons are terribly cruel and can kill other creatures too. They don't even control the rat population as when a lot of rats are killed the females breed faster.
It is much more effective to simply keep the blighters out of your house.

It was their neighbours putting out meat for the kites which started alarm bells witzend . There's none so strange as folk.

When I was young I'm sure we were told to bury bad meat.

Who on earth would put any meat or fish, cooked or raw, on a compost heap anyway? I read somewhere that bluebottles can smell meat or anything dead from a mile away!

We do have food waste bins but any scraps of meat or fish here - (never much at all unless there’s a chicken carcass) still go in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come.

I do put scraps of meat fat out for the birds, but I can almost guarantee that they’ll be gobbled up within about 3 minutes anyway.

I am also shocked to hear how many of you resort to poison.
Your neighbours shouldn't put out meat. Even feeding the birds is likely to attract rats. Why wouldn't it?
I don't feed the birds. (except maybe in the depths of winter when I put some fruit on the ground in cleared snow)
I reckon they are designed to find their own food especially if there are plenty of wild areas in the garden. Your hedge may be home to hedgehogs if you are lucky OP.
We have wrens nesting in a shrub just beside the window.

I never put cooked food or meat or fish on the compost heap.

My DGP had a farm and as long as rats didn't get into the house......
Under the bed would be awful but under the shed? We have to share this planet with many species and we can't always pick and choose.

So yes YABU

GrannySomerset, thanks for the heads up on the feeders. I believe there are pigeon (and rat) proof ones that close when a certain weight is on them, but remain open for smaller birds.

ExD, it's interesting to hear about what you do on the farm. I expect that you're content to keep their numbers down, rather than having any hope of eliminating them. A few JRTs would probably help!

Nobody wants an infestation of rats but just the odd one? well not sure I would freak out so much but then I have cats and dogs who would see them off! (Maybe your solution OP ha ha)

I absolutely LOVE all wildlife so do put out food for birds. Not yet seen a Rat, maybe cos of said previously animals?

Some people object to squirrels, saying they are rats too. Well they might be, but they sure are cute ones. Actually pet rats are pretty lovely also? Still wouldn't love a whole tribe of them in my garden like.

Do you put food out for the birds?
We have a visiting rat, attracted by the bird seed that DH will scatter on the ground for the visiting pheasant.
I've noticed that when we are out of bird seed I dont see the rat.
I have been told that they mo e on if there is no food.

We gets rats on the farm - its a fact of life with all the animal feed and grain around.
We use rat blocks and they are put in secure bait boxes (a bit like drainpipes) so that only the rats can reach them. You don't usually see corpses lying around, I understand they die in the nests (often in drains - the smellier the better) and predators don't usually eat them. Most predators, especially cats, don't like carrion or already dead food - but it does worry me that some other animal may catch a drowsy rat and ingest the poison too.
Your rat will take a solid block back to the nest, and will come back on several consecutive days later and take additional blocks away too, so you have to keep 'feeding' them. Three or four blocks are needed to kill a full grown rat.
I really hate using poison - but traps can also catch other animals, cats, dogs, foxes, hedgehogs and birds. What's the answer (please don't say trap them and release them into the countryside - we don't want them either!)
Has anyone an alternative? Live with them?
Send for the Pied Piper?

Borrow someone's Jack Russell for a couple of days purplepixie that will sort the problem. I hate rats too.

Hetty - we had posh bird feeders with saucers underneath but the pigeons soon learned to perch on them and swing the feeders widly so that sunflower hearts (we have very choosy birds) spilled on to the ground below. Saucers removed, it took the pigeons several weeks to learn that that particular party piece was over!

Nanna58

How sad that people stopped feeding the birds, I would have politely but very firmly refused to stop.

Same here when we have seen the occasional rat a busybody neighbour instructed everybody to stop feeding the birds. I carried on as usual saying I'm only putting a small amount of bird seeds out each morning which are eaten quickly and no bread or other leftovers are put out later in the day. The poor birds!

