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.

Watch the 'Beasts' episode called 'Barty's Party'!

Terrier man! Or a good feral cat.

There is a more humane method out there - rat birth control!

The real problem with rats is how fast they breed - you can go from two to 15,000 in a year.

ContraPest was invented by a Buddhist woman. This is an interesting read www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/20/man-v-rat-war-could-the-long-war-soon-be-over

It was only available in the US until recently but I think it might be available in the UK now - cpests.co.uk/birth-control-for-rats/

God some people are being real dicks on this thread. @JKScot4, you especially. I think everyone got your point in your first post.

I had a thread recently about my elderly neighbour and her rat infestation. They were running riot in her house and had got into mine though the floor and ceiling voids (we live in 200yr old terraced cottages).

Council wouldn't help other than putting her on notice so I ended up paying for pest control as she couldn't afford it. They put traps down but the rats were too clever and didn't trigger them. In the end, we found out they were coming up from under the manhole in the garden, pest control put poison in there and then there were dead rats all over the place.

I used to have pet rats many years ago and so I understand how you must feel. But they transmit disease and cause so much damage to property.

I’m going to have nightmares after reading this thread, but I can’t look away. Ugh, rats.

YANBU, OP. Bloody horrible things, and not exactly an endangered species.

Do you think rats feel bad when they end up giving you a nasty life threatening disease? Don't think so.

You were put in a really tricky situation. Personally, I love rats. There's a cheeky one that's started to visit our front garden, climb one of the trees and get food out of the bird feeder. We quite like watching it.

I found a dying one in the back garden once. It looked as though someone had put poison down, it had eaten poison and then crawled as far as our lawn. I was too squeamish too be able to do anything but dp hit it with a spade to put it out of its misery. That was horrible.

If it happens again, it's an infestation rather than a lone rat, and you want to kill them then I agree with those who said that a terrier would be quicker and more humane than poison. You would also avoid transmitting poison to any predators that ate the rat carcass.

For a single rat that you want to get rid of, then you can buy humane traps. They work like the humane mouse traps but are bigger and made of metal.

I love rats, intelligent, caring and affectionate and wouldn't have a problem with them in my garden, though obviously I'd try and make the garden unwelcoming.

However, when we had a terrible mice infestation in an old apartment (10s of the things, throughout the place, covering the kitchen with poops and climbing on the bed at night), and neither humane traps nor trying to block entrances did anything to solve it, we did use snap traps. It was awful but at least it was quick.

Sometimes rodents are a problem that you have to deal with but poison is unnecessarily cruel and also results in deaths of other pets and wildlife.

I understand your feelings but they are vermin. I jokingly referred to it as my 'my lai' incident when I had to use a shovel to put a mouse out of its misery after the trap broke it's spine rather than kill it. It's unpleasant, but you're not being barbaric- you're dealing with vermin. It's not killing for its own sake, or mindless violence. Vermin are problematic (leaving droppings around, chewing power cables, water pipes etc).

For perspective, squirrels carry the same diseases as rats, but people are far more inclined to panic over one than the other.

Obviously you dont want a full blown colony in the garden but, in most cases, if you make it unwelcoming they wont come.

If you have a neighbour who is attracting rats, report the neighbour to the council.

Rats are being forced into visibility because of shortages of food in urban centers, as a result of COVID, so you can expect to see them at the moment, particularly if people are putting food out.

There is a point where you have to deal with them by extermination but it's better to exhaust your other options first. Even then, poison is a particularly unpleasant means that kills more than it targets.

Shouldn't kill wasps if you can avoid it - they act as pollinators and with a diminishing bee population we need all the help we can get.

Tell them to go away with a stern voice - the same voice you use to tell a cat to not bother the neighbours.

Whoa @MrsSquiggler that's fascinating! Rat birth control, whatever next. From that article:

"Female rats ovulate every four days, copulate dozens of times a day and remain fertile until they die. (Like humans, they have sex for pleasure as well as for procreation.)"

I hate poison, too worrying for the food chain. I second a terrier, not sure how it works in a property as I've only seen them work in farmyards but it's how I would want to go if I was a rat

You can deter rats rather than kill them and they will basically go elsewhere.

They don’t like open spaces so keep the area around the house clean and free from shrubbery, long grass etc

They love decking- don’t have decking up against your house, they will nest under it.

Keep the lawn cut short.

They don’t like daffodils apparently so plant those.

Spray bleach all around the ground outside the house- they will keep away from it. Apparently they don’t like peppermint oil but I’m not so sure about that one.

Make sure there are no points of entry in the brickwork outside- full any gaps with copper wool and mortar.

Humane rat traps off amazon are worth a try but usually rats far too clever. And yes remove all sources of food/shelter- they will move on.

This is a bit if a random thought. I have sympathy OP I also have trouble killing things (although am a meat eater! We don’t make sense!}

You can get tiger poo to put round perimeters to deter cats, & pp said about ferret scent. I wonder if you managed to get hold of some used ferret bedding & put that down whether it would be enough to get them to move out?

Given what someone said about the smell of ferret being a deterrent. God knows, ferrets are pretty stinky.
If you advertised on Gumtree, someone could leave a carrier bag full at their gate.

Rats in someone's garden? Seems weird. Is it next to a farm or something? My only irrational fear is rats. I can see your aunts POV!

Poison is dangerous to other animals so I would take what's left up immediately. You don't need to bash the rat to death, much better quicker death to decapitate with a shovel. I think glue traps are best if you are willing to do the killing yourself as it is a much quicker death. You'll want to clear them before the winter when they will come into the house for warmth.

Nothing weird about rats in a garden. They're very intelligent animals that live successfully in all sorts of environments.

We had one in the house once. It tried hiding when it heard us coming downstairs. It would never win a game of hide and seek because it didn't realise that its tail could be seen dangling down behind the radiator.

We're nowhere near a farm.

You’ve probably got rid of most of them by now. So next is to tidy garden and make sure there is no where for them to his or nest. Make it as open as possible with very short grass.

Cage traps are good at catching rats but when you’ve got a rat in there it’s screaming and thrashing round wildly. You can either let it out for a dog to kill or drown it neither are pleasant options. I don’t like and never use poison but if it’s used correctly and does the job it’s fine.

Could she have some outdoor lighting? Low enough to not bother neighbours but that could be left on throughout night- rats don't like bright lights either.

Really don't like it when people excuse killing with 'they spread disease'- what do you think we, as humans, do?

If you do use humane traps, you will need to check them daily.

Poison should be illegal. It wont be only rats you'll kill. You could kill someone's cat. Hedgehogs, birds. And they die slowly and painfully. The only comfort I can give is that now you know so you can not do it again.
"Be the best you can be. And when you know better, be better"

It’s awful. I had a couple in my garden but refused to put poison down (have dogs too so didn’t want to risk dogs eating poison either). I’m not sure where they came from or went but haven seen one for about 18 months now. It did put me off using my garden for a long time though

Contact humanewildlifesolutions.co.uk/ they’re doing a free 30 minute phone advice during lockdown.

Your supposed to use the poisoned traps, where the rat goes in and can’t get back out. You can’t just be putting poison down, you will kill other wild life, including local cats etc,

Please remove the poison immediately and do it correctly.