RATS

"Also the council are trying to educate several 'new' families on how to use bins!!!! Seems they dont use them where they come from!"
I don't understand what you mean.

Compost heaps are only a problem if you put cooked food or meat and animal protein on it. My compost heap contains only green material from the garden,vegetable waste and paper on it and over 150 feet from the house and has never shown any rat activity at all. The rats have always been much closer to the house and come in via a neighbouring garden. I suspect that they nest on a nearby railway embankment and we are just a stage on a food trail.

Apologies accepted Callgirll.....I think your original post has been taken off by GN, so I am unable to refer back to your post. If I'm not mistaken, you used the word 'foreigners', which implies people from a foreign country/ race.
I was born in a different country, but been 'British ' for the past 47 years. In all this time, I have never, ever experienced any form of racism. My children are British and have never experienced any form of racism either socially or in the workplace. They are very successful in their chosen professions. They married British. As a matter of fact , my friends tell me I am more British than them. I cook a super Roast Beef and my Yorkshire puddings are legendary.
And btw, we have no rats in our neighbourhood?

Poison is cruel - they die slowly and painfully - there are several other methods to humanely get rid of rats, some of which have already been mentioned. We had rats in a property a couple of decades ago, attracted by fly tipping at the back, the council put poison down and one died under the floorboards and it smelt awful!

A female rat can produce 5 litters of average 10 babies a year.
A female rat reaches sexual maturity in about 5 weeks.
So you can see how quickly they can multiply, in suitable conditions.
We had a problem with rats when we were living in the country. Our farmer neighbour sold us some of the extra strong poison sachets - they're not supposed to be available to non professionals, but they worked.
We had chickens, you have to be careful when placing the sachets so that other animals can't get them. And wash hands after use.

I would badger the local pest control until they solve the problem for you.

A cat and dog team (terrier and cat that have grown up together) or two rat-catching cats are the best option, but as that may not be feasible, here are some suggestions:

Get rid of your compost heap, and make compost in a bin with a lid that the rats can't get past.

Make sure that your dustbins are rat proof. A brick on the lid is the cheapest way of keeping them out of the bin.

Don't put food out for birds, squirrels etc. unless it is in feeders that the rats cannot get at.

If you keep hens or other livestock, it will be very difficult to control the rats.

If there is rubbish lying around in the streets, that too is a matter for your municipal council

That is the very reason I would never, ever consider buying a house with decking!

We live in a lovely rural village and rats are a fact of life, although not to the extent that the OP describes.

I just keep rat poison bait down permanently in our wood shed and that seems to work effectively as it is on the run they most often use and I find it now needs renewing less and less frequently.

I would like decking in my garden but the thought of rats making their home there has always put me off having it. I imagine that would be an ideal place for them to live and breed to their hearts content. I wonder how many people with decking have experienced them in their garden.

Had rats a year ago under my wooden shed (thanks to neighbour kindly feeding birds) the food wa dropping on the floor the rats were having a feast.

Managed to get some "strong poison via a man in the pub) lol

After about 5/6 days I found 8 bodies scattered around the garden.

We took the shed down as it stunk.
UNDER the shed was a BIG nest around 14 inch diameter there was LARGE rat presume the mother, decomposing and a couple more smaller ones around (12 bodies including the bigger one) it was horrible.

Couldn't and still don't leave my doors open now.
Bought a metal shed and put it on concrete flags.

I'm sorry CrazyH, no racism was intended, I didn`t think it was racist as I didn`t specify any actual nationality. I`m the last person to be racist, just saying it like it is.
DotMH1901, our council are aware, all the houses down here have had a letter from the council, but the rubbish bags are still appearing week after week. As we are also next to a waterway, I really do feel that the rats must be rubbing their paws together in glee

Fortunately I am made of sterner stuff and did not die.

I would die - I have almost checked into a hotel when I have had mice but rats would be the end.

Pat1949, We cannot hear those whistles, but anyone young person may including babies who can't protest..

If you have neighbours who are 'helping' the rats by leaving out rubbish/food etc it will be a long battle I'm afraid. Could you arrange a meeting with neighbours and the Council to talk about keeping things clean and tidy and stopping the rats? Do you use your summerhouse or is it something you could live without? If so demolishing it may help.

My daughter was renting a house last year and mentioned that there seemed to be a mouse in the house!!! It would nibble their feet when they were asleep in bed - both her and her other half and one of the children had experienced this. It would also chew clothing left on the floor and generally became a nuisance. They would see it out the corner of their eye when watching TV so decided to get rid of it. They put down poison and soon found a dead (but not as small as they had thought) mouse - however, when they sent a photo of it to a friend who 'knew about this sort of thing' he said it was actually a baby rat - yeeeeuk

sorry about typos but no edit facility here!

I hope this will be helpful for someone: there was a rather cute rat in the garden and my daughter was practically having hysterics aboit it, so Something Had to be Done.

I' m too mean to pay a man, and think it's cruel to kill them, so went o line to see what else there was.

The answer was Oldfashioned Smelly Mothballs! I decided to give it a go and sprinkled some adound the shed, where we'd seen him perping oit of the wi dow.

So far no further sightings oc bim or his family, all without any bloodshed or pain.

I don't know if you have bird feeders, but if you do, you will need to get rid of those. I didn't realise I was actually feeding my problem rats until one morning I saw a rat chewing at the fat balls - and it was at the top of one of those pole things that you dangle the food containers from. Sadly, the birds will have to go hungry chez moi from now on.

I have rats in my garden (I back onto the railway where rats love to live!) but just before Christmas I noticed a strong smell in a cupboard in a bedroom. It gradually got worse, and my son-in-law suspected it was a dead rat. We cleared the cupboard but there was nothing there. My SIL then went into the loft where he found the rat and disposed of it. I have been told that when they smell so bad it’s because they have been poisoned and die. Poison also makes them thirsty so if you have a pond in your garden poisoned rats will drink from it.

We had rats under our old summerhouse, and called the council, but their traps were ignored. We got stronger stuff, that the council were not allowed to use, and that worked, so do try different things, good luck with going rat free!

Hi Moomoo! Another with a ratty house! Rats go, but they are part of nature and they or their descendants may come back in the future.

I had visitor rats in the garden for a while. They came to eat what foods the birds dropped form the bird feeder.

I had to stop filling the feeders. I borrowed 2 rat traps but the success was when a neighbour brought in a firm to exterminate because the rats were nesting in a burrow they had dug in his garden. Also the rats fed and kept warm by raiding another neighbour's shed for bedding and food. That neighbour had cats in the sheds. (!)

After 2 visits the nest was cleared out and they have never returned. So the problem was down to two neighbours and I am relieved it is now dealt with.

Rats,I hate the word, we found we had them in the house, they ate through the wire of every electric appliance in the kitchen and the wire in the loft to the lights, we also had this awful smell in the kitchen and found that a rat had died at the back of the fridge in the condenser unit. They were in the loft and had made that much damage we had to take the kitchen ceiling down. We called for a company to treat them they put all the rat catchers around the house and left them out for ages but we never managed to get one rat. What we found was we were feeding the birds at a lovely bird table just outside the house. The rats obviously thought it was wonderful for the bird food and that's were it all started and then they got into the house.

Well you never know! It was pretty gross