Rats - oh dear....

FortunesFave · 2021-04-01T10:50:12+00:00

I've posted about my feral neighbours before. We're in Oz. The neighbours had apparently until recently been living in a very bad state and the garden was full of years worth of junk. A lot of it has gone and the tenant's (nutty) friends have made a big difference to the place. But we have only been here a month and a few nights I've heard rustling/squeaking coming from the shared hedge in the back garden. well tonight I saw a rat running in the hedge. I googled the local council and rats and all it says is that the council are happy to hire rat cages to catch them...that's not going to stop them! We have pets so don't want to poison...how concerned should I be? DH is keeping the sheds shut as much as possible so they don't go in there...the neighbours have still got a MASSIVE wood pile in their garden and a fair amount of junky stuff. Australia is full of animals though...DH doesn't seem that bothered but I'm grossed out!

Notjustanymum · 01/04/2021 12:35

We’re in the UK, where you’re never more than 20m from a rat! As long as they stay outside I wouldn’t be too worried - but if there were loads of them I’d be hiring pest control...

Lockheart · 01/04/2021 12:39

Get traps if you don't want to use poison. Or you could use secure bait boxes.

Original poster

FortunesFave · 01/04/2021 12:43

But surely traps just catch one at a time? And then what good is that when there might be 200 of them!

OP posts:

LookingThroughTheTrees · 01/04/2021 12:47

As long as they’re outside, they’re in their habitat. Just sort your property out so that they can’t come in.

LakieLady · 01/04/2021 16:15

They're only really a problem if they get in your house, where they can do a hell of a lot of damage.

We've had them in the house twice, and the council's rat man came out, put down traps and poisoned bait in boxes. Both times, they established where they were getting in (through tiny holes in the brickwork where mortar had fallen out) and we filled the holes once we were sure they'd gone.

We have a terrible rat problem here, partly because we're close to 3 lots of stables and partly because a few neighnbours keep poultry, and rats love chicken feed. A friend who lives nearby had rats in her drains, and had to have all the drains relaid, which cost thousands.

If you like dogs, OP, I recommend a terrier or two. I had 2 lakeland terriers, and the rats have only ever been under the kitchen floor, and in the loft, which they accessed by going up inside the cavity walls.

The second time we had a problem, we only had one dog and she was very elderly, so not up to killing them. Before she went deaf and her eyesight got poor, she was killing one or two a week and leaving their bodies on the lawn. We'd have spells of a few months when there'd be no bodies, then a few weeks of finding dead rats again, until she'd despatched the latest interlopers.

I hate the fuckers, I'm afraid. They're the only animal I could contemplate poisoning, and I'm perfectly happy to share my house with spiders.

ZenNudist · 01/04/2021 16:18

Clicked on thus for advice as my neighbour came round thus week to say they saw a rat in our garden. We are worried they are under the shed. Have ordered some traps. It's not a big shed so there can't be many.... yet

FindingMeno · 01/04/2021 16:21

Seeing the odd rat outdoors is no biggie.
Don't do anything to encourage them to yours - keep your rubbish contained/ don't put bird seed out, and just keep aware of whether you see more.

Thymeout · 01/04/2021 17:17

I'd take up your council's offer. They wouldn't be suggesting it as a solution if it didn't work. How do you know there are hundreds? You've only seen one. Yes - there are certainly more, but it doesn't sound like a massive infestation to me.

Put down the traps. No risk to your pets if they can't get in, so use poisoned bait. Remove all food sources. Lids tightly on bins. No bird seed or chickens. And ask your neighbours to do the same. That should sort them out.

LookingThroughTheTrees · 01/04/2021 18:08

I hate poison. Aside from the obvious reasons, how do you get rats to eat the bait? Make it tasty and tempting. Unless you have a very small population or just one or two, the bait encourages more to come to get the bait.

Don’t let food outside lay around (bird food) and seal up access spaces around the house.

Original poster

FortunesFave · 02/04/2021 06:09

@LakieLady

They're only really a problem if they get in your house, where they can do a hell of a lot of damage.

We've had them in the house twice, and the council's rat man came out, put down traps and poisoned bait in boxes. Both times, they established where they were getting in (through tiny holes in the brickwork where mortar had fallen out) and we filled the holes once we were sure they'd gone.

We have a terrible rat problem here, partly because we're close to 3 lots of stables and partly because a few neighnbours keep poultry, and rats love chicken feed. A friend who lives nearby had rats in her drains, and had to have all the drains relaid, which cost thousands.

If you like dogs, OP, I recommend a terrier or two. I had 2 lakeland terriers, and the rats have only ever been under the kitchen floor, and in the loft, which they accessed by going up inside the cavity walls.

The second time we had a problem, we only had one dog and she was very elderly, so not up to killing them. Before she went deaf and her eyesight got poor, she was killing one or two a week and leaving their bodies on the lawn. We'd have spells of a few months when there'd be no bodies, then a few weeks of finding dead rats again, until she'd despatched the latest interlopers.

I hate the fuckers, I'm afraid. They're the only animal I could contemplate poisoning, and I'm perfectly happy to share my house with spiders.

We have two dogs and a cat. The cat has always caught mice in our previous home but I don't think she's used to rats...but she may well get onto it as she's a bit feral.

OP posts:

dudsville · 02/04/2021 07:17

I'm no expert, and this is based on one experience, but when we had rats in the neighbourhood my neighbour rang the council and was given a chain link fence around a rat hole in the ground. I thought that was ridiculous so I googled and learned that rats don't like change. With mice you can alter their environment loads and they'll happily stay, but with rats if you continuously change the environment they'll move on. So, I frequently disturbed where ever I thought they were hanging out and they left.

divegirl77 · 02/04/2021 08:33

Also in Aus, use secure bait boxes.