If you've checked that they can't get under your floor and chew through electrical wiring, there are no nests on your property and they can't access food, there's no problem

The family of rats who were living in the space between the living rooms and the cellar most definitely had been chewing at wires. We'd thought the tv was on the fritz for a few days, not knowing what was going on beneath our feet. One of our neighbour kept chickens in his back garden and his chicken feed was attracting rats by the score in the whole row of houses. As he flatly refused to move his chicken feed to an inaccessible store, poison was the only solution and one we all willingly agreed on. And I'd do the same again if I had them on my premises.

I'm also quite horrified at the admissions on here about using poison, especially Magshard20's tale of her husband putting it 'under the fence'. It shows total disregard for wildlife!

The government site states 'You must protect other animals from traps or poison you put down for pests'

www.gov.uk/pest-control-on-your-property

If you've checked that they can't get under your floor and chew through electrical wiring, there are no nests on your property and they can't access food, there's no problem.

Of course, a pest controller will take your money, show you bodies, and declare 'problem solved' - then 'laugh all the way to the bank'!

It has been said that we are rarely more than ten feet from a rat. They are a fact of life; unwelcome but there.
We have two cats, but still get mice left around the house.
DW used to help at a cat refuge. Rats actually dug their way into the pit, in the enclosure, that the cats used as a toilet! One cat stood over the hole and wee'd down it. The problem seemed to lessen!
Rats will wander far and wide in the search for food. You are doing the right thing in making sure that you don't leave anything about that they could eat. They will chew their way through plastic items in their search. metal containers are less palatable, so use large tins, or an inverted metal bucket.

Just to add..........if rats eat poison, then whatever eats the rat (fox, Magpie, badger, etc) will also be poisoned. Not a pleasant death.

I've had/got rats in my garden - which is about 60ft long - but I'm not concerned whatsoever. As long as they stay down there, and don't come into the house, they're not harming me.
They're a wild animal and food for a fox if one catches them. All part of the food chain. My cat doesn't bother to even look at them.

Thank you for all of your replies. We have no intention of doing anything to get rid of them in any barbaric ways. The initial shock of seeing the rat has worn off and we are intending renewing the fences in the near future. It wont get rid but the garden is going to have a big tidy up.

Also I was traumatised as a child by rats and I even used to have nightmares about them at the age of 7. We lived on the edge of a large village and the farmer had the haystacks on the other side of our back garden. When the combine harvester had been the place was riddled with them. Once when I was out walking my dog a rat attacked him and was attached to his paw. Well, the dog was a terrier and soon had it dead but I was hysterical. My dad had to take the dog to the vets and I never went out without him. He killed lots of them over the years. I hate them and I did over act when I saw it in our garden. Thank you for your responses.

And some barbaric human has put loads of rat poison down in our local wood.A dog walker found 7 separate lots.Imagine the cumulative effect of that on the local wildlife.Ditto unless I had a serious infestation in my house I personally would leave nature to sort itself out as Hetty said.I found several rabbits dying in dreadful circumstances earlier this year ,apparently a haemorrhagic disease that's evolved from myxamatosis introduced by us to kill rabbits.I would far rather a farmer took out a gun and dispatched them quickly and more humanely.

Meant to add, we live next to fields and have a stream running through the garden. There’s not been many days when I’ve not seen a rat!

I actually hate the idea of poisoning any creature.It is a horrible way to die.

Oopsadaisy3, Oh dear, I've never had that happen. Maybe, being vegan, my food scraps aren't that interesting!

If we all had night cameras, we'd be seeing rats everywhere. They can travel a long way from their nests for food. I'd only worry if they nested on, or under, my property. We have plenty of foxes and owls here to keep their numbers down.

I have hanging feeders on long lengths of plastic washing line (to keep the squirrels off them) and when I replace them, I'll get the 'non-spill' type with a saucer underneath.

I won't stop feeding the birds, though. A neighbour had rats because she kept chickens (they could get to their food) and had to have her house re-wired because of them!