Rat in garden advice

[Ratadvice]

I saw a rat at the bottom of the garden this morning. It disappeared behind the compost bin.

DH emptied out the old and broken garden shed next to it and found some droppings in there.

There is also a hole by the decking which we naively had thought was from a hedgehog....

We have young children and I am now freaking out about them playing in the garden. I feel like it's all contaminated with horrible diseases!

Also slightly concerned that we saw one out in broad daylight ( Google says it either means they're starving and desperate or that there is a big infestation... hopefully the former!!)

Our first reaction was to get some poison but now I've read about it it doesn't seem like a good idea.

We will remove the decking and shed in a few weeks when we have time as it's all old and not used anyway, but what else should we do in the meantime?

So sorry, meant to put this in Chat. Please ignore 😣

Make sure no food is left lying around, including for birds and that's about it. There are rats everywhere, as long as they aren't in your house it's not a problem. Just wash hands after playing or gardening, but you should do that anyway.

Same issues here, ours is an empty house a few doors down, and they're HUGE and out in the garden with no fear whatsoever

Covered poison bait boxes are good, we put them along the runs and under flags/bricks to stop kids/dog getting near. Be very careful with it, but in the right place it can help if you've got a lot of them. The most quick/humane way to kill them is snap traps but a lot of people don't like those.

Peppermint oil in vodka/spirit alcohol and sprayed along run is a deterrent.

I suspect once your decking comes out you'll probably see the end of them. Rats love a decking house!