I have seen a rat in the garden. The cats alerted me to it, not by chasing it away out of the garden or even by generally deterring it from being there in the first place, but by prancing around like Morris dancers in a circle.
They managed to chase it under the shed, which is so far from ideal as I can't track it, see how big it is or check whether it actually is part of a whole family of rats that live in the garden unbeknownst to me.
I'm not at all happy, but not sure how much of an issue the rat is. Could the rat live here? The garden is a bit overgrown with weeds in the beds, but we are in the process of getting it cleared out. We don't have any food or wood piles or anything about, although there is a pear tree that has a few pears that weren't eaten and may have rotted away. The neighbors have apple trees and I have found apples in the garden before (which made no sense as the branches don't overhang but I didn't dwell on it too much). Now I'm wondering if super rat has carried them over the fence ...
Only moved in in January so no knowledge of rat history. Live within walking distance of the local lakes but still live in a small town so not rural. Garden is much bigger than anything we have dealt with previously but doesn't count as particularly large. Less than 50 meters long.
We had already blocked up any gaps in the fence (but not very effectively as cats can't get out but found a hedgehog a few months ago had gotten in) but we don't leave food out etc. also neighbors who have much overgrown garden waste have piled it up against back corner of fence and caused panel to collapse against our shed - on our list to address this before next summer but it's blocked off so didn't concern ourselves as cats can't get down side of shed to escape.
I don't want to poison the rat, I am displeased but it's not really it's fault and I've heard awful things about how poison kills them. There had also been a mouse siting (cat actually killed mouse which was a huge surprise) so clearly garden attracts vermin somehow but I have heard that it is fairly usual to have mice in a larger garden. Wasn't thrilled but only ever saw one and again I don't want to poison anything and couldn't see how to deter them.
Does anyone have any advice or happy ending stories following a rat siting?
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.
Gardening
A RAT!!
30 replies
zaffa · 18/10/2019 14:54
OP posts:
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.