Spotted a rat!

[frazzled3ds]

So whilst half asleep looking out of the kitchen window this morning, watching the birds busy on the feeders, I noticed something move in the flower bed. Thought it was a bird at first then it moved again - definitely a rat!

Not seen one in the garden before, and my cats are clearly completely useless as rodent deterrents.... any suggestions on how to get it to disappear permanently?!

All the time there's a food source your long-tailed friend will not be far away. We had them tunnel into the house on two separate occasions. If you can see their 'run', try a poison bait in a bait box or water pipe laid in the way. They tend to keep to the sides of walls, hedges etc. Good luck

Will try bait I think, or failing that burn the compost heap (it's more woody stuff than anything else) as I suspect that may be where it's hiding

Birds on the feeders.
Are the feeders spill proof? This could be what's attracting Ratty.

No they're not spill proof, may have to do some upgrading of those too! Thank you :)

Wet your compost heap too - that'll make it not so nice for them to live in.

I saw a rat on the supermarket yesterday. Manager didn't seem too bothered. Didn't offer me any complimentary vouchers either

We have snakes in our compost bin. No rats to be seen

Please please don't do anything drastic to your compost heap, OP. That is where your hedgehogs are very likely to be hibernating!

Hedgehogs are having such a hard time at the moment, with populations falling quickly and lots of habitats being destroyed, so it's really important to be careful when putting out rat poison, turning compost heaps with a pitchfork, or burning sticks and mess in the garden that we don't kill or injure them.

www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/helpful-garden-features/

That link was one of many- if you are interested, there is a lot of information about them available. I have come across sleeping hedgehogs 4 times in our garden over the years, and it has always been so exciting to see them-

I won't be doing anything major to the compost heap, though I will give it a good soaking when it stops being sub zero. I had a closer look yesterday, I think ratty is coming through the fence from next door so possibly resident under their shed. The fence is due to be replaced soon which may scare him off. Meanwhile the birds are having a field day on the feeders - how do such tiny things survive weather like this?

Cheeky puss! No sign of ratty this morning but then that may have something to do with the garden being under several inches of snow with a nice ice crust on top thanks to a finishing layer of freezing rain!

As long as you're not encouraging them with bin bags lying around and there is no way into your house etc I would just leave them be.

You can never really get rid of them and they won't come where there is no food/shelter anyway.

Poison is just too cruel for me personally.

I would imagine a lot of them won't survive in this weather anyway!

Poison would be a last resort for me. I'll leave him/her be for now, and so long as it doesn't get in the house I don't really mind - from a distance it looks quite cute!

We have a visiting rat who eats the bread on the feeding table, we just leave him to it.

When does it get to much. We have a nest and have the pest control man dealing with it, we think our neighbours have a food source and don’t seem v interested in dealing with it. We had a rat die on our doorstep a few months ago. That upset me.

Don't use poison, it's a cruel death plus cats could eat it. Hope ratty and his friends survive this awful weather.

I won't use poison. Ratty lives under next door's shed, and seems to have been fine in the snow - I've just seen him/her enjoying a spot of seed nibbling sat in the sunshine, whilst one of the cats sat about 2 metres away, completely oblivious!!