We have RATS!

[kid]

They keep coming into a our garden and eating the nuts we put out for the birds. DH saw one sitting at the table eating them earlier

I'm not sure what we should do about it. I wonder if the HA will sort it out for us. They did pay Rentokill to get rid of the mice we had, but they were in the house.

Rats are such a risk to public health that your local council will probably have a contract with a pest extermination service and will arrange an appointment for you free of charge.

We had rats in our loft last year and in our cavity wall. Hellishly awful.We live in a rural location where there are field rats in the adjacent field, and there are grain stores etc which attract them.

I'll get onto the Housing in the morning. Let them come and put something down to get rid of them. I don't want to have to keep my doors shut incase they come in.

I've had my house 'rat proofed' after last year (they came around and tried to assess and block off any obvious entry points like air vents etc)

However I think the fact that I now have 2 dogs (with their accompanying doggy smells) may make our property less attractive - touch wood.

Our dog will be scared of the rats, he is scared of everything else. I live in East London, no fields near me. There is a train line being rebuilt but I think thats too far from me for them to be coming from there. DH has seen 3 in the garden in the past week.

Act quickly - it's the tip of the iceberg thing. If you have seen 3 you can be assured that there will be many more. And hope there isn't a cold snap too soon!

Whilst you are waiting for Monday morning to call the Council, most garden centres sell rat poison

We have just discovered where they are coming from, we have a nest of them in our garden
Dh was just sweeping out there and it looks like they have burrowed under the plants in two parts of the garden!

i love to know where ours come from as we've got some under the house again!! (its seems to be every year since we've been here (4 yrs in april 07)...the latest is there were some in the loft!!!

the council had now been out 3 times and looks like it time to call "RATBUSTERS" again (council)..We live opposite the Docks so possibly there are more rats living in sewers here than elsewhere

DH just poured some water down the hole and one ran out across the garden
DS is standing on the chair watching!

if you put poison...they could come and die in your house....make sure that there are not holes to go throught the house.

a rat died under the wooden floor in my house..
coming from the garden.......the smell was awful.....

and a special agency ......need to open all the floor to find out where the rat died,,,,,,,
I hate them they are my worst nightmare.......

get sorted soon.........doens't matter what it costs!!!!

I heard the other day that you are no further than 1 foot away from a rat in this country! Yuck.
we had them in our last garden, a pregnant one on the bird feeder really turned my stomach. a visiting whippet caught one but our fat, old jack russell could never catch up with them..

Screeeeeeeeaaaaaammmmmmmm!!!!!

Could you get a cat?

Good point.
As long as it didnt bring a dead rat back in it's mouth.. as a present!

We had a rat problem where we used to live. No bins around where they were, we didnt put food out for the birds etc and we still got the bliters! They were in the garden (not in the house) we called the local council and someone came round (free of charge) to put poison down. They kept coming back every week to check that the problem had been solved. It took about a month in all and our 'rat man' was very tasty

Apparently, they come up through the drainage system. yuk. A friend of ours actually one come up into her upstairs toilet

We have a rat run from the lambing shed in the feild behind our house to the farm buildings over the road at the front. Haven't seen any for a while but at one point when we had decking, was on first name terms with rentokil man. Got rid of the decking and the rat problem decreased dramatically.

Now if a rat came into our house through our toilet, I think I would move out!
I don't believe there was only one rat living by itself out there. I wonder when its friends wll be turning up!

This may sound obvious but the first thing to do is to stop feeding your birds.

LOL, ok.
Can the rats climb up a bird table? I won't anything out for the birds though just in case.

You said your dh saw one sitting on your bird table eating nuts didn't you?

But yes, they can definitely climb!

The rat he saw was sitting at our garden table (not the bird table). I chucked some monkey nuts out there for a squirrel that keeps visiting us, I won't be doing that again!

ah right, but yes, definitely best not to put any food out of any sort. That's probably what attracted them in the first place.

waoaaooooooooooooooo

I hate them....I moved country.......

and there are rats too.........

there are more rats then people in the world...
and they will be the only one that will survive...after the end of the world...global warming....

I phoned my HA and environmental health, according to them, its our problem (they would do it if we lived in council property) and we have to pay for treatment ourselves, unless several residents complain. We have got some rat poison, just need to put it down somewhere that the kids or dog won't touch it.

the shop where i bought some from recommended a tube like from a drainpipe. put the poison in that and i put that under the shed. at least i knew dogs and dcs couldnt access it.

We got 2 lots of poison, I think I'll put one under the shed and the other as far back as possible so the kids shouldn't venture there. I just hope I don't find any dead rats!