To carry on feeding the birds even though rats have appeared in our garden?

[ahe2]

Not sure what to do about this.

We love feeding the birds. My DC have learned the names of so many birds because of this and while I don’t exactly believe robins are the souls of our loved ones … well … maybe I want to think it’s something to do with being watched over.

The problem is we now have rats. I’ve seen a baby one and an adult so I think there’s probably a nest.

Part of me thinks rats are everywhere. We live cruelly, it’s a big garden with a large hedge leading into open meadows and woodland so there will be rats. We had rabbits a couple of years ago which I loved and we have a squirrel which I’ve no problem with. So …

On the other hand the thought of rats on my children’s play equipment and possibly spreading disease is unpleasant.

What would you do? Is there any way we can continue feeding the birds but discourage the rats?

The birds need help this time of year, it’s silly to say they don’t. Insects and seeds are not readily available yet.

It goes even further than that. It's coming up to nesting time. When the adult birds are expending all their energy finding worms and grubs for ever hungry young mouths, it's enormously helpful to them to have an easy source of food for themselves.

I don’t feed birds here, unless very cold weather, and we still have lots of birds. A robin always make an appearance when I am gardening/weeding/digging soil. We have a nest of swallow under the eaves of the garden shed. We often look out and see other birds also.

Yes, but the reason it's rare is because most people don't come into close contact with rats and actively try to get rid of them if they appear on their property.

If everyone was just allowing rats to roam freely around their gardens the number of cases would be a lot higher.

Hell will freeze over before I stop feeding the birds. I love it. It's one of my hobbies. And there's no reason to not feed them in spring and summer. They have young/fledglings that they need to feed, and will appreciate the extra food. Also, there is less natural food, because we have fucked up their envionment and the planet, so the least we can do is help them a bit now.

I don't feed them as much in spring and summer.

And how exactly will a bird bath replace food?

I have seen one rat - one - in the 10 years I have been feeding the birds since we moved to this rural house, (and this was 2 summers ago,) and I have never had one in my house. Hilariously, a neighbour of mine, 5 doors away, got 2 rats in her house, even though she has never fed the birds in her life. Must have food waste over her kitchen floor! 😁

I get around 19-20 different types of bird in my (rather large) garden. They love it. 😃

Carry on feeding them. @ahe2 ... I would!

@ahe2 At this time of the year birds are feeding their young so appreciate live mealworms. You could get one of those feeders that you stick to your window with suction pads to put the mealworms in - it's great seeing the sparrows and other small birds coming so close and the worms are gone in a flash so won't attract the rats. Robins and Starlings get used to you very quickly and will come to eat from your hands in a day or so. But the Robins can be very cheeky, if we leave the back door open I have walked into the kitchen to find "our" Robin sitting on the tap above the sink waiting for me to dish out the dinner. Once their young have fledged they stop visiting until next year and there are usually enough insects and berries around in the summer so I stop feeding the birds until winter.

Totally agree, @BatchCookBabe

ugh; i woul never do this to my squirrels.

Hope you are feeding summer friendly food or they will choke their chicks......

I have cameras on all my bird feeders, I have a huge collection of species, highly recommend wildlife cameras. IV seen an owl snatch a beautiful little mouse off a high up bird feeder. A sparrowhawk visits occasionally. We did have a rat and I poured mint mouthwash (suggested my my farmer neighbour) and he moved to different part of garden, few nights later fox caught a rat on camera, nature is brutal. I also feed the fox and feral cat, helps keep rats & mice under control. We have pine martens vicious little buggers. Night cameras are fascinating so much wildlife. I am very rural. Pheasants nesting in my huge planter at moment it's wonderful. Rats are everywhere, I have terriers so one wouldn't last long if got into the house.

What do you mean?

Oooooh, we get a few squirrels too, who munch on the bird food - especially the nuts!

If you see a rat, particularly in daylight, you can be sure that there are a lot of others nearby.
It is wonderful to love wildlife, and help the birds. But, in doing so, you are also inviting other visitors.
Rural area or not, many animals will generally choose the path of least resistance as far as food goes. In this instance, that's your garden.

We have a large tray underneath ours which catches the seed which the birds inevitably drop. It’s ontop of the dome thing that stops squirrels etc climbing the feeder pole.
We bring all feeders and empty the tray without fail every night. We also have bait boxes out to keep the rodent numbers down. Not seen a rat in over a year and no bait is being taken either.

So the tray is where the blue line is. It also doubles as a bird bath too.

The rspb suggest coating the bird food in chilli powder as birds can't taste it but rats hate it!

Most people will have rats, mice and other weils carriers (like squirrels) visit their garden fairly often. They are an incredibly common (and important) part of the ecosystem.

The risk of catching Weils disease is very small even in industries where people are more frequently exposed to lots of wild rats (agriculture, waste management, vetinary, construction). Even if we assumed that all exposure came from rats (which isnt actually the case, cattle are a significant contributor, and carry and spread it independently of rats), the rate of infection in high risk settings is probably in the region of 0.001%.

In your garden, even if you see rats from time to time, the risk will be magnitudes smaller.

If you were to be one of the unlucky few to catch it, it is still very likely (85%-90% chance) there your symptoms would be mild and flu-like.

I do think the OP should deal with the problem, by removing (or isolating) the food source. It is not desirable to have rats nesting in your garden. Them getting inside and causing damage, though, is by far the biggest risk. The risk of weils does exist but it really is extremely trivial in the scenario described by the OP. If you have ever petted a cow, that was probably far riskier.

We had to stop feeding the birds because of rats. We tried putting the feeders higher up but no matter where we put them the rats could either climb up and get them or would eat the seeds that the birds had dropped on the ground. My husband loved feeding the birds and wasn’t worried by the rats but I didn’t want an infestation plus didn’t think it was fair on the neighbours.

You could try just having the food out during the daytime and cleaning any spillage up. I think you can get rat proof feeders too.

Hmm maybe you need to educate yourself too? Often caught from contaminated soil or water. Yes, it can be caught from the urine of an infected rat, but....the rat would have to be infected, and you'd have to touch, and somehow transfer the infected urine, into your body , very quickly after the rat urinated. I'm sure OPs children aren't playing underground, in manholes.

I stopped feeding the birds a number of years ago as it was attracting rats....tried everything to stop them. Eventually the council set traps at a cost to me....no more rats. No feeding, no rats.... it's simple. Rats are an absolute nightmare

I have bird feeders, the pole to hang a variety of feeders from. Rats can't climb the slippery pole. Put it away from fences, the birds will still come to be fed and the rats can't get to the food. I live rurally too (or cruelly,...) by a river. There are plenty of rats further down the road where animals are kept, but I've never seen one, or evidence of any, in my garden. I've got chickens too, shock horror!!

I'd just carry on.

I have found using suet balls in a hanging feeder to be relatively unappealing to rats and squirrels.

We had a hideous infestation which took months and much work to get on top of. It was essential to stop all feeding while we sorted it - but we were seeing eg 6 rats simultaneously in a smallish garden (they moved in during building work)

Now, if we feed loose seed we tend to find rats arriving, but no sightings after switching to suet. I also planted mint which is said to deter them

Rats will happily eat fresh mint, it is more likely to attract than deter them.

I had rats in my garden and was advised by the council’s pest control that visited, that I should remove all bird feeders. I only reinstated them when we were sure the rats had gone. I also have a pond and was told rats like to be near a water source too.

I wonder if sprinkling cayenne pepper all over the garden frequently would help then?