Aarghhh rats in my compost bin!

[Gunpowder]

In a moment of lockdown madness I ordered a compost bin. I’m not a gardener but I was feeling a bit apocalyptic and worried that our food waste wouldn’t be collected. Just opened the lid and something moved. I made DH go and poke the bin with a fork and the most enormous rat ran out. It was honestly the size of a small cat. WTF was I thinking? What do I do? If we get rid of the compost bin will Rattigan come and live in our house?

I couldn’t be too bothered about this tbh.

You are never very far from a rat at all, as well as compost bins, if you have a shed or decking it’s highly likely there are rats under there.

I wouldn’t have thought it likely they’d enter your house really.

Don’t leave food lying around and ignore would be my advice.
You probably won’t see them unless you disturb them.

I must say though that I’ve never got on with compost bins.
Ours was always heaving with flies and maggots 🤢despite following the advice.
Very unpleasant, I don’t regret getting rid of it one little bit

Thanks frostedviolets. Yes the little flies are disgusting too. That’s why I started ignoring the bin. Little did I know it would turn into a rat hotel.

I don’t know what I was thinking. DD1 & 2 are desperate for a pet and are busy junk modelling a new home for him.

Never again.

really, compost is pretty easy, but if you put in things rats like eating then they will be attracted to it. Broadly speaking don't put cooked food into the compost bin - it's good for peelings and raw veg leftovers and shredded paper, grass cuttings, weeds etc but not meat or bread or anything fatty.

Thanks purple I thought it had only had fruit and vegetable peelings and garden waste in but DH just told me (rather sheepishly) that he put eggshells in there in April! Apparently they like potato peelings too and there have been lots of those.

Rats and compost heaps always go together - they like the food supply and the waste is nice and warm as it rots. I gave up on having a compost heap for that very reason.

Have you considered one of the closed rotating composters instead?

Love our compost rats, they churn it up so we don’t have to turn it and the cat chases them instead of the songbirds. Win win.

Ooh I will look into that Amber thank you. I dunno though, I think this experience may have put me off composting for life.

SpringSpringTime it did look very well turned and composty!

All my tomato plants except for one have died though so I think this is the end of my compost journey.

Now I’m getting loads of adverts for pest control.

We had them despite only putting in peelings etc. They like the warmth for nesting.

Two solutions that worked for me. First I compost on concrete slabs now. There’s a tiny gap between them so liquid/worms can get through but otherwise no way for a rat to tunnel under.

I also have a corkscrew turner which speeds up the compost. I turn it a tiny bit every time I add something so that helps it stay loose and less rat friendly.

Composting is a wonderful thing though. It has transformed my soil. Could you just do it with garden waste for now and avoid all food waste until you have recovered?!

Thank you peajotter I will sleep on it! We live in the city so the bin is relatively close to our house and I think that’s what’s edging me out so much!

To stop flies add far more greens and browns than kitchen waste and either mix or cover. A compost corkscrew is useful for making sure the food waste is well buried, or you can cover each layer with wet cardboard - I store old boxes down the back of the bin. I’ve not has any flies since starting this method.

Thank you. I wish I’d posted on here before I started. I didn’t do my due diligence and thought reading the council leaflet would be enough.

I have the occasional rat in my compost. Meh. I can’t get excited about it. They don’t bother me, and I don’t bother them.

I did once put my spade through a baby one, and had to finish it off. That was traumatic.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any since that incident, so it may have put them off!

@Gunpowder

Thank you. I wish I’d posted on here before I started. I didn’t do my due diligence and thought reading the council leaflet would be enough.

Council leaflet < mumsnet advice

OMG Venus this is exactly what I’m talking about. Jeez I always had a naive view that the Gardening section was a chilled section to escape the craziness of AIBU but in fact it’s absolutely terrifying Hopefully it did put them off.

SpringSpringTime SO TRUE! Don’t even talk about Mumsnet and the government. No competition.

I have two compost bins which I use alternately to give it time to rot down properly and have occasionally found a rat or two. I live rurally and can't get worked up about it, especially as my neighbour puts bird food on the ground which attracts them. To my mind the benefit of the compost outweighs the occasional rat. I did object when they started a family in the loft though. Lying awake at night listening to them climbing through the cavity walls - that was fun.

squashyhat I can’t bear the thought of them in my house.

I used to have a neighbour who was incredibly House proud. We’re talking show house clean and tidy. Like an advert in The White Company only cleaner and tidier! I remember once seeing a huge rat on her compost bin which was at the bottom of their garden by our fence and it made me smile. I never told her though.

this would tickle me too thistimeofyear

The only time we've had rats in the compost is when we were without cats for a few months.

Though even that isn't strictly true - putting a trail camera in the garden reveals it is used by 8 cats and two foxes besides our three cats. We were watching a cat fight between 4 black and white cats the other day - very difficult to recognise which two were ours.

That’s interesting Mere. Our resident fox hasn’t been able to visit since we got our side gate fixed. Maybe he was keeping the rats away before. Next door have a gorgeous cat but he can’t get in now either!

Rats are everywhere though. I used to rescue baby ones off my cat. They’d bury their little heads in the grass and squeak for 5heir mum to rescue them.

Our adders and badgers seem to keep the rat population down.

In our last house we had rats in the compost and they helpfully caught themselves in a bucket with a stick leaning against it. If rather they hadn’t though, I didn’t enjoy working out what to do with a bucket of rats.

Fluffy I am almost feeling sorry for them.

A bucket of rats would be useful if you had any local enemies Bandaris otherwise utterly horrific.