To Feel Wretched That I Put Poison Down To Kill Rats?

[TheCatsBlanket]

My very elderly aunt has rats in her garden. She is terrified of them and asked me to put poison down, which I did. Today, I went to check the rat trap box in the hedge, and I saw one of them underneath some leaves, obviously still alive but in a bad way. I feel so horrible about it, because I am responsible for causing pain to an animal, who was quietly living it's life and just because they get a bad press (probably stemming from the plague) I am now a murderer.
It made me wonder why there isn't a more humane way to get rid of them where, if they have to be killed, why can't it be instant? I stupidly googled it too, and now am more sad that they can take up to several days to die and are conscious throughout.

Hire a pied piper?

Krustykittens I think at the moment our council are not operating in it's normal sense, but it might be worth ringing them for advice once they're back up and running.

TheCatsBlanket

No judgement here! Very difficult situation and you did what you had to . Please don’t beat yourself up. I have the opposite problem: my mum feeds the rats in her garden, seriously, which is how I discovered they love peanut butter and removed them, it was getting ridiculous..
Actually I might name change to Pied Piper 😁

OhHuck - OP, do it for your aunt to ensure they don't get into the house. That would be horrendous for her especially as she is self isolating for who knows how long

Yes, currently her only joy is to sit in her garden while the weather's nice....so doing nothing re the rats would mean sadly she's too scared to do that.

Traps should kill instantly shouldn't they?
But yes they are vermin and it needs to be done somehow or other.

Traps should kill instantly shouldn't they?

I don't think it's that simple with rats - too bloody clever. And there's very rarely just one rat at a time.

@Gwenhwyfar Yes traps kill them within 5 minutes. (Heard it go off yesterday and the subsequent desperate scuffling. It's awful but got to be done). Though they can chew off their leg - if that is the only part trapped - to save themselves. Clever little things.

We have always used a number of plug ins in the house if any mice/rats are evident, and making sure there’s no easy food source.
We were getting rats because of a bird feeder. We had to try a number of ways to stop them accessing the bird food, and spent one memorable morning watching them in admiration as they started to climb up the clothes rotary drier and launch themselves off it to reach the peanut feeder. It took the first one two tries before he made it. We clapped and cheered, to be honest, I was really rooting for them. Such persistence, and intelligence... But then we moved the bird feeder, and have not seen them since.
I’d would never use poison. It kills the rats in a horrid way, and then kills anything that eats the rats- fox, owls, buzzards etc. The rat can also end up in someone else’s garden too and be eaten by dogs or cats.

Well it's done now, but in future, I wouldn't use poison. I've had to take a blunt instrument to a nest of rats after they were poisoned. It's not pleasant and as others have pointed out, can have ramifications further along the food chain.

If you're going to kill them do it in a humane and quick way. Snap traps are quick and easy to get hold of but rats can also be good at avoiding them. I've used an air rifle before, or you can always get someone in who has ratters if you know where they're living and can get to it. Nothing more efficient than a well trained Jack Russell.

SoBeyondTheHills I have never seen a mouse or rat in my house due to 3 cats who all love to hunt. I suppose that's not humane either but at least I don't witness the killings

Oh, the poison is terrible. They basically go blind, the organs shut down slowly, and they try to find the nest but can't 😔 Far, far better to dispatch quickly with a spade when you see them like that. I had pet rats and they're incredibly clever and very lovely 'pets', but also naturally 'pests'. I'd rather opt for quick spring trap despatch, but unfortunately where you have one you have many 🙁 The reality is they'll chew through brick and mortar, and once the infestation sets in they will breed like wildfire. You just need to think of it like any other animal infestation... Everyone likes a hedgehog taking up residence in the garden, but would you want 500 running about in your house spreading lice/fleas, chewing into your food supplies, and causing diseases via pee. (yes, I'm well aware we would all love to have multitudes of snuffly hedge pigs) 😁

@TheCatsBlanket

The shit cat and the dog, both sat and watched a mouse drink from their water bowl, at least that is what I think was happening,

Lockheart I have a friend, who years ago found a dying poisoned rat and decided to hit it with a cricket bat to put it out of it's misery. What he didn't think of was, that because the ground underneath the rat was soft/muddy/leafy, all he ended up doing was bashing the rat further and further down into the mud and it wouldn't die! He had to hit it more than he'd originally thought and although it obv died eventually, he felt worse afterwards!

I know it's sad. But rat infestation is actually dangerous. They spread diseases (google Q fever) and chew wiring, which is a big fire hazard.

When I was small I was staying in a huge old country pile which had a nursery in the attic, and I would wake up screaming during my naps and in the middle of the night. My parents thought I was just going through a phrase until they found my bottle in the corner of the crib covered in bite marks. Exterminator called the next day.

Report the neighbour to the council. They'll stop her.

It's terrible I know. We live semi rurally and I'm a complete hippie...can't kill a fly.

But we got overrun by mice when the local vineyards began doing something different in their process...I can't poison things but I did get a cat.

She kills mice as sport and it's awful to see their little bodies. But since we got the cat, we've had no mice in the house at all.

The one comfort is that she doesn't toy with them but kills them immediately. She's half feral and not really much of a pet...she comes in only for food and to sleep during the day. Then she's out all night killing mice. She doesn't kill birds ever.

Cannot bear them, if l was your aunt, l would be eternally grateful to you.

@TheCatsBlanket yes, if you're going to do that you have to make sure it's done properly. I remember teaching my youngest brother to fish and he couldn't quite work up to hitting them properly with the priest to finish them off. You have to have the conviction of what you're doing and don't hesitate.

Can the council really force a neighbour to do something about their rat problem? Like the neighbour of OP's aunt, who deliberately leaves food in the garden. Or my neighbour (a poorly maintained rental property) how can we get the arsehole LL to sort out his property to stop the infestation coming into ours?

Oh, and when we had a rogue field mouse come in the house our 'terrier' ran away howling. However, the very fat very lazy staffy accidentally reversed over it and squished it flat 😳 So that was the end of that!...

Traps are better. They snap on the wretched creatures and kill outright 9 times out of 10. Killing any animal isn't nice but rats are extremely destructive and can do huge amounts of damage whilst also spreading diseases.
I recall the day a ginormous rat chewed a hole straight up through a floorboard and through my BRAND NEW living room carpet then had a good gnaw on my young baby's toys. I was heartbroken throwing away baby's precious first teddy and her beloved toys. Now I feel a lot less guilty killing rats. I would have much preferred it went in the kitchen and nicked easily replaceable food.

OhHuck In the distant past the neighbour was notified not to put food out, along with the other side neighbour too. The nice neighbour stopped, but the other one just carries on. Nasty neighbour has a very manicured garden, my aunt does not, so I can only assume because nasty neighbour doesn't see the rats (because they're holed up in aunt's garden) she doesn't believe there's an issue. I don't think the council can force her to stop, no.

Nothing more efficient than a well trained Jack Russell.

Or even just one with a strong instinct for it. Our old JRT wasnt trained for ratting, but didn't take much encouragement to do it on the odd occasion. They met a very quick end (thank God!).

They are cute and clever but unfortunately carry disease. At my friend's allotment they trap them in cages and then drown them in buckets of water. Poison can kill other wildlife but I don't really know what a better option would be.

@TheCatsBlanket in that case any dead rats you find ought to be thrown in her lovely garden so she can have the pleasure of getting rid of them!

yanbu to feel guilty. very cruel