Rats any one had experience please

[RosesareSublime]

we have a rats nest I think under our decking, i want to take up some boards to stop them feeling cosy and and hopefully move along.

i just wondered if anyone had experience of this sort of thing, should I be standing there with a shovel, trying to catch them> will it be dangerous? take up boards and leave them to disperse?

Get a dude in? I think decking is attractive to differet animals.

Or get the hose out and flood underneath a little to make things uncomfortable.

We paid for poison to be laid last year at a different site in garden, however I saw on program some rats will be immune to poison so you kill the ones that are not, then leave the ones who are immune to breed with other immunes...

Water is a good idea, have a power hose but I often water there anyway and think they could be under matieral thats under decking.

have you or your neighbours got a rat table bird table which is regularly replenished with delicious rat food bird food to attract the rats birds?

They also need constant access to water, such as a pond, stream, or leaking garden tap.

If you keep attracting them, they will keep coming back, however many you kill.

Once you have removed their food, water and shelter, poison will work, but you have to provide numerous baits and keep replenishing it daily until it stops being eaten. They will mostly die in their nests. You can then fill any holes with broken concrete or stone.

Anyone keeping hens nearby? We have rats all the time due to hens. It is a matter of keeping the numbers down by using bait traps. The rats will tend to die hidden in inaccessible places under your decking and whiff for a bit but the smell goes after a few days.
If that is not your style, do you know anyone with a feisty little dog? Even these little hand bag dogs have instincts. You can then relax with a glass of vino, in the sun, on the decking, whilst little dog scents the garden and looks for critters to frighten. Do this every day for a few weeks. Rats are not stupid, they will move elsewhere if they feel threatened.

PigletJohn pretty much covers it. They'll just come back as long as there is food, water, and shelter.

People who keep hens probably hate them even more than you, though, they eat eggs, cost you money in food, and kill chicks. If you keep hens you usually end up quite obsessive about making your hen house rat proof and keeping food away from rats!
If your neighbourhood cats can get into any potential rat homes, that may help, although it's more a deterrent than anything as some cats are rubbish at hunting...

'i want to take up some boards to stop them feeling cosy'

Maybe start shopping at Tesco, so your waste is of a lower quality. Maybe put up the volume of the stereo up a notch or too - that'll really annoy them.

No it won't!!!!!!

I FCKING HATES RATS AND THEY SHOULD BE FCKING EXTERMINATED.

DON PISS AROUND LIFTING BOARDS - THEY DO NOT CARE; THEY ARE FCKING RATS TAHT LIVE IN A POOL OF THEIR PISS FFS!

Put poison down. If you have teenage boys in the house, or nearby, buy them an air rifle each and put a £1 bounty on each rat. (This is also a goodway of stopping cats shitting in your garden too).

Get rid of any compost bin and hen houses. Get the stupid bint with her stupid fcking 'Eggloo' with a one chicken and a big back on feed stored on the floor in a shed to buy her fcking eggs from Waitrose.

We had a stupid bint highly intelligent teacher a few doors down who was trying to turn her 3mx5m back garden into a mini farm - hens, ducks. And she wanted a pig FFS! The rat problem was riduculous. 'Well, I don't think its me' the stupid fcking woman highly trained teacher said.

FFS - I grew up around farms. Rats will take any advantage and, given food + water, breed exponentially!

Show this video to anyone who thinks mice or rats (rats FFS!!!) are 'cute':

God that video made me feel sick! [vom]

Agree - shoot the bastards (that's what I did).

Hereandtherex are you seriously suggesting shooting neighbours' pet cats with an air rifle? Jesus Christ

ITT: people who build rat condos in denial about it.

Probably time to get rid of the decking so they go live in someone else's garden? Our NDNs have had a fox family living in their garden ever since they installed decking

Sinking heart - neighbour currently installing decking. This thread confirms everything I'd heard about it!

I have a decked area adjacent to our pool but it is surrounded by york stone paving. It is not raised decking so does not attract nesting anything. Decking is only a problem if it is raised. The (very few) hen keepers in our village definitely attract the rats. If people provide, food, warmth and nesting opportunities then they will get rats. I find it odd that television programmes such as Spring Watch actually film foxes breeding under urban decking and think it is a good thing.