Rat seen in the garden!

Unfortunately we had a rat problem, my 91 year old dad has Alzheimer’s & was throwing his food in the garden, the rats eventually moved into the house, every morning i’d Come down & there would be everything strewn about, they’d even managed to open the bread bin, believe you me I absolutely adore ALL animals (am vegan) & tried everything humane but they just got out of control, I HAD to get the “rat man” which I still to this day hate myself for. I also used to feed the birds but have now had to stop, I really feel that feeding the birds encourages the rats, wish people would stop doing it to be honest to save some of the rats. Haven’t seen a rat since & this episode was about 4 years ago now.

Have a word with neighbours. I’m sure they don’t want rats either. You do right to keep doors and windows shut.

Thanks for this Washerwoman.

The RSPB are unequivocal in that rat poisons are harmful to in particular red kites,owls and kestrels who predate rodents ie .secondary poisoning and also if bait found by other wildlife and domestic pets they too can be harmed.

I have to say that I struggle to believe there is a type of poison which rats would find tempting and hedgehogs wouldn't. I remain to be corrected but that does sound strange.

The rat looked as if it owned the place did it OP? How dare it trot across your garden! You are massively overreacting. Leave the poor creature alone. It has as much right to be on this earth as you ?

We now have rats in our at attic

Had pest control (not council) out today to put some traps down. Makes me cringe to think of it.

I think a lot of people are now putting rat poison out in their gardens - I've seen two dead rats recently. I've lived here for twenty odd years and never seen rats before.

The pest control man also said his bait won't hurt hedgehogs, but we haven't seen the three hedgehogs that visit us for months now. We have a camera in the back garden to watch them. We've seen a badger and a few foxes but no hedgehogs. We also have red kites near here, and it concerns me that the the dead rats will be eaten by them.

'Homeowners may be contributing unwittingly to the decline of British hedgehogs by putting down rat poison.The RSPCA has warned. As research showed presence of anti coagulant- chemicals used to kill rodents by stopping blood clotting in 'significant levels ' in hedgehog corpses.
Hedgehog Street the website giving loads of advice on helping hedgehogs also backs this up.The council man has one agenda to kill rats.The fact that so many people are discouraged from feeding birds responsibly,and helping other wildlife is truly depressing.

FrugalPiggy the council man assured me that hedgehogs would not be the slightest bit interested in eating the type of bait he uses, and is no risk except to rodents.

To all other posters - please don't put down poison for rats as hedgehogs may eat it too. Rats are sadly a fact life.

We have rats around our area but unfortunately we also have a lot of foreigners living here and they don’t put their rubbish bags in the bins. The bins are emptied on Monday and on Tuesday the area is overflowing with rubbish and bin bags! They just chuck them at the top of the street. We’ve even seen rats running across the street to get to the bins along with the cats and even seagulls landing on the bins! Because the bins are overflowing they’re all having a picnic every day and night. One of my neighbours saw a rat in her garden and called it her ‘little Stuart’, she put some breadcrumbs out for it, when I say breadcrumbs I really should say lumps of bread then she took photos and put it on Facebook! I went mad at her she thought it was a mouse and said “it hadn’t done anything to her” so thought she’d feed it! God knows what she was thinking! When I told her she was putting her son in danger, telling her, on Facebook, of all the diseases rats and mice carry she soon changed her mind. Loads of people asked her if she was stupid or words to that effect!

Have a look around for any rat holes in the garden. They sound like they are passing through for the food from your neighbour. Touchy subject to approach them about.

Can you ask them if they have seen any?

surely, no one wants rats and where there are rats there will be mice too, only you know if they will stop or not really.

The Council will place rat bait on wires usually within a tunnel entrance and will tell people also to stop putting food out but they can’t actually stop someone unless it is deemed excessive feeding.

Have you a shed at all? We had them going next door for bread and whipping back under our shed same time 3.00 pm every day. We netted the shed off since them with thick wire,

The Council baited our rat holes wasn’t our fault the neighbour kept putting bread out.

When your lounge is at the back like ours you do notice them more.

