Urgen help..I have trapped a live rat under a bucket, what shall I do now??

[Blu]

I have called the council...nrecorded message. DP is yelling impractical instructions at me (ME^!) as to how I should kill it, and it's right outside the rabbits door so I can't get in to feedthem. It's under an upturnd bucket which is weighted down by rocks.

What shall do??

I'm not a golfer - I suddenly became one though! Funnily enough, dh was out playing golf with Mum and Dad - they reckoned mine was the best shot of the day.

I had a similar situation with a mouse. I slid a trivial pursuit board underneath and then disposed of it the garden. The neighbours thought I was mad!!

This thread is making me cry laughing. So glad it's not just me who uses mumsnet for wildlife in garden type disasters.

But am gobsmacked you can call the council for this. Really? They actually have a 'rat department?' Do they have a 'bird flew in the house' department or a 'a hawk is killing a bird in my garden' department?

when i was a kid my dad (a farmer) used to take me, my brother, neighbouring farm workers and their dogs rat-catching. this involved lifting up the bottom bales of hay in the big hay barn where the (not so little) buggers had been nesting all year. we all had to stand in a big circle and kick them back as they tried to escape so the dogs could get them. i was useless and let them run over my feet and out the door
anyway, on one occasion my dad's well-hard farming assistant picked up a bale and found herself eyeballing mummy rat with all her babies. mummy rat got cross, jumped up and bit her on the neck.... and held on!! well-hard farm hand squeezed rat hard and killed it. problem was, rat still didn't let go so she had to go to hospital to get it removed.
25 years later, if i ever see a rat - even on telly - i nearly pass out, so hats off to you blu for your bravado - and your bucket-wealding skills.

that's mother love for you. even if she was a rat...

wow you must be quicker than a quick thing they are so hard to catch. the council won't come out for a domestic rat you have to call rentokill. and it must be killed, they carry really awful diseases and would have been attracted by your rabbit....

OH my god. Unclefluffy's post is the worst thing I've ever read - a grueling account of rat torture to rival any irvine welsh.

Oh come one! Surely fifi's 'vampire rat' is worse!?

I would pack up and move house. Seriously.

My friend had rats in her loft, she put on a pair of Marigolds, got a bucket of water, caught them with her hands and drowned them.

Why am I reading? Why?

OMG cc that is hardcore - respect! 2 burly guys from rentokill couldn't get one with traps and poison in my kitchen once. That was utter hell.

this is what I did in a similar situation....weighted bin lid down while I went out...yes, it was in the kitchen bin (can hardly bear to type that) went to Wilco's and bought the most toxic volatile stuff I could, some kind of cleaning fluid, soaked a rag with it, slipped rag in bin, weighted lid down again, left it for several hours till I figured rat would be humanely dispatched. Then I took the bin out to the garden so I could dispose of the rat. I tipped the bin out, rat fell out...groggy but not dead!! So I had to grab a spade and kill it, felt like I was using my bare hands, and I was in total shock and swearing and screaming at the top of my voice, while the nice girls from the school nearby walked past to their hockey lesson. Was a complete wreck, but had about half an hour before I had to go to school to teach Y6 science. Luckily my very kind neighbour was available for me to debrief.
I totally aggree, rats are hard bastards.

One of my friends cleared her bedroom out recently as they were decorating. When they moved their bed they found a dead rat underneath it!

She reckons it was a big old man rat and had died of old age.

She says she used to hear scrabbling at night and but thought it was the kids messing about.!!

Unclefluffy - Respect to your Dad, sounds like an episode of Die Hard or something

Am i missing something here? Is it outside?
Why dont you just let it go?
I have pet rats so not loving the whole hysterical poison thing

My Gran was sitting in her house when a rat wandered into view, she picked up her coal shovel, smacked on it the head and picked it up and threw it in the fire. The whole time carrying on with her conversation as if nothing had happened.

Rats may be hard, but my Gran was harder

Now thats hard Cocolepew.

respect to your granny coco

LOL at Cocolepew's gran.

I am a wuss of the highest order. If I had a rat in my garden, it would be carrying the pet rabbits away before I tackled it. Then again I wouldn't have pet rabbits either so either way, not a problem.

I can't even kill an ant.

I have never killed a rat

I've killed loads of other things though:

squirrel (2) [gas & directing traffic over]
fish [teaspoon]
mice [various methods]
kangaroo [car]
rabbit [car]
duck [car]

I remember my dad trying to dispatch a fatally injured swan by the side of the road once, and winding away at its neck and its body just unravelling away underneath. he was so ashamed, being a vet and all.

I would like to point out that I do not enjoy killing animals. All the previous cases were either horribly injured and I help put them out of their misery, or they jumped/flew in front of my car.

However rats are foul and horrid and if I had to hit one with a spade I would.

You killed a fish with a teaspoon?!

yes, a goldfish. It was very unwell. So I bludgeoned it with a teaspoon before the flush (my dad always told me to humanely stun before the kill).

It was a very small goldfish, hence only a teaspoon required.