AIBU to not want rats in the garden?

[Cottagepieandpeas]

DP thinks it’s just what happens in the countryside (he’s 100% rural, I am the opposite).
I’m appalled and don’t want them here. We have a dog so can’t poison.
I’m starting to get obsessed that they’re going to be running up the drainpipe 😩

Do I just have to accept it?

Yes, there are rats every where but generally they try not to be seen, even in rural places. So, if a well-fed fat rat wanders nonchalantly by, then you have a rat problem.

The best solution is calling in Pest Control/Environmental Health experts - poison is involved, but they know where to put it so it doesn't poison other things at the same time. And where you can block access routes.

YANBU and your DH should know that you can't be nonchalant when it comes to "nonchalant rats".

And what @GCAcademic said - secondary poisoning of non target species is a real result of using rodenticides and reason enough not to use poisons

@LemonRoses

No. Entirely unacceptable and not inevitable in rural areas. Yes, on farmland or with chickens but not an ordinary garden. When we moved to our current house about fifteen years ago I told my husband if I ever saw a rat within our perimeter hedges/fences etc I’d move out. Despite a graveyard next door, we have never had a problem.

In fairness, my husband works hard to make sure it doesn’t happen.
No fallen fruit left lying on ground in orchard. He picks up everything.
No food composting. Garden waste compost well away from house behind fenced area.
Shed with freezers and dog food has a metal grid underneath and part way up sides to prevent entry by rodents.
Underneath sheds is cemented and has no area for nests.
All drain pipes, drains and eaves sealed or covered.
Not having mains sewage helps.
Main garden area is either flint walled or fenced - mainly for dog security, but is also dug down about a foot. Mesh is small and rat proof; it’s behind hedging to camouflage it.

Then he has bait boxes around the perimeter that he checks and replenishes weekly. Occasionally bait has been nibbled (which means rodents will die, but generally it’s just freshened. The bait is in dog proof boxes.

We are rural. Live next door to a big grain store. Agree with above.

Secondary poisoning is a huge problem yes, just so irresponsible and cruel.

My cat killed and brought home 18 rats in 10 days last year. We are rural and can only assume he found a nest and cleaned it out

@GCAcademic

Then he has bait boxes around the perimeter that he checks and replenishes weekly. Occasionally bait has been nibbled (which means rodents will die, but generally it’s just freshened. The bait is in dog proof boxes.

This is so irresponsible. Please stop it. You will be poisoning all manner of wildlife, things like hedgehogs and also those higher in the food chain, such as birds of prey and owls who feed on rodents.

Nonsense. Calcium releasers do not cause secondary poisoning at all. Haemorrhage kills the rat but not other things.

No hedgehogs in the garden. The fencing keeps most things out. Badgers had to reroute, thank goodness. Deer no longer destroy the trees. Moles seem unworried unfortunately. Our local owls seem to survive just fine. So many farms around they tend to not come down in the gardens. Occasionally they come onto the cars or eat carrion off road, but since we don’t have rats, they cannot eat them.

Oddly, I prefer dead rats to tuberculosis, Weils, toxoplasmosis, salmonella, hantavirus, tapeworm and other helminths, typhoid and numerous other serious diseases.
Rats are responsible for many deaths including U.K. deaths. We think bubonic plague is something out of the history books, but the last reported cases were very recent.

@barbedwired

My cat killed and brought home 18 rats in 10 days last year. We are rural and can only assume he found a nest and cleaned it out

that almost puts me off getting a cat!

I shouldn’t be reading this just before I go to sleep.

Bubonic plague was spread by human lice and fleas, not by rats. They are very definitely not spreading bubonic plague in the UK right now. I'd take the odd rat in a wildlife friendly environment over something wildlife-proof any day.

I use battery powered rat and mouse traps www.screwfix.com/p/pest-stop-plastic-metal-battery-powered-rat-killer/76836
www.screwfix.com/p/pest-stop-plastic-metal-battery-powered-mouse-killer/45407
You need to place these where the dog can't get hold of them, and check them regularly, and the batteries need replacing quite often when killing a lot.
The kill is clean and quick just as the rat/mouse takes a tasty bite of peanut butter.
I recycle the rat/mouse carcases by leaving them out on the back driveway, where they are collected by grateful red kite etc. Have seen a barn owl collect one. I figure feeding the wild population safely while decimating the rat population (no poison) is no bad thing.