After decades of keeping poultry, feeding wild birds and owning cats we never saw a rat until last year even though close to the canal and river. This year brought a plague of the beggars. I'll be honest, it was freaking me out. Daytime was not a problem for them, even standing up at my back door. Aaaaaaaagh!
We have moved the bird feeder, cut back fruit bushes, put down citrus bleach, coffee grounds, hot chilli powder, and highly successfully, but surprisingly, talcum powder. 5 traps and a plug in sonic deterrent seems to have won the war. We were getting a real bunch of the little pests and I won't use poison, but they do like peanut butter or chocolate spread. Keeping my fingers crossed that's it but shan't be complacent. Best of luck out there.

You are spot on about the hypocrisy, though. I'm vegan, but many carnivorous friends are over the top about animal welfare and kindness to pets!

Buttonjugs, that's really funny (you sleeping in your car) as I have a JRT that's an expert at sniffing out mice. You'd be amazed at how many cars have resident mice!

I am rodent phobic to the point that when I lived with my mum and stepfather and they got mice, I slept in my car. I once lived in a block of flats and a rat the size of a small cat ran out and in front of my son and I when we returned home one evening, across the area to the back door. I couldn’t sleep properly for weeks listening out for it! Every time I have moved house I haven’t been able to sleep for the first couple of days until satisfied that there are no rodents. I would have to get the pest control people out if I ever suspected that there were any mice or rats around, no question. I would feel guilty but hey, I don’t eat animals. How many of you are upset about wildlife but still eat cows, sheep and pigs?

I believe theres been an great upsurge in people seeing rats around, they have become quite fearless. During lockdown footfall was lessened, businesses closed etc and the rats went unchallenged and came closer to houses for their human foodscraps. They do carry disease which can be harmful to humans (leptospirosis) Your neighbours putting out meat is a great big invitation and a real no no. Experts say we are never more than a few feet away from rats, we just dont see them normally. As others have said, check drain covers, air vents etc and dont leave your back door open. We have found mice, dead and alive in our shed & theyve eaten all our seeds and some bulbs. They have managed to find their way into the laundry which is adjoining the kitchen, we bought various traps but theres still one that evades everything and its giving me the creeps. I bleach & clean & clean but we cannot find its entry point - urghh! at the end of my tether with it. Told hubby I want a rescue cat but he refuses. And he will not remember to close the doors. If I close them I can guarantee he'll have left them open again within half an hour.

I am rodent phobic. So you have my every sympathy. I would call out a rat catcher agency.

I'm in the call the council brigade. If l have any fear at all it is rats. They might be clean in their habits but they carry many diseases, are doubly incontinent, chew through wires and can give a very nasty bite. The pest control people are experts and knowing that the problem is being dealt with.

Every body seems to have more rats due to the lock down with no food places open they have made their way to the estates , You need to get it sorted because they can get under the house and they climb up cavity walls into lofts. they chew wires and anything they can,

We had rats and found they were in the house. The damage they caused was unbelievable, they had eaten through the wiring of the washer, the central heating, one had died and we found it in the condenser at the back of the fridge. You can imagine the smell. In the end we had to take the kitchen ceiling down because of all the wiring. We were told not to have any bird feeders at all. We called the rat man who put traps all round outside the house, we never got one. Since we stopped feeding the birds which is a shame luckily we have never had anymore trouble with rats.

Does your local council deal with rat infestations. Surely if you describe what your neighbour is doing re meat they will investigate and try to find where the rat came from. Failing that there are rat bait traps available to buy. Rat eats the bait goes off and dies. But rats are everywhere hard to find a place where they aren't known to exist.

Phone the council , or a post control firm. They will know the best way of dealing with it. But please, no poison. It would kill everything, including any wandering cats or foxes who may solve the rat problem for you!

I love bats. We used to have a man who came round talking to groups of children about them. He had a couple that he had rescued but couldn't release because of injury. They were cute. Mind I don't think I'd want one flying about my bedroom at any hour!

Most definitely nannypiano when the pest control came out he pointed to neighbours decking which is on two levels and said it is a haven for them