Theres a rat in me garden what am I ginna do?

[Florries]

He keeps popping out from under the shed at the bottom of the garden. In daylight too. Garden is tidy and we have a cat and a small dog. No obvious food sources I can see, seems like an odd place for Roland as we have the woods behind us.

Roland is huge! Size of a guinea pig I reckon.

Anyone have any experience of this? WIBU to use a rat trap? Worried about my cat/dog getting hurt. Don't want to use poison as DCat is a hunter. We get a lot of squirrels around here too so would rather not squish one by mistake by using one of those spring traps you see on Tom and Jerry.

Would a humane trap work? I've not had the pleasure of dealing with squatters before.

Why would you feed a rat pasta?

I had one in mi kitchen last week. It was dead. The cat has uses after all.

Silkie2 Roland cane out at dusk initially, we saw him when we were doing RSPB watch. I was hoping it was a water vole because we have a beck running through our garden but DH said no, definitely a big, fat rat! He got more and more confident over time. The fat ball attack was in broad daylight!

Good job you have lonely bachelor/ spinster there as I've just read this online:-

Rats have 12 nipples, and I believe the average litter size is 8 to 10 young. Of course, this is only an average and can vary. I have owned rat that gave birth to a litter of 15, and they all survived.

Gestation for rats is extremely short, about 21 to 24 days! As soon as they give birth, they can get pregnant again, but the average female has 4 litters per year if she is being used for breeding.

I bloody hate rats. I'm afraid I'd call rentokil or put a non humane trap under the shed or wherever it is living.
I'm sorry to those who have rats as pets but i used to work near the Thames and our basement was overran by them , I'm terrified of them.
And there is never just one.

I never realised how big wild rats were! I’d only ever seen a friends pet “fancy rat” but the one I saw in my garden was huge! It set off my motion sensor light, I looked out and saw it scampering about. It made me feel a bit ill, my cat wasn’t much bigger than it so I couldn’t trust her to sort it.
I moved all the patio furniture about and made sure dp stopped leaving bin bags out there. I haven’t seen him since.

unless you want your cat or dog attacked oh don't be silly. Rats are preyed upon by cats and dogs, it is vanishingly rare that it would be the other way round.

Your gonna fix that rat...

We had one in the heatwave, not eating but drinking from a giant saucer of water I had put down for the birds. I felt quite sorry for it but not so sorry that I didn't move the water bowl onto a table and put ratraps down. The traps didn’t get it but it hasn’t been seen since thank goodness.

The houses next door are currently being demolished to make way for new building and I have a feeling we might see a few more once their cellars are dug out but I am prepared!!

Not been able to inspect Roland's house yet today as stuck under a sleeping baby and DH has gone to the football. Have been keeping my eye out but haven't seen Roland at all since yesterday afternoon!

He was so big! Looked just like the ones in I'm A Celebrity! So Roland could well be a Roseanne ready to drop!! Shhiiiittt!!

DCat is keeping a watchful eye over the shed. We do have a cat flap and she is a pretty good hunter so will lock it I think!

Tomorrow will be operation chilli powder + moth ball.

LTB

It's perfectly possible for a cat or dog to get a rat bite while despatching the rat. A cornered rat can inflict significant damage. Have you seen their teeth? Domestic pets can be a bit clueless and try to punch above their weight.

Having said that, my dds' cats were brought up in stables and their mother taught them well. Last time I was feeding them, I gradually became aware of a smell, followed the bluebottles and found a corpse stretched out on the sitting room carpet. No one owned up.

I think there may be a difference between urban and rural rats. As with foxes. Space is at a premium but there's plenty to eat from takeaways and casual disposal of rubbish. London rats aren't at all like Ratty in the Wind on the Willows. More like Room 101 in 1984.

Ratty in The Wind in the Willows was a water vole, oddly.

@thymeout yes, my cat got an injury from a rat bite the other week. I haven’t seen the rat to see if my cat gave as good as he got. The rat bit my cat’s leg and caused an abscess. It’s cost a fortune in vets bills, and made my cat quite poorly with the infection.

My cats are murdering bastards, but this rat definitely gave them a run for their money.

He won't hurt you and the fact that you have a dog and cat will stop him trying to get indoors.

We had rats under our kitchen floor a few years ago, despite having 2 rat-killing terriers in residence! We have a huge rat problem here - we're semi-rural, 2 sets of neighbours have chickens, so plenty of food around, and there are 3 large stables within a mile.

We haven't had any more problems of them getting in the house since we re-pointed the gap in the mortar where they were getting in, but until a few months ago, would find a dead one in the garden every now and again. I also used to see one regularly crossing the garden, we think to get to next door's pond (they need easy access to water). However, I haven't seen it for a few months, so maybe whoever had them in their garden has had the rat man round.

DDog is too old (and deaf, and losing her eyesight) to be much of a threat to rats now, so I doubt she's done for them all.

If they're still around, I'd contact the council and get them to deal with them. They love spaces like under sheds and under decking (which is why I'd never have decking!) so keeping the space under the shed scrupulously clear of debris is a good idea.

kolo - yes. Same here. A nasty bite over the cat's eye, abscess, £££ at the vet's.