Rat in the garden!

[lucamom]

Today we saw a huge rat in our garden, for the first time (we've been here 5 years). It's enclosed on all sides so not sure how it got in, and when hubby 'chased' it off, it was very slow and in the end hubby had to lift it up with a shovel to get rid; it wasn't aggressive or jumpy (although he said it seemed terrified) as I would have expected.

I'm planning to call the council after the bank hol, but hoped someone else had this experience and can reassure me it's a one-off! I'm very phobic about rats so we purposely don't leave food around for birds etc for this reason, but with a 4 year old and a 2 year old they are bound to leave crumbs when walking around with a biscuit/crisps.

Is it inevitable that there are more/will be more, and will they try to get in the house? I'm scared to go in the garden or let the boys play, but we can't avoid it all summer.

Thanks

Would you like to borrow a terrier. Ours have seen off the rats completely ...and they really enjoy it.

I'd offer you my terrier, but last time I tried to get him to help protect me from an unknown scratching noise in the yard, he ran off

Terriers make short work of rats if you know any.

There's a rat in your garden, what are you gonna do?
There's a rat in your garden, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna fix that rat, that's what you're gonna do
You're gonna fix that rat!

Thanks for all the replies, hubby's done a thorough check and no sign today so fingers crossed!

I'm still wary of going into the garden, although I did let the boys out today with strict instructions not to touch ANY animals in the garden. My 4 year old was the one who saw the rat originally and thought it was a mouse, and both were fascinated and wanted us to keep it, so my next fear is going into the garden and finding my 2 year old pushing it around in his little toy car!

Ive been reading the posts on here as yesterday i saw a rat in my neighbours shed. I'm extremely phobic and couldn't even sleep last night for worrying! My hubby has made me worse by saying it'll scale walls to get in an open window?! But lucamom ty for making me smile with your last post :)

Call your council asap! Ours sent out a 'rat-man', and he put down bait. Came back 2 weeks later to check on the situation.
But don't just let it go - you'll never relax!

You can put poison out yourself. It will cost you a lot less money than calling in the council, unless it's a council property of course.

Just keep putting it out until the dish stays full, then you know they have gone. However it does sound to me like the rat was poisoned anyway by the way it was behaving. Ask your neighbours they may be awre of a rat problem and are dealing with it.

It really sounds as though it had been poisoned,as it makes them slow and disorientated.It is most likely dead now.If you haven't seen any others then I wouldn't worry,but to be honest there is always a rat or two in my garden, I live in the country and there is a stream so they are just around.Doesn't bother me unless the numbers seem to be getting higher.

Are you sure it wasn't someone's pet rat that had got out? Was it brown??

Look for holes in your garden... they dig under fences. I live in the country near stables so have had them a few times. The best advice I have had for stopping them setting up home in your garden is based on the knowledge that rats are very suspicious and fear change, so if you keep your eyes open for holes and if you find any, disturb them every time you find one. They absolutely hate it and soon move on.

Dooins right, by the way - terriers love ratting. The disturb the entrance holes for you. Mine tried to stuff herself in a rat hole on a walk through a farm today. I need to make her look in a mirror!