Rats in the garden

[Appleofmyeye05]

Can’t find a rodent/pest category so AIBU it is.

I’ve seen 4 rats in my garden and they seem to have taken shelter in between some sleeper logs that form a couple of steps in my garden, see photo.

I have been told they WILL without a doubt make their way into the house when the weather turns colder is this true?

I don’t have any openings apart from a plastic pipe that is the drain for my kitchen sink and washing machine and I’d say it’s about 2 inch wide and about 40 cm long but it has an angle in the pipe if you understand what I mean. Can they crawl up there?

I’ve put some poison down this afternoon, let my landlord know and also the council has been made aware but another neighbour.

Can I be doing anything else? Also I don’t have any food waste in my garden, all household waste is taken to the front of the house and put in the wheelie bin with the lid closed every single time. Next door has decking and the side has pretty long grass with a heap of bin bags at the top.

Thanks @CherryPavlova as a qualified pest control technician this is my area of expertise and I know what I'm talking about

Oh it’s so scary. I have a little boy under a year old too so I’m really keen to get it under control.

I was thinking of leaving a biscuit out on the floor to see if any had already gained access but I don’t want to entice them indoors if they could smell it.

@kathrynjanewaykicksass so are you saying, in your professional opinion if I have them in the garden they will come into the house eventually?

Yes I have seen a rat hole @kathrynjanewaykicksass , I didn’t realise it was a rat hole until I saw it. My garden has quite a bit of wood chip, am I best off using them rectangular stainless steel sheets? What am I best off using for the outlet? I’ve not seen anything that is drain shaped, just the rodent mesh

This is from the advice leaflet from the company that supplies us Bromodiolone wax blocks

The rodents feel fine, suffering no pain and therefore they continue to feed as normal, consuming a lethal dose before succumbing to the effects of the poison. This is important, as rats in particular will quickly stop eating anything that they associate with danger.
In the latter stages of poisoning, the rodents feel lethargic and tend to stay in their nests, where most of them die. The occasional one may die above ground, and you should always search for bodies whilst you are conducting a poisoning campaign.
*
It is not a painful death*

@Appleofmyeye05 I'm
Not saying they will but given a chance they could.
If you don't deal with now with professional help you will have a huge problem which will be more difficult to solve
If you have a child they will pee all over your garden and potentially you baby could touch, ingest it and get very ill.
I don't know where you are but I charge about £120 plus vat for two visits.

@Appleofmyeye05 yes a sheet should be fine I also use large rocks or slabs
Issue is they can burrow underneath it. A pest controller may also consider burrow baiting- putting the bait directly into the hole
I do hoped I've helped

We had rats in our garden that ventured into our kitchen once. We got two cats and then a dog. We’ve not had them in our house or garden again, despite our neighbour regularly seeing them in his garden

@kathrynjanewaykicksass yes you have thank you so much.

The price is around the same for my area too as I think I paid £100 for the nice and that was either 2 or 3 visits.

How I’m feeling at the moment I won’t ever set foot outside in the garden again . My lease is up next September so I will not be renewing.

There’s a guard dog a few doors on so I don’t think they go in his but before all the rat business started I was considering getting a cat and I will defo get one now.

The best way to kill rats is in bait boxes with a grain based bait. The boxes have to be weighted down. If they go to use them and they move even a tiny bit they will not use them again ever. Use grain based bait only for rats never blocks. This is because if you use blocks of any sort they try and carry the entire block back to where they nest and this is often then found by non target species like dogs, hedgehogs owls etc.

A PP said they die a horrible death. This is not true. Modern baits are designed to cool their body temperature to the point it is not compatible with life. All bait available to the public has a cumulative effect so that one dose alone will not kill them. Again this is designed so that non target species are unlikely to be killed by rat poison. Animals that eat dead poisoned rats will not die of the rat poison unless an illegal substance has been used to kill that rat or the animal eats a poisoned rat every day for five days. Neither of these scenarios is unlikely and even if say a jack russell ate a poisoned rat every day for five days there would not be enough bait residue to be fatal to the dog.
Formula B brodifacoum works like a charm. The dying rats also come out into the open to die, the theory being that they are undergoing the same sensation that humans do when they exhibit the behaviour called paradoxical undressing. This means that you can collect and dispose of the bodies without rotting carcases stinking up the place.

Don't tidy up before you start to bait as this will disturb them. The neighbours should be putting stuff in wheelie bins, not leaving it lying about. If they are getting a pest control operative in, let them. Rat bait isn't cheap.

Bromodialone is an anticoagulant poison and will illicit internal.bleeding and bleeding into joints, haematoma formation, breathing difficulties and central.nervpus system affects. Not painful at all

We had some recently and I had to get someone out to deal with it. They were crossing my garden not resident so had to talk to neighbours. All bird feeders were cleared away, and windfalls picked up, and we cleared an area of undergrowth. Initially he used snap traps but that didn’t solve the issue so he did use bait boxes. We only found two corpses and touch wood we haven’t seen any for a while now. He charged £120 for as many visits as it took to solve the problem.

@KilljoysDutch

Onions aren't toxic to them. My boys eat oniony foods constantly.

Consider snap traps please instead of poison, poison is a slow painful death for the rat and any opportunistic predator who eats the corpse including foxes and owls.

Exactly this. Please don’t use poison. If you need to kill them at least do it humanely and consider other wildlife.

