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.

OP- I’m going to go against the grain here.

The community I live in is currently inundated with rats- our houses are very old (16th-18th C, so really hard to totally “rat proof”), and we’re about half a mile from the city centre with a well publicised rat problem. The takeaways/ restaurants have closed, a litter-heavy neighbourhood just by us has been cleared up (no students) and we are literally plagued by the buggers.
They are running around gardens showing no fear of people, they’re getting into houses (including mine- we’ve had one running through the gap between the floor and ceiling regularly, but see below) and they’re so hungry they’re chewing through wheelie bins (!)
Two came out in the day, whilst my son was playing in the garden, and ran around the herb border whilst he was playing 6 feet away.

A neighbour has called environmental health- who said there’s no problem There is a burrow in the field outside my house that has been a problem for 2 years periodically (it’s been baited, trapped, closed off... to no lasting avail) - and last week, after one ran down through the loft, out of a gap in my floorboards and through my actual bedroom (not in the cavity, the room), I lost my rag. I have a 3 year old, and I refuse to let him get sick.

Pest control have been and put down poison. The poison has gone. Twice. In the burrow and 5 bait boxes. That’s a lot of rats.
I’m sorry, but no terrier, no amount of humane traps, no amount of snap traps, or sitting in my garden with an air rifle, are going to resolve this issue. And though I’m a great lover of wildlife, I’m also a great lover of not dying in a house fire from chewed wiring, or my son catching Weils Disease. And as hard as it is for some posters to hear, a 3 year olds health comes above the life of a rat.

You probably should have finished the rat off- I’ve done it twice this week with a shovel so understand how grim it is- but you know that now. As far as the dicks upthread go- ignore. Its ridiculous to suggest rats lives are more important than human health.

@Bluntness100

Not so. Licensed pest control, including council run, use bait boxes which the animal runs out of for ongoing vermin issues. Otherwise (in cases like mine) you’d need a skip sized bait box.

An ex boyfriend was rennovating a house and had a rat problem. He hated rats. He would set traps but when one was caught, and was dead he would ring me in hysterics to come and remove it. I wore gloves to put it and the trap in a carrier bag, release it from the trap through the bag then dump it in the field across the road. It wasn't nice to see the dead creatures as I had pet rats.

The poison is horrible. Really cruel, it shouldn't be legal. Secondary poisonings are also a big issue, it kills birds of prey.
It's not slow acting to make it safe, it's to ensure it kills as many as possible.

Use breakback traps. Instant which makes them the humane option.

Poor things. Poison is awful and dangerous to other animals. You can get ultrasonic repellers that prevent rats.

Oh ffs.

Bleach does not work.
Peppermint oil does not work.
Ultrasonic sound devices do not work.
A light in the garden does not work.
If your garden is clean and tidy that is not the issue.
If your house is clean and tidy that is not the issue.
Snap trips kill ONE at a time- and what do you think happens if a cat or a hedgehog or a vole gets into THAT?!
Poison is not slow to kill as many as possible- it’s so that accidental human ingestion can be reversed.

The NONSENSE on this thread is extraordinary.

Op I'd get the professionals in, apparently they have access to stuff not publicly available. If Auntie has seen rats in daytime that's serious. They are rarely seen in daylight so must be lots of them.

I'd be quite tempted to do as other posters have suggested and throw them over the fence for neighbour to deal with. Might get the message across.

Some attitudes on here are nuts, rats cause damage to property and carry disease. Get rid of them one way or another.
Phone professionals on Monday.

When you suddenly find yourself faced with a garden full of rats, running around undeterred by your presence and then begin to hear noises in the loft... you pretty much do whatever you have to do for a night's peace.

In my case (living between a river out front and a farm at the back with a food packaging firm almost next door) environmental health came out to investigate and found that the food company had been leaving uncovered vats of grain in their barns and the place was literally crawling with them. (Clambering over pallets of veg and potatoes that are sold on to restaurants, no less)

Of course the company was fined and made to clean up, but there was still the problem of the million bloody rats all over the place. I collected used cat litter from friends and spread it all around the perimeter of the property, got ultra sonic motion detector strobe lights in the loft, and the council banned feeding birds around a mile radius. But ultimately the problem didn't reduce until environmental health put down a lot of bait boxes. I didn't like it, but equally I couldn't live in a horror film.

I didn't know it then, but there are volunteer "rat packs" of working terriers who will come and clear a property. If there's a problem in the future, I will likely call them.

They are vile pests so I have no problem with any method of disposing if them. The only thing I have against poison is that some other animal, such as owls, eagles may then also be affected. I’ve got nothing against those types of animals so that’s the only thing that gives me pause. However, with a substantial infestation I don’t think there is any alternative other than poison and removing source of the root cause.

