Just saw a rat in my garden

[Kayrel]

God I struggle to even type the word. Phobia isn’t the half of it

So our house does back up onto countryside so I’m realistic in that they must exist somewhat close to me. Neighbours also compost and 5 or so years we had to block an entrance said animals were using into our garden.

im worried cause my dog is very interested in a side garage which we do not use. (Direction it ran)

We do not leave rubbish out due to my phobia. I make extra dump runs to avoid this. All access points are sealed.

Please tell me what to do. Money is tight (had to fork out for car issues)

Someone sensible please tell me what to do. I have broken my phone before by chucking it when I unexpectedly saw a pic of said animal. Phobia is terrible. This will cause an issue with dh cause I am blowing up issue

Ah, ha ha ha.... no, didn't realise it sounded that bad. Not actual dead, dead, bodies. Well sort of. She couldn't go to museums for example, or watch history stuff on TV, would run out of class when teachers put visuals up. She is an historian too, so pretty useful to be able to see skeletons, mummies etc.

She had to look at pictures on the internet. Gradually upping the time spent looking, and also the visually more disturbing images. Starting with skeletons, then on to dry mummies, then juicy ones (sorry), then things like pompeii victims, burn victims. She still struggles with the later, Hiroshima visuals for example.

I do feel bad believe me. My dream is to set up an animal sanctuary. But with donkeys and chickens

I wish this were true. My cat loves to deliver me dead rats.
I must've set up some sort of subscription with him.

The only way you're going to avoid rats is by moving to the top floor of a tower block and never going past your front door.

I'd suggest you need to address your phobia as a priority. Rats just ignore people and just do their thing. I find they're more secretive than mice. If you're on the edge of countryside you must have known about this.

I wouldn’t start a chicken sanctuary if you’re afraid of rats.

If you're rural, can you get over to a farm supply shop? They are fairly good at advising the best poison to buy, rats get resistant over time. Get some rat boxes, rats stick to the edges so that's where you need to put them. Look for any holes in the ground, rat biscuit in and brick on top, that way they die in the tunnel. If you feed yhe birds, stop and is there a water source, pond etc? If so block access.

Get someone to clear the garage, and look for nesting evidence, torn up card, poo etc

I'm a veggie, but I also live in the countryside and I'm afraid it's called control. Contrary to some advice on here, they are not harmless.

I don't want to freak you out, but they certainly don't come in ones, so you have to be proactive.

I had mice in my house. Two Jack Russell’s. Absolutely useless! 😂

Oh fuck, exactly my fear. Probably a nest in the garage. There is definitely a gap big enough under the garage door. It’s this cheap wooden swing thing.

I am also rat phobic. I got pest control out when I saw one in my garden, living under the shed. It didn't cost that much and was totally worth it. After that we had a cat for a while that turned out to be a rater, used to line them up in size order outside the door. Now I'm pretty sure my dog would let me know like yours, but surely all the harassment from the dog would also scare them off. I don't think therapy would work for my phobia because I don't think it's irrational. I don't want rats to set up home in my garden for good reason.

We had our house recently gutted and new paving put in. Certain we have no gaps anywhere. My only comfort

They won't come in your house if you don't leave food or crumbs out

Can you get someone halp you to deal with it initially? And then keep on top of it and keep the little fuckers away.

We’re good with this for this exact reason

Tbh I think you are going to have to throw money at this problem, unless DH is willing to go into garage and establish the situation and then deal with it.

You guys are amazing for posting. Really feel would feel horrendous right now without MN. Dh is a decent guy but would consider this hysterics.

I've got a phobia I can't even write what I was going to

Ive closed all my windows. Is that ott?

I know im pissing some people off but this is my one only fear. I’d happily hold a tarantula or have multiple snakes around my neck.

This has ruined my day. Was excited to watch England play with a pizza and beer after Fast 800 ing.

And now I just wish I didn’t get up

If your dog isn't up to the challenge, mine is a unit for rats, get DH to get an air rifle, a big tub of peanut butter and a deckchair.

Spread the peanut butter on the lawn, sit in the deckchair with the air rifle and wait. On a good day he'll get a fair few if he's a decent shot.

Meanwhile you deal with your phobia, they're everwhere, you live in the countryside, life is too short to be frozen stiff on the sofa because you saw a rat in the garden.

Also do not whatever you do get chickens, because chicken coops are rat havens.

Fuck it has to be what I saw. Dog and I were looking out at garden (debating whether to walk) and we saw something run across our garden paving (parallel to house) in direction of garage. He tracked it and barked. If it were a bird he would not bother barking. He happily watches robins. I let him out and he bolted to where it ran across and inspected garage door.

Well, it is hysteria but I have a spider phobia so I do get where you're coming from. However, I agree with previous posters that you need to get a grip on your fear because you can't go around killing things just because you're frightened of them irrationally.

If you poison rats and mice, you are also going to poison the birds that eat them, so it really should be an absolute last resort and certainly doesn't need to be done for one rat seen briefly in your garden.

I have used poison with rats but only when they were getting into the walls of our house and only then because we were really struggling to find where they were getting in and therefore couldn't block it up to stop them.

It really would be far better to get some help with your phobia which sounds extreme and is affecting your life disproportionately.

Hi OP. Sympathies. Phobias are horrible, and rats are also horrible, phobia or no phobia as they are extremely unhygienic and carry diseases.
We had one or more in our garden at one time, digging tunnels and gnawing through the bottom of a wooden fence. I remember looking up online what to do, and two things stood out to deter them. One is they hate mint. I bought some essential oil of mint (a strong smell), and doused some tissues in it and stuffed down the entrance of holes, pushing them in with a stick.
i also planted peppermint where the holes were, which has spread a lot. it seems to have worked. Not instant but does work. I have not seen a rat or sign of them for a long time.
The other is they like to lurk in places which are not disturbed much, so moving things around will help. In my garden there were some paving slabs stacked upright and they liked to hide behind them. Just moving those helped. Keep disturbing them, they don't like it. Could your DH go into the garage and move stuff about?
There are also plug in rodent deterrents that work quite well, as they make it uncomfortable so the rat leaves. Finally, there is always Rentokill.

This happened to us a month ago and i got similar mixed responses to you on MN.

I don't have a rat phobia but a germ and infestation phobia so was similarly triggered. We called pest controller for advice and indeed you don't really need to do anything except make your garden unattractive so that they don't set up home.

Unfortunately it was too late for us, we have old decking and an old shed and they had established. We did go down the poison route which i didnt feel great about but felt it was necessary on balance.

I just wanted to debunk the myths about poison as everything i had read on MN had freaked me out - but not all rat poison is equal and the poison that pest controllers use are of no risk to pets and don't cause secondary poisoning either.

So I would say if you go down that route, don't get off the shelf poison, get things done properly by a pest controller. They'll also know to set things up so it's well controlled amd will use the minimum amount.

Good luck, send DH to inspect the garage as its likely nowhere near as bad as you imagine in your head in any case.