Rats...what to do.

[Neonlemon]

In the last month I have seen a rat three times in our garden, entering from the same spot near our neighbour's house. The neighbour has a pretty wild garden with lots of shrubbery, piles of wood, old garden accessories etc. We also live near fields and woodland so that might also explain them appearing, but I'm at a loss as to why now.

My issue is whether to contact the council as it's not a problem as such, I just don't like them and have always associated them with disease and general unpleasantness.

If it’s just in your garden and you are near fields and woods I very much doubt the council will do anything. They are part of life. If they were nesting in your house it would be a different matter.

Hi, are you my neighbour? We had rats due to feeding the birds which we no longer do, sadly. And we got a cat. They came down from the farm barns because the farmer had new traps put in.
Not seen any for a while.
So yes, ensure no entry possible into house. No food on lawn. Bins away. Get a cat.

They will be looking for food. They usually follow a certain path so move things around to confuse them.

We saw some in our garden and the council came out and put poison down.

Check your council website - ours won't do anything

We see them quite often. When the apples fall they will sit and eat with you in the garden! They are actually pretty harmless. We are semi rural too, and unfortunately our neighbours put bird food on the ground, so they come for that.

We just ignore tbh.

Thanks all. I did wonder whether the extra rain we've been having had forced them out of the sewage pipes to seek out other places to sleep/live.

There's plenty of cats around here so I would imagine they'd have a field day tackling a rat. Not keen on putting poison down as they're not causing a nuisance as such.

We've set up Rat Cam tonight so it'll be interesting to see if captures anything.