We got rats in our house (London terrace, never more than 6 feet from a rat) when we went away on holiday and ds left a party bag complete with cake behind the TV cabinet. We had to clear our sides of fruit as they would eat that. Accidently left our larder cupboard a jar one night and they rioted through that.

Snap traps, poison and bring ultra vigilant about cutting off their food source were the only thing that worked. Our infestation was small too. It was horrible, but rats wee almost constantly so I am not having that in my house.

Your aunt needs the neighbour next door to stop the feeding. That would be the biggest help.

I jokingly referred to it as my 'my lai' incident

@hiddenmnetter how incredibly VILE of you to ever ever jokingly refer to a horrific massacre of unarmed citizens. Sick.

I sympathise with people who are suffering from a genuine infestation; that's a completely different situation from the odd lone rat.

But the idea that if you see a rat in daylight, there must be loads of them is nonsense. We live in an average suburban semi and occasionally see a rat in daylight. We've never had any indication of an infestation.

We live in an average suburban semi and occasionally see a rat in daylight. We've never had any indication of an infestation

How do you know some of your neighbours don't have infestations? It's not something people are going to broadcast on FB!

Rat traps do the job.
My neighbour had them living under their decking so ended up setting a trap by he exit in my fence. Caught a few over a month. One of them didn't die straight away though, he was bashing around trying to wriggle our of it for a couple of hours . I'm the sort of numpty who rescues random ants from my house so I felt awful about the rat, but I had young dc's at the time.

@Isadora2007 bit of an overreaction? The my lai massacre was horrendous, and is sometimes historically called the loss of American innocence. It was in this sense I was referring to it, empathising with the OP about the awful feeling about having to kill something. That was fairly obvious I thought. Perhaps not. I'm not joking about the deaths of innocent Vietnamese civilians, but rather to the experience of brutality.

I work closely with rentokill, we have rats at work and regularly remove them. We use poison, but can’t leave dead rats lying around as red kites may get them. Rat kill guy says they can be prosecuted if red kites eat poisoned rat and it’s traced back to them

Anyway, next step for us I’d the dreaded sticky pads I think!

Not looking forward to that I’ve heard horror stories of 20+ stuck rats screaming trying to frantically release themselves

Omg this thread 😱

Don't feel bad, it's done now and you did what you had to do at the time.

If you had called the Council they would have left poison too.

@TheSheepofWallSt I feel your frustration. It's horrendous. We had 3 and half trays of bait get eaten (pest control left four), and I'm guessing the ppisoned rats went back next door to die. Bloody hope so, so they can deal with the stench. We have seen zero droppings, and are different to mice who poop anywhere and everywhere. Rats do it in a specific place.

@RedAzalea our pest control guy has placed some sticky boards (and they are VERY VERY sticky!) with a mixture of snap traps (smeared with peanut butter) under the floorboards where we suspect the rats are entering the property. The boards haven't been touched yet and only one trap went off the other day. Can still hear them though.

The rats which are running riot in my house have eaten; a concrete floor, the backs of my kitchen cupboards, wire wool and have now started chewing through the plaster on the walls. I think you’ve been kind to your Aunt. I would do anything to stop our rat problem. It’s made my life miserable, I no longer enjoy my food and am constantly worried about my kids getting sick. The previous owners of our house didn’t tell us of the problem although they must have been aware. I’m unbelievably angry with them as it cost me thousands to rectify and I now want to move as I’ll never feel safe here. Ignore the bleeding hearts on this thread.

user1471462428 that's awful. I hope you manage to get it fixed.

@OhHuck

That’s been the weird thing- no sign IN the house of them- no chewed packets no droppings no smell ... just hideous though.
Pest control estimated a population of AT LEAST 100-150 living locally (as enough poison for 50 was eaten in 9 days).

Oh man. Just typing it makes me feel sick.

We bait the perimeter of our property and key areas of the grounds. I don’t want to live aside disease carrying vermin that rapidly breed to huge numbers. Unfortunately, we live where there are prime habitats for rats to reproduce, near a graveyard, neighbours compost food waste close to boundary, chicken keeping being popular, lots of fruit trees and vegetable growing.
The more that are dead the better.

@thecatsblanket can't you call environmental health about the woman next door if you think she's causing the rat problem?

OP, you’ve done nothing wrong! You’ve done your Aunt a favour and done the right thing. Please don’t feel guilty! I bet half these people would be getting the exterminators out if it was them!! Well done for helping your aunt and hopefully it will be sorted soon