Rat in the garden!

Please keep putting out food for the small birds, rats have always been with us & always will be. The birds you fed last winter had healthy broods thanks to your kindness, and this year their nestlings are adults & need food for the next generation come spring. It's wonderful to think that the gradual increase in small bird population year on year is due to human generosity. I'd love to think that the robins, sparrows, finches, tits etc are visiting my garden because I helped.

Rats are everywhere, just because youve not noticed them doesnt mean they arent there. Readily available food sources will bring them in.

Sorry about the missing apostrophe! I hit post message instead of preview.

Obviously, your neigbours cats aren't the kind that hunt and kill rats, nor is the dog.

You need the municipal rat-catcher, or even better a neighbour who has any of the breeds of dog that enjoy ratting. These are usually terriers or mongrels with a great deal of terrier or dachshund in their ancestry.

It is said that cats catch rats if their parents did. I wouldn't know, never having seen the father of my competent rat-catching cats, but I believe rat-catching is something kittens learn, either by trial and error or by being taught it by an elder cat.

We had rats in our garden, attracted by bird food. The trouble was they didn’t stay in the garden last year they invaded the shed, the foundations of our house and eventually the house. To make matters worse, one died under the units in the kitchen; the smell was horrific. We removed the dead rat, but the smell lingered on and on. No more feeding of birds for us, which is very sad but we can’t risk the rats coming back.

Rats can cause a lot of damage, chewing through electrical cables, wood, plastic, drains.

They also spread disease through their urine.

They can breed from about three months old, producing litter after litter.

We used to feed the birds, but have stopped since seeing a family of rats climbing up the tree where the feeder was.

If you do away with their food source, they go away and find another one.

We see rats from time to time as we live by a cut where you see barges.
To stop them climbing bird feeders spray the pole with WD40.
They can`t climb the pole as they end up sliding down.

Do any of your neighbours have decking? In summertime when people eat outside, food drops down through any gaps and it's a constant source of food for rats. Also poisoned rats look for water so if you have a pond they will use that too. I've sprinted chilli and Tabasco over the floor in my shed and it seems to work SO FAR!

I live near a river and have had rats living in my compost bin more than once, feeding on vegetable waste. They are, like mice, rather sweet, but when one got too cheeky, rummaging about near my back door I had to lay poison. I feel really bad about this vivez au dessus les autres and all that, but hubby leaves the back door open and I can't risk a rat in the house. I'll probably be reincarnated as a rat, and it will serve me right.

To be honest we all have rats in or around our gardens- even if we live in the middle of town. It is said that we are never more than a few feet from a rat. They prefer to keep away from us if they can.
I used to keep chickens & I often saw them around the shed where the food was kept. We now live opposite woodland so we know there are rats about. We do sometimes see one but the only time they get into house is when one of the cats brings one in & then it is dead.
They are not the dirty, disease prone animals you think- they are actually very clean animals. They just get a bad press.
I had a pet rat as a child & he was very sweet & really clean.
Don't stop feeding the birds- they do need the extra food at this time of year. Plus you have the fun of watching them.
You can always get one of those tall metal feeders that have 2 hooks for the food containers- it would take a very agile rat to climb them- we have several & never seen a rat on them. Feeding them on the ground is an invitation for the rats!
Learn to love your rat- they won't hurt you- they are far more scared of us than we are of them.

They can cause the drains to collapse, and will usually have found or made ways in and out of them long before damage is suspected!

We have lived in our current home for over 20 years now, and I have lost track of the number of times that we have had to get pest control out to deal with the rat problems, and of the types of damage that have been done.
Sometimes we deal with it our self - like when they were treating my veg patch as a takeaway (who would have thought that they would get a taste for beetroot?), but for the drain infestations, and loft damage, we have got the professionals in.

We have hanging feeders only here and feed the birds year round. I've not seen any rats except near the river - where they do tend to nest, always near water.

I'm sure that they live (quite happily) in all the drains and sewers. What is important is to maintain the pipes so that they can't get out. There's no need to worry about them getting in!

My daughter has seen rats in her garden. She insists on throwing food for the birds on her grass. We've told her, food on the ground will bring rats.

Yes, there are rats everywhere, but the more food is readily available, the more likely they are to nest and breed near that food source.
The more rats there are in close proximity to your home, the greater the chances that they will find a way into it. Even if they don't, they can cause very expensive damage in your drains/sewage pipes.

I was told that if you can put a pencil through a hole then mice can get in. Perhaps rats can do something similar.

Our ex neighbour used to put masses of food out for the birds and it mainly attracted vermin as it stayed on the ground for days/weeks.

Birds should only be fed if you can be consistent which isn’t always possible for us. When it gets icy I put water out each day as it’s hard for them once everything freezes. I use an upside down dustbin lid propped up with bricks and then put a brick in the middle of the lid so the birds can rest on it. OH thinks I a m nuts!

I wouldn’t stop feeding the birds. They depend on us in the winter months. I put block rat poison where I knew the rat was feeding, making sure nothing else could get to the poison. The blue blocks disappeared (apparently they take them back to the nest or den)
And that was the end of that!
My neighbour has a very overgrown unkempt garden which is the b perfect place for rats to live and breed.
I also told the council as it’s against the jaw to provide harbourage for vermin.Till the next time!!

Isn’t the saying ‘Never less than six foot away from a rat’?

Rats love garden huts to nest in, and underneath them

4allweknow - the shed is raised and the space below was deemed to be suitable for a bee's nest a few summers ago, so I guess they could be sheltering or living there. Chilli powder to be bought ASAP!

I've checked the extractor fan outlet and it's doubtful that a rate could access it (although I know they're very agile!).

Living by the coast we have gulls nesting on most of our roofs, apart from the miseries who hate them, we dont have a rat problem. We were told several years ago that rats & gulls do not get on so maybe this is why we do not see too many rats. There are fields at the back of our road so perhaps there is a food source for rats there?
Maybe we are just lucky???

Is it really such an issue? We also live in an area near woodland and very near the river. There are occasional rats and mink, as well as foxes, mice etc. I wouldn't stop feeding the birds unless there was lots of rats. A few are not going to do you any harm. If you just feed the birds a certain amount per day and that's that it shouldn't develop into a rat problem.

Is your shed raised or is it flat on concrete? Sometimes if not flat rats get underneath, lovely hiding place for them. If all okay then a wooded area is a natural place for rats to inhabit. Any kind of food accessible will be a magnet for them. Saying that I too have woodland behind me and I feed birds. No rats visible. My DH made a tray/platform for the bird feeder to catch any seeds etc that would normally drop on to the grass. Perhaps this limits the food source for the vermin.

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I went away for a week last month to babysit my gch. I left some treats out for Bluetits, Sparrows, Robin's etc but was horrified to find a rat feeding when I returned. I took the treat down and binned it, then the rat actually clung to the peanut feeder and ate the peanuts. After chasing it away again, I saw a Sparrowhawk standing under the feeder. So all the feeders have now been taken down and everything cleaned up. I mentioned this to a neighbour and I was told that neighbours of hers have stopped keeping chickens so I suppose they are looking for another food source. It's such a shame as my friends and I have had so much pleasure sitting in the garden, drinking coffee and watching the birds this summer.

Sadly I had to stop feeding the birds as it was attracting rats. You will never stop rats as there are so many around but you can stop encouraging them with food which unfortunately means that the birds might have to go without.