Living next to a river

[Spottyhousecoat]

We are looking at a property that backs onto woodland and a river. Behind the boundary fence is a 5/6 foot drop then a pathway and 30 foot of woodland then it drops around 80 feet to the river. I'm not worried about flooding as it's a big drop what I am worried about is rats, I'm terrified of rats this would put me right off. Do you live near a river and do you have rats around the garden?

I do but I don't see rats. I would get a couple of jack russels or cats!

We have front garden > lane > river. Never seen a rat (or any evidence of them). There are otters, beaver and water voles using the river - but I've never seen or heard or them coming near the house or in the village streets in general.

We do have mice sometimes. I don't think that is anything to do with the river. I use mousetraps as needed...

I'm not sure that you'll be able to avoid them.

I live in a cul de sac that has a sheer drop to a river and we get quite a few rats.

They don't bother us until they're in our home then we get a pest controller in. Which I feel bad about. And so the cycle goes on.

You can get rats in any area though, you don’t need a river nearby.

There are rats everywhere, more so in heavily urban areas.

How do you feel about owning a cat or small terrier?

You can get rats anywhere. DCat is a good mouser and has caught some large mice in the garden. DKitten is most interested in this thread

The MerryCats are very cute too.

I am backed straight onto a large river. Been here 6 years and touch wood haven’t seen a rat.

Not a river, but a stream. My neighbours ( not next door) had rats. But they had a lot of bird feeders. Never seen a rat close by, but I don’t feed the birds as I have retrievers, and they are a bit excitable around birds in the garden. They have also been known to catch mice in the garden, they may be a deterrent.
But the rats definitely exist near the water course. You have to be vigilant about edible rubbish in your garden. I find the council will not act unless the rats invade houses.

I live by a canal,,yes I have seen rats in my garden but they have never come inside.....if they did I'd get a cat. I once had rats in my house in an inner city with no water by it, simply found where they were coming in, plastered the hole up with broken glass inside it (a trick my dad taught me, or wire wool which they don't like either) and never saw them again. If you like cats just the smell of them puts rats and mice off from coming in your home.😻

I live next to a canal, not the same I supposed but I haven't seen any rats. There does seem to be a lot more flies though...

I stopped using birdfeeders too. There is plenty of natural bird food (insects on trees, berries, worms etc) in the garden.

Our house backs onto a small river, about 30 metres away. I've never seen a rat nearby.

We have a stream in our garden and no rats. I mainly see rats walking from the carpark into work in the city centre. There are probably rats around here but have never seen one.

Thought you might like to see a photo of this little chap who we caught in the house. He was very angry so we drove him 15 miles to a nearby forest and let him out. He hasn’t been back since but some of his mates are still scuttling around.

I've lived beside a stream for over 30yrs.
No rodent issues as we have cats but insurance is increasingly an issue as most house insurance requires you not to be within a certain distance of a water course.

@Beach2lion my eyesight is not great but if that is a picture of a rat, perhaps you could delete it. OP's phobia may well extend to photographs.

Apologies, I can’t see how to delete it but I’ve asked MNHQ to do it. I didn’t think a photo would upset the OP.

You're never more than a few yards from a rat outside. They are everywhere.

Hmmmm it's a lovely house but starting to have second thoughts now, cats are not an option as our spaniel is not a cat fan he did once come out a bush with a big rat in his mouth and I pretty much disinfected him with the hose and his toothbrush! I love the thought of sitting in the massive garden listening to the river but there's always a catch.

Saw more rats in London, in my garden, in the tube etc than I ever have living 500m from a river.

same with foxes and squirrels, loads in London, not seen one here.

however we do have river bats 🦇. They’re lovely. It’s fab watching them dart round the garden at dusk catching all the insects

You're fine with the picture it's only live ones that frighten the s@#t out me!

I thought he was quite cute 😊

Of course there will be rats, they have learnt that humans leave so much stuff about that they can live and breed.

The way I read this gave me a little visual of lots of rats with bowler hats and briefcases making their way to the office 🤦‍♀️ 😂

We have a stream in our garden, and I've never seen any rats around in over a decade. We have always had cats though.

They have built a housing development upstream since we moved in though and we now have to have flood insurance, which costs a fortune.