To ask how the fuck I get rid of a rat from my back garden?

[Rainatnight]

Tiny London back garden. Adopted baby arriving THIS WEEK and a rat has just shown up. Am frrrrrreaking out.

Council will come and do it for free

Or look into safer alternatives

Thank you all. Very helpful. A pest control guy is coming. I'd probably still be googling and freaking out if I'd not asked you all. 🐀

We found a big dead one in the bottom of our black bin, had drowned in some rainwater.

We called the council and they sent out a pest man. He put down child and pet safe poison traps out side and also walked around the property and showed us weak spots where the rats could get in the house. We bought expanding foam and wire wool to put in holes around pipes etc

Current estimates reckon there's a rat for about every 6 people in the UK, but they're not equally spread - the ratio is worse for city dwellers. They're everywhere OP it's just that you don't generally see them unless they're desperate or there's easy pickings.

Make sure your rubbish is secure. Consider a cat. Don't worry unnecessarily.

I had rats in my garage. I stopped putting rubbish in there until bin day and bought some proper bins instead. I let the cat out more. Problem solved.

The rubbish is at the front of the house. None at all in the back garden. Can't get a cat till the adoption order goes through!

Further to the PP. please don't ask someone with a terrier or ferrets who isn't used to ratting to sort them out. A cornered rat can do awful damage to a ferret. A terrier will also end up with nasty bites on its face. Terriers that are used for ratting a lot are usually quite scarred, but very adept at dispatching the rat.

I promise I don't know anyone with a ferret, a terrier, a fox or a shotgun.

Do cats actually scare away rats? London rats are big.

You live in London and you're worried about ONE rat - really? You will have dozens of them living within a few feet... Do the pigeons bother you? The mice? Squirrels? Foxes?

Congratulations on the baby.
You are in London, it is full of rats. The pest guy will see it off.

"something" had tunnelled under the patio, and up and under my washing machine..... an old wash house with solid concrete floor, with a hole in it left over from when they brought the water in and drains out.

dh farted abut for three weeks with traps and bait, then he thought he'd fill the hole in cos that would stop it.....after a month I had had enough of his nonsense (dh AND the alleged rat)

I discouraged it by hurling buckets of bleachy water down the hole. ....followed with a neat bleach chaser.
It has not returned.

titchy, yes I was. My garden, my baby arriving, my money.

No squirrels, pigeons, etc don't bother me.

Put poison down inside a box made for the purpose. The box is rectangular plastic thing with entrance and exit holes - the poison itself is placed well inside and is perfectly safe there. The box itself is secured to the ground by a wire. I've used this type of trap on the farm with no ill effect to anything other than the rats.

Yep, that's what the guy did.