Garden rats.

[123BlochHome]

Any advice on the best way to deal with rats in the garden...? <Shudder>

A few months ago, I saw a rat the size of a cow (nearly) in our garden. Honestly , it was a beast, I never knew they could get that big 😩 It was not healthy, I thought it looked like a bird had had a go then dropped it, but it could have been poisoned and chose my garden to die in. I took my eyes off of it for a minute and never found it again...

Then yesterday, I spotted a (normal sized) one skirting round furniture and disappearing behind a pot, from where it vanished probably in to next door's garden.

Neither we or neighbours have seen any other signs, but the gardens are large and tree lined with various sheds etc so lots of possibilities.

What do people do. Pest control straight away? Traps? Poison? I am not unreasonably scared of them, but don't know what I dislike the thought of more - a poisoned rat performing it's death throws then crawling somewhere inaccessible to rot, or having to deal with traps....

Ugh.

They must be getting g food from somewhere. Does anyone feed birds/hedgehogs, or have any other food available ?
They love decking to build a nest under.

If it's in the garden and not in your house, do nothing.

You absolutely cannot put poison down outdoors where it will kill indiscriminately.

Pest control. We have large decking, next door have chickens. We provide the lodgings, they provide the dinner. We haven't lived here long and noticed quickly the worn paths through the grass <shudder>, then started seeing them running back and forth non stop.

Called the council, they came out weekly for 3 weeks, haven't seen anything since 🤞

If it's in the garden, there are only a couple and not an infestation, you just have to accept that you are an animal - just as they are - and have no more right to live here than they do.

Rats are all around you and everywhere.

Live and let live.

When we've had rats, it's when I feed the birds. They especially can't resist fatballs or equivalent.

Remove food sources and have a good old tidy up, clear leaves and corners and reduce cover by cutting back bushes, and they'll probably move on.

If you feed birds, stop. We had garden rats when we had a bird feeder - haven't seen one since we got rid of it.

And don't put cooked food in compost.

I occasionally see rats and get the odd dead baby rat as a present from my cat, but we are in a semi rural area.

They are just going about their own ratty business just like squirrels, mice, badgers, foxes and birds and are not particularly interested in upsetting humans. Live and let live.

Rats like the easy life. Make sure there is no food and no places to hide and they will move on.

Rats are everywhere.

We had an issue with rats under our deck and husband feeding the birds. Got rid of the food and the deck, and then next door got a cat. No more rats.

Thanks all 😊

No, I really hoped poison wasn't the answer and even if we were infested would investigate all alternatives first, but I know people do.

I'm strict with what goes into the compost - raw peelings only - and it isn't open, but I'll be brave and investigate it more closely. I feed the birds when I remember but only seed in feeders hung in a tree, surely they wouldn't be interested in that? Next door do more and they have decking too...

I'll have the garden tidy up I've been putting off and just keep an eye out for now I think.

Any kind of feeder + decking = rat heaven.

They can climb, like you wouldn't believe.

This 100%

They can climb and they're interested in the stuff that lands on the floor!

Ok, sorry birds cafe closed! I'll have a chat to next door about theirs too. Realistically though there are multiple adjoining gardens to mine, some I know some I don't, some have rabbits, compost, feeders etc ... I'll just have to accept this is a constant possibility and make my own garden as unappealing for them as I can.

I’d imagine someone in your area has a rat issue and has put poison down. It happened to us last year, we thought the NDN’s rabbit had escaped again because of the size of the fucker then got close to it and ran a mile… They swell up when they’ve been poisoned so someone had obviously set some poison outside.

Not much you can do about them in your garden other than be grateful they aren’t in your house.

We had rats in the garden recently. Spent lots of time observing the behaviour. They snuck out from behind a shed in the neighbours garden and spent time eating scraps which had fallen from her bird feeder above. Saw 1 running back home with something red in its mouth-a strawberry from the neighbours strawberry patch. Also our garden was overgrown so they had places to hide. So- no bird feeder or free food at all. I cut back overgrown plants and tidied up, move pots around as they don't like change. Particularly around hedges, borders which is where they run.

Rats are every where same as mice. If the UK wasn't a nation of cat lovers it would be a lot worse. My cats are out hunting every night, I' ve had endless dead mice brought in this week alone. My biggest cat kills rats, he suffocates them.

It could be worse @KeepJoggingOn - my friend's cat keeps bringing her mice, but only half kills them first .. 😩 I love cats really, the little gits!

You can get rat / squirrel proof bird feeders. Please don't stop feeding birds suddenly. They come to rely on food sources.

The trouble is, birds are untidy feeders and drop food into the ground - then you have a rat problem. I used to love seeing birds on our feeder, but sadly, no more.

Remove the food source from your garden and tidy up so there's nowhere for them to live. Mice will hang about forever, living on fragments and crumbs, but rats move on when there's no food source or living quarters.

We have ratty friends. The elderly neighbours feed the birds, sigh, and won't stop. But then we also have rats feeding on fallen apples, they will come in and sit on their back legs, and feast on an apple, even when you are standing there chatting, they are actually quite cute.

As an aside, don't tidy up your gardens too much. I brush all the leaves under the hedges, and leave clippings up corners, we therefore have a number of hedgehogs, who hibernate with us, and I assume a good supply of insects too.

I am prepared to put up with the rats, for the sake of the hedgehogs 😁

Get onto to pest control, they will multiply if not ‘attended to’. Where we used to live I had my horses at home and had a rat man out several times a year, got worse when neighbours got chickens!