I live in an urban area and we get the odd rat in the garden. Drives the cats crazy!

I live in a city and we sometimes see rats in our garden. So not just a rural thing. I think they're everywhere. We have lots of squirrels too (the socially acceptable rat). I don't mind as long as they aren't a nuisance and don't come into the house.

I live rural on the edge of a field. Over the Last 20 years I have seen maybe 4 rats in my garden. I know they are out their but they keep their distance from us. I don't leave bird food out over night and my compost bin has an old slabs on it so nothing can get into it. I keep my windows closed over night in case one gets in. (The cat patrols the window in the daytime.) I have grills on my vents. The nearest I have come to one was whilst gardening at the edge of the field a rat came out of the grass. We looked at each other for a second or two then rat back into the grass. It looked a clean healthy timid rat.

When I lived in the city a house near to me had rats. They were not weary of humans at all. They looked big and scruffy and dirty. My old cat would drag dead ones home and we had to get the council to remove the bodies almost weekly.

@barbedwired

My cat killed and brought home 18 rats in 10 days last year. We are rural and can only assume he found a nest and cleaned it out

Yes my cat does the same. I think it’s a sign he loves us

I’ve seen more rats when I lived in a city but I have seen them occasionally where I am now (rural). I had one in my shed - gone now it’s been tidied and sorted and I saw one getting the windfall apples I’d left for wildlife during the coldest part of winter, sharing them with the birds. Neither place is near my house though. They didn’t do any harm, it’s just a point of being aware they are there (health issues wise).

I do have a cat though.

It’s not ‘nonsense’ about secondary poisoning. It’s also a horrible, cruel death for a sentient and intelligent animal.
www.ratpoisonfacts.org/hypercalcemia/

If one must try to sterilise the countryside, there are quicker, less cruel methods.

I have holes cut in my fences, hedgehogs are endangered and needs to be able to get through.

Rats are everywhere, but you can at least try not to attract them and invite them to settle or come in!

ground composter, warm, dark, with food thrown at them everyday is a paradise for rats for example...

No one wants vermin invading their kitchen, and rat traps killing little mice are bleak

@FitToFly

It’s not ‘nonsense’ about secondary poisoning. It’s also a horrible, cruel death for a sentient and intelligent animal. www.ratpoisonfacts.org/hypercalcemia/

If one must try to sterilise the countryside, there are quicker, less cruel methods.

No, doesn’t mention secondary poisoning because it’s not a problem.

Rats are not sweet little creatures that amble around in a Beatrix Potter story. They are disease spreading vermin that if left unculled pose significant risks to humans, pets and other wildlife. Stopping them breeding by early killing of adults reduces their diseases becoming endemic.

The RSPB and Barn Owl Trust definitely consider secondary poisoning to be a problem.

www.barnowltrust.org.uk/hazards-solutions/rodenticides/background-rat-poison-problem/

www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-and-sustainability/farming/advice/techniques-to-help-wildlife/rodenticide-use/

Top tip, don't get a cat, mine brings them in...alive!

As long as they stay outdoors, it's no different to having squirrels in the garden.

Yes, rats carry diseases, but most wild rodents and some other mammals carry the same ones.

Rats indoors = a menace.

Rats outdoors = typical nature.

Rats are not sweet little creatures that amble around in a Beatrix Potter story. They are disease spreading vermin that if left unculled pose significant risks to humans, pets and other wildlife. Stopping them breeding by early killing of adults reduces their diseases becoming endemic.
As are mice, squirrels, rabbits, etc etc etc

@Cottagepieandpeas

Wow *@LemonRoses* I need to borrow your husband

Or *@LemonRoses* needs to be less hard work. Move out just because you see a rat? They are there whether you see them or not FYI.

We just got traps.

Can you get rid without poisoning or electrocution. I think I have them in my loft. The kids are always leaving food in their room. I'm not overly terrified but don't want to have to kill them