Rats

trisher is absolutely right - you have to kill them .

Building work in our road disturbed them and we've had them twice .

They ate their way through the electric wires supplying the oven and have fused out the house .

They ate through the hosing on the dishwasher and flooded out the downstairs .

I've had to throw out a great deal of food as they munched their way through packaging .

There's a risk of disease from them .

The lady in the bungalows behind ours puts food on her grass for the hedgehogs. This attracts rats , they tunnel under our fence into our garden , as well as our other neighbours garden. We've asked her not to do it because of the rats but I'm pretty sure she still does, as I saw one just last week running along our railway sleepers. A couple of years ago, our old neighbour called the rat man in and he knocked on our door to say, make sure you pick up after your dog everytime, rats see dog mess as a source of foid 🤢

Yes, you’re right, NotSpaghetti. 😁

The rats were always there, they as now simply more visible. If you can find the nest(s) and destroy them it might be more productive.

Don't worry Ziplock info is still useful I think.

Seems others realised after, too. 😊

Yes I realised after I’d posted fannyc thank you.

We do get the occasional mouse but havn’t seen a rat for ages, we have a bait station alongside the garage that probably gets them.

I used to live in a large Victorian town house. I had 4 cats that my crotchety elderly neighbour hated. Until it turned out one of the moggies was a ratter. He killed and left several rats on the back garden path. Then the cats could do no wrong!

We get them down near the compost bin and they also climb up the lemon tree and eat the peel off the fruit but not the fruit itself. Keeps our cats busy. Possums are the worst though, they eat everything and one we see regularly is bigger than the cats.

Make sure your drains aren't accessible.
They live in old sewage pipes if they can get in.

My plumber has known of them getting into houses through the WC. He says you gan now get flow-traps (badically a valve) that only open outwards as it's more common than you think.

He says keep your loo seat down as they are apparently coming up towards the light!

Never more than a few feet from a rat! If you have a shed or compost heap you are likely playing host to rat family. If not living in your garden then other gardens will be their home. Rats are everywhere. Allegedly they hate the smell of dogs but I dispute that - my sighthounds are desperate to kill anything but so far failed. I love pet rats - they are very intelligent and gentle. GD has pet rats.

Ziplock it’s an old thread

As said upthread, contact your council. They are vermin and spread disease so you certainly don’t want them in your garden. They can get into places very easily, needing only a very small space, and can do an awful lot of damage which could be very expensive to put right. They breed rapidly, too. Our council do not charge for dealing with rats outside, yours may do, but even so, they really need dealing with.

The only time I’ve had a problem with rats has been when I had a compost bin and stupidly put egg shells into it. Even when it was removed I still had rats digging fir the tiny bits of egg shell that remained. And my bird feeder attracts them so every so often I don’t fill it for several months which saddens me as I love seeing the birds feeding. I used humane traps when I had mice in the house but they didn’t help and I resorted to traps which were very quick and efficient. I don’t know if those plug in rodent detergents would help if a garden wasn’t too big. And solar lights strategically placed might deter rats.

They breed at an alarming rate. Kill them now and make your garden less attractive to them.

That would really freak me out FannyCornforth.
I've never had to deal with rats but have had several mice in the the past. I can't bear to kill them, they are so sweet, but always use humane traps and then take them for a long walk up the road. It's easy as I'm in the country. I have been known to drive them up to the moors to release them.
I no longer get mice since I read that they hate the smell of peppermint, so I always sprinkle peppermint oil around every few days.
Good luck with your problem Grannyrebel. Perhaps you need a proper vermin controller.

I know that this is an old thread, but I had a baby rat in my bedroom once. I think it came in through the cat flap.
I initially thought it was a kitten - it was climbing up the curtains
It was a very long night indeed!

I don't like poison - as the dying rat or mouse could be eaten by a pet, an owl or other wildlife. We have a lot of voles and field mice brought in, unharmed and alive, by the cat and trapped in a humane 'box' trap, then released outside. My neighbours say there are rats about, especially since decking became common, as we're near the river. I haven't seen any yet in my garden, though. We have metal mesh covers on the air bricks, just in case anything decides to live beneath the floorboards.

I bought some rat poison and put it on a high shelf in our garden shed unopened. Waiting the next time we had rats in the garden

The rats clearly smelled it, because when I went into the shed a few weeks later, the rats had climbed the shelves, pushed the box off the shelf and eaten through the box and consumed most of the contents.

I have no compunction about killing rats, why should I? I eat meat and it not as if they are going extinct.

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StatenIsland I remember when they invaded the loft of an elderly neighbour's house - yes they are a real pest. They are rodents, are a nuisance, dig up my pots, plant nuts all over the garden which sprout, decimated the red squirrel population but they do look cute.

Rats still make me shudder, though.

Contact a pest control officer and get rid of them. If you’re seeking 4 or 5 you can be sure there’s a lot more.

Our neighbour noticed a hedgehog on his back lawn one evening and decided to buy some dog food to feed it..........all he did was attract rats! They took up residence under his shed but he insisted the hedgehog was eating the dog food!
He has since died so the buffet is no longer available to the rats. We keep a close eye in our own garden and occasionally see field mice but we've never seen rats.
I'm of the opinion that everything has to live somewhere but certainly don't leave a food supply for any vermin.