Rats in the Garden

Greyduster. I have a hanging bird feeder and it was the seed which fell on the ground after the birds had been feeding that regularly attracted a rat. I haven’t used it for years. So wasn’t anything on the ground. Annoying as I used to live watching the birds feeding. I may give it another try.

Wish I could send you my very competent rat catchers, but I can't. Can't do without my two cats.

Could you possibly borrow a couple of rat-catching cats for a day or so, or a fox terrier or similar dog?

Oh Yorkshiregirl that sounds awful! Get the press involved if the council doesn’t help. And I suppose follow all the good advice on here ...

Solitaire "I like them and certainly couldn't kill them", so what did you do with the 14 that you trapped? Not criticising, just interested.

Touch wood I've never seen a rat in our garden in 32 years but we've always had cats so maybe they've kept them away. We must have mice out there though as one of my cats periodically brings one in - and sometimes loses it! It does worry me that we have a derelict piece of land behind us and two garages which were part of the building they demolished so there's bound to be rats in there. I'm a bit concerned that people may put rat poison down and my mouse catcher cat might eat a dead one. He disappeared for 27 hours on Sat and that was one of the scenarios I kept thinking of

I bought humane traps and caught 14 of them in my shed, with chocolate spread on crusty bread.
My daughter had a pet rat which was lovely and learned tricks ☺
Like grannygranby I like them and certainly couldn't kill them.

I would be loathe to use rat poison as it kills everything else as well. Hedgehogs etc. Much better to discourage them to a reasonable level.

I understood it was more a case of the mice leaving as they were being eaten by the rats! We still have mice in the garden. They and the wood pigeons clear up dropped bird food.

I get rat poison from Sainsburys & it is very effective.

I was always told by pest control that when mice leave the rats move in but they don't come together. We only had problems when next door neighbours had guinea pigs in the garden. You need to contact a private company pest control specialists to help. They will return a few times to ensure the poison has worked etc.

Rats, mice, squirrels (small mammals) hate chilli powder/cayenne pepper. They lick their feet once and never come back!

Sprinkle it generously (!) around back of kitchen cupboards and garden perimeter, maybe avoiding pets' areas. Warn children. Sorted - and without using any noxious poisons!

It goes off after 2 years and could be washed away so re-treat as necessary.

I would make sure that there is nothing that is attracting them as has been stated. I stopped feeding the birds a couple of years ago and restarted this year but am very careful. There are rats everywhere, you are never more than 20 foot from a rat in London, so I would leave them alone if they are staying outside.

This is easy.

Find their sources of food and eliminate those sources over which you have control and ask your neighbours to do likewise.

Obtain the support of your council as necessary to eliminate their sources of food within range of your home.

Rats in the garden are often attracted by cooked food ....sometimes unwittingly put on composts heaps without realising this. Only raw vegetables/ fruit peelings etc should be put to compost..never cooked foods of any sort. I wonder if you don,t do this yourself, is it possible your immediate neighbours are doing this without realising the problems it can cause. I would contact your local pest control as this won't go away without professional help I think.

Your MP Yorkshiregirl and the local paper. It’s a health hazard if there are rats in the takeaway and if they’re in the yard they probably are getting inside too.

I have nothing against rats when they’re under control. But, like pigeons and urban foxes they can become a problem when there’s too much rubbish or food available. Once the source has been traced the problem usually disappears.

Oh wow I've just come off the phone to environmental health about a major rat problem in the yards at the rear of a Chinese takeaway and a bar/restaurant next to my lovely home.

They breed in Spring and every year we have this issue mainly because there is food and shelter for them.

The businesses cause these issues by leaving food about and bins wide open.

I've been on to environmental health for 4 months now. It's got extremely bad and dozens of the horrible little buggers are running about.

I really don't know what else to do, and I am frightened to death.

I've always understood that we're never far from a rat. I must say I wouldn't stop feeding the birds because of a rat - unless s/he brought the whole family round. We have 2 cats so perhaps that's a good deterrent because I've only ever seen one once ages ago in our garden and it wasn't well.

Poor old rats. They are opportunists like us and don’t we hate them for it. Yet our rat phobia enables the medical companies et al to experiment on them by the million without anyone complaining. We owe them a lot. I used to be an animal technician at the medical research council they are the most charming intelligent of animals.

We live in the countryside and were delighted when our Wire Haired Fox Terrier revealed himself to be a first class ratter.

The first time he caught a rat was in our neighbour's compost heap. He leapt to catch it in the air, one shake of his head and the thing was a goner.

The dog came rushing into the garden with the dead rat in his mouth, and sat down in front of me.

I offered him a Bonio in exchange... but he continued to stare at me with the rat in his mouth.

I then offered him two Bonios, and the rat was immediately dropped at my feet.

We firmly believe he was negotiating his rate per rat.

For many years he kept the surrounding area reasonably rat free... and was loaned out to local farmers on a contract basis at the bargain price of two Bonios per rat !!

They apparently also have no bladder sphincter muscle which means they dribble pee. I often think of that when told what good pets they make.

We had a rat problem and found that they were nesting under wooden decking next door. The council chap laid bait and they went. he said that decking is a very bad thing to have as rats and mice LOVE it.

Rats are immune to most current poisons. The only one I have found that works is Jaguar....you can get it in big tubs from Countrywide type shops....about £50.....but you must get a bait box as it will kill any animal that eats it. Wear gloves to fill the box. We had a colony of rats under our shed, due to owning rabbits and feeding the birds, our 2 cats didn’t touch them!.....however the 2 young cats we have now are a formidable team......so you could always get a couple of black cats!.....I am never certain if it’s the poison or the cats!....also no worries re cats etc eating the dead/dying rats as the poison is quickly metabolised.....but if you find a corpse I would bin it just to be on the safe side.

DH was turning over the contents of the compost bin and pulled at a buried root. However the 'root' proved to be the tail of a decomposing rat (sorry those of you having elevenses!) Council advised getting rid of bird feeder, but their traps were useless, however Homebase rat poison got rid of the family. They make me shudder because of the diseases they carry

Weil’s disease
Salmonella
Tuberculosis
Cryptosporidiosis
E.Coli
Foot and mouth disease

so they are the only animal I want to get rid of. (okay, not fond of wasps either!)

council pest controller at a cost ...
tidy your garden of ALL food including bird food for a month or so...
carefully put down "cheesy rat" (or something like that...) protect from pets ... death will occur

good luck ....

Sitting in the garden with the cat we watched a huge rat amble across the lawn. Cat never batted an eyelid at the time but the next morning I was presented with a very dead rat on the doorstep. The following morning there were six baby rats laid out there, simple answer is adopt a cat!