Saw a rat in my back garden - what's next?

[gchalix]

I am so totally freaking out right now! Was doing the washing up and looking out of the window when I saw it.

Rats are my worst nightmare and I've never seen one in such close proximity. My back garden is really small as well and I'm terrified they're going to find their way in my house.

What do I do now?

Just looking on the .gov websites. You are not allowed to trap and release grey squirrels, muntjac deer, or egyptian geese as non-native species. You can with rats because they count as an 'ordinary resident'. If you trap a grey squirrel it would need to be destroyed.

I haven't been outside to check for any holes etc. Honestly too frightened, rats are my absolute phobia

Have a pest control person come out and give the house and garden a once over to reassure you. Make sure the bins are secure and there isn't ever any food left out, including bird food! You would know if it was on your house! There is no mistaking it.

Also - once your brave enough to go into the garden out some peppermint oil in a spray bottle and spray around your kids swing and anywhere else, bottom of fences, bins etc. They have the stuff and will help repel them.

They hate* the stuff

I'm having a lovely thought of a rat on a swing, seeing how high he can go. Sorry OP it's not a good thing seeing a rat and having a phobia.

Feck, I let my trapped Egyptian Geese back into the wild. Am I in trouble?

well, you do nothing.
Seeing one in the garden wont amount to much, ive seen two in my garden over the last month.
With the lockdown and fast food restaurants etc being closed, and less humans being out dropping litter and food, rats and other scavenging animals have started to come into gardens looking for food.
Now lockdown is easing, they'll go back to thier easy pickings of resturant and take away litter, and waste dropped in cities.
Please dont freak out op, they've always been there, you've just never noticed.

Can you desensitise yourself with this post full of incredibly cute photos of rats?
www.boredpanda.com/cute-pet-rat-photos/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Don't mention the muntjac deer I let go last year. I'm pretty sure nobody noticed bamby grazing in their garden.

Please just let them be, have they really done anything to you? They have probably been there all along anyway and you just haven't noticed them until now.

It is unreasonable to expect there to be no wildlife in your garden, other species aside from us exist too.

Trapping a rat and the releasing it elsewhere is illegal according to the pest control guys who came out to my folks house the other week.

There i never 1 rat op and they carry disease. I strongly advise that you check for any possible food sources and remove and the call on a professional pest controller.

PP said that rat droppings look like black rice. No. That's mouse droppings. Rats' are much bigger, more like an inch.

One sighting - OK. He was just passing through, looking for somewhere to live. Turfed out to make room for a new litter or disturbed by building works etc. Just remove all food sources, especially bird feeders. If you see him again, he's moved in nearby and there will soon be many more. Call in a pest controller for advice.

Thanks everyone, I may just ring pest control to be on the safe side

There is no food in the garden, just my bins but there is some cardboard there that I haven't got rid of yet so I don't know if this is attracting them?

We’ve had one living under the house for about a year now. Like the poster above it has stayed as one and not become millions. That’s much more a mouse thing to do anyway. It has caused absolutely no issues of any sort. It hasn’t come into the house and it hasn’t destroyed anything outside either. I’ve only managed to see it twice in that time despite looking.

You’ll prob never see yours again OP, and unless it comes into your house and starts eating stuff (and you’ll know very quickly if it does) I’d just forget about it.

@ClareBlue so true!

I second a cat but some other options here:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoXFmJBvlk

Rats live everywhere, their ancestors probably lived on the plot before the house was built!

Could be worse I found one in the house recently!

If you have floorboards make sure they are all filled and there are no big gaps (how mine got in!). If you have drainpipes that are open, pop some chicken wire over the ends to make it harder for them to come up them. And go round the house and look for holes, like where old pipes etc have been, fill them. Also if there is any bird food out, any scraps get rid of them. Good luck!

Well said, @sophiasnail. I had a lakeland terrier that nearly died because of poisoning from rat poison. Thankfully, we got him to the vet in time and the vet went by his hunch that that was what had caused him to have a massive gastric bleed.

We had no idea how it happened, because it was the other dog that was the ratting expert, never used poison and the dog was never allowed out alone and closely supervised on walks.

Another thing that attracts rats is water, OP, so if you have a pond, or a dripping outside tap or overflow, fill it in/fix it.

They're everywhere at the moment, I assume it must be to do with lockdown

It's just a rat.

Or a Jack Russell. yeah right we have one of these and I swear he tried to make friends with the one under our shed. Luckily the neighbours cat showed him how it was done because I didn't want to put poison down.

Neighbours cat has now added withering disdain to her repertoire of looks at my dog from the shed roof.

It's just a rat. this really. He's just doing his thing and as long as he isn't in the house he's OK. They are everywhere you just don't see them usually.

My garden, back in Feb. had a blatant food thief (scrounging stuff that had been knocked off the bird table by the pigeons).

Luckily for us we have a rat-killer cat. He has delivered two corpses to us in the last month alone. Wouldn't mind if he didn't leave them in the hall for us...

@Neverendingsaga

Or a Jack Russell. yeah right we have one of these and I swear he tried to make friends with the one under our shed. Luckily the neighbours cat showed him how it was done because I didn't want to put poison down.

Neighbours cat has now added withering disdain to her repertoire of looks at my dog from the shed roof.

Ours held a hedgehog hostage under our shed until we left the side gate open overnight so the hedgehog could leg it, which it did.

Her form list included a rat and a squirrel caught at the park.