Don't get a cat to kill the rats. They almost never do. The chance of your cat killing rats is minimal. Cat's only hunt at all if their mother taught them how. Think like a rat. Put down a bait box weighted with a concrete slab, fill it with bait and in a few days you will start to get rid of your problem. It feels like a terrible problem now because we have a gut reaction to them. Once you have started picking up dead ones though, you will start to feel better about it and more in control.

They are naturally incontinent which is how they spread disease so be careful to wash your hands if you handle anything thay they might have trailed their urine soaked tails over.
I admire them and have worked with lab rats. They are easily as intelligent as dogs. I still kill them though because Weils Disease is the punch line of a joke I do not want to hear!

Get a cat - problem solved.

It's easy to kill mice with snap traps. Very very hard to kill rats with them.

Amazes me how people think they have a better knowledge then me who is fully qualified and experienced!
OP @Appleofmyeye05 I hope you get it sorted and take advice from a professional and not these keyboard warrior experts!

dissemination.echa.europa.eu/Biocides/ActiveSubstances/0012-14/0012-14_Assessment_Report.pdf

This states that bromodialone does cause pain. I can't imagine it's enjoyable to bleed out.

Yes, the snap traps you need for rats are huge, and could easily injure or kill other wildlife. If you must, putting them in a shed is a good idea.

Getting a cat worked for me. He’s a natural hunter and I think he acts as a deterrent to them coming into the house.

Anticoagulant rodenticides (ACR)
These ACRs inhibit the production of Vitamin-K dependent blood clotting factors (made in the liver), so when ingested in toxic amounts by dogs or cats, it can result internal bleeding. Thankfully, there’s an antidote for this type of mouse and rat poison: Vitamin K1, a prescription medication readily available at your veterinarian. With ACR poisoning, clinical signs don’t take affect for 3-5 days. However, left untreated, ACR poisoning can be fatal. Signs to look out for include:

Lethargy
Difficulty breathing
Pale gums
Coughing (especially of blood)
Vomiting (with blood)
Bloody nose
Swelling or bumps on the skin (e.g., hematomas)
Collapse
Bleeding from the gums
Death
Treatment includes decontamination, Vitamin K1 orally (typically for 30 days), blood transfusions, plasma transfusions, oxygen, and supportive care.

Also those are the affects of it on pets and other animals who may accidentally ingest the poison or affected rat. I'm not surprised that a pest management company would try and sell their product as the perfect solution though.

They are naturally incontinent which is how they spread disease so be careful to wash your hands if you handle anything thay they might have trailed their urine soaked tails over.

They're really not, mice are but Rats aren't. My boys are all litter trained as are most pet rats I know of.

As I said we put bait in child and pet safe bait boxes who we have the key for.
Again rat urine is highly dangerous
And yes I'm an independent pest control tech of many years and the product works!
I'm done here- rats are deadly pests not pets!

We can't preserve all animals! By law they are a pest and a dangerous one.

Not debating this any longer- obviously my years of experience count for nothing against your keyboard advice. My job goes beyond chucking a load of bait down.

Ugh...

No, rats will not necessarily come into your house unless they run out of food or shelter, and there is an easy access point when that happens.

So before you start moving stuff, putting anything down.. block access.

THEN look at where rats are.

If your neighbours are supplying, via decking and binbags, a des res with hot and cold running food waste, thats where they will stay, you will see them as they move between shelters and when there is a population explosion.

Block access to your home and use snappy traps in likely places that a/ you can easily monitor;
b/ a rat will actually go into (so under cupboards, against walls, quiet places)
c/nothing ELSE can access.

I do not know why people are raging on about poison when snappy traps are no more species specific and probably less so, they will kill or injure anything that sets them off.

Using appropriate poison is sometimes the only way, and I say that as someone who has twice had to rescue and emergency vet trip a family cat who has eaten poisoned rats (and no he wasnt in pain, still, sleepy, lethargic, dopey until given vit K and then within 24 hours, a happy cat which he still remains) and has seen plenty of dying rats via poison (again, dopey, slow, lethargic, finished off rapidly by my dogs).

Lockable bait stations, you can get blocks that can be locked in, but these are really only good for long term use where conditions are too damp for pasta or grain based poisons and they don't seem to be anywhere near as appealing to rats. Otherwise, pasta or grain are good as the rat will eat it in situ, or carry a tiny amount home that, if dropped is insufficient to do harm.

On NO account use the package type baits designed to cause the rat to carry home 'take out' to the nest if you have children or dogs anywhere the rat might drop a full sachet(this is often recommended for nests under decking and ive seen too many nosey idiotic dogs eat a full bait sachet!)

Sometimes using poison is necessary, in situations like this, most rats under the decking you can't access, with a population you cannot snappy trap all of, it is likely the only way to keep numbers down.

Snappy traps are a way of getting rid of the occasional incomer, not the way to deal with a whole colony.

Really, the way is to not have any decking or refuse out, but good luck convincing the neighbours on that front.

*Daughter of a pest controller.

@KilljoysDutch

They are naturally incontinent which is how they spread disease so be careful to wash your hands if you handle anything thay they might have trailed their urine soaked tails over.

They're really not, mice are but Rats aren't. My boys are all litter trained as are most pet rats I know of.

Pet and lab rats will urinate in a designated toilet and this is what makes them such good pets. Wild rats leak urine constantly to give off messages to other rats regarding status, oestrus cycle etc. That is why they have hairy and scaly tails. The hair and scale is there to trap and spread the urine/hormonal messages throughout the group and around their territory. This is why they are such good (bad) disease spreaders.