Rats in the Garden

My son lives on the edge of a village. His council in Suffolk said that that is where rats are to be expected and they do t come out. He found a chap with an air rifle who soon solved the problem.

We have rats on our estate (although I have never seen them myself) and I have seen at least three people throwing big piles of bread out for the birds. We are next to a railway line so there will be some mice and rats around so it doesn't help to have idiots feeding them.
When I was a child our dog caught a rat but had no idea what to do so he just let it go.
I don't think there really is anything but those enclosed rat traps. That seems to be what supermarkets use. If you look you are bound to see some around their stores somewhere.

We found that they went away after we had filled in any small holes we discovered under the shed and thereabouts.

Interesting reading this. A huge rat came into our garden several times from next doors garden. She got the Council folk in. Now we have four smaller ones who climb the pole of our bird feeder & eat from the seed containers would you believe?! Will empty the feeders & make sure the floors swept. Good informative thread.

We had rats - in our house - I thought it was field mice but when we got the pest control man to come and have a look he confirmed it was rats! I was absolutely horrified and couldn't sleep at all! Poison was the only solution and we had to block any holes into the house......and the Council asked us if we had water nearby - yes, a pet - yes, a compost heap - yes....perfect environment for rats seemingly! That was three years ago and haven't had any since....but any noise I hear!!!!!

Had a rat outside a few months ago and I noticed that our neighbours had a composter close to our fence - rats love food - particularly rotting veg and eggshells. Haven't seen one for a while but there are a lot of cats around...

Thank you I have learnt so much

Jack Russell dogs are good at catching rats
Put peppermint oil on a cotton ball and in an empty plastic air freshener pot and put it in the suspected areas
Rain can cause rats to appear

I knew asking gransneitter's would be so helpful and it has been, thank you ever soo much x

Off now to get my garden back

Thank you

Fennel could have done without those facts thanks !!

When the kids were young we acquired a pony which we kept at a local stables. We would share a farrier visit and he would bring his Jack Russell. Our springer only met this dog every couple of months but they automatically worked together as a team. No one told them to go ratting. It was their choice. Springer would go into the hay store, noisily searching. Quartering the bales. Jack Russell would stand back quietly watching. Rat came out. JR went in. Dead rat. I hate killing and dead things but watching these two dogs work together was fascinating.

Oh dear cavewoman that means he won’t be back next Winter then, as he has had two already,? still, maybe his son and heir will come and visit.

Get a private pest controller if the council aren't helpful. But you do need to follow their instructions and not think everything will be fine after one visit. It can take a while to eradicate them.

Make the most of him lemongrove. He only has an average lifespan of 2 years.

We live in the countryside ( not deep in the countryside, but edge of a village) and we have a visiting brown rat ( the same one) it has a distinctive white ‘spot’ on it’s head.It only appears in Winter and comes for the bird seed that they spill on the patio.It hoovers anything up and then disappears.One day it sat on an upturned plant pot and cleaned it’s whiskers, quite unconcerned that I was watching it.

People talk about " a rat" but they breed very prolifically:
"video.nationalgeographic.com
Reproduction and life cycle. The brown rat can breed throughout the year if conditions are suitable, with a female producing up to five litters a year. The gestation period is only 21 days, and litters can number up to 14, although seven is common. They reach sexual maturity in about five weeks."

Our local council rat chap (pest operative, madam) was brilliant. Our rat (s) were the result of work on the water mains in our street and torrential rain. We have dogs so he placed the poison where the dogs couldn't eat it.
The dying rat was sadly located by my huge dog and an equally huge foster dog I had at that time. The dogs played catch with the rat. I'm hopeless with rats, called the dogs in, they came but brought the dying rat with them. All was well - I have a helpful neighbour!

We use Neosorexa Gold. It now comes in sachets rather than loose. The safest way to use it is to shove a sachet up a piece of drainpipe and put it against a wall or behind a shed.

That way no other pets are harmed.

merlotgran -
"Poisoning is the only solution I'm afraid."
Our rat/mice problem was probably much worse than most as we were living in the french countryside, and had poultry.
The only thing that worked was some very powerful poison, in small blue packets. You needed to wear gloves when handling it.
It didn't seem to attract the chickens or our lazy cat, who took no notice of it.

I'd lend you my two JRs but they're on mole catching duty at the moment.

Contact a good local pest controller who will identify the rat runs and put down the poison for you. Poisoning is the only solution I'm afraid.

Do you know anyone with a Jack Russell terrier? Sounds like they are nesting this time of year.
My daughters JR kept scrabbling at my garage door, I let it in and within minutes there was a dead rat on the floor, I didn't even know we had one. A quick clean kill.

We had a few rats in the garden when we moved in recently. There was a small pond. Pest control said they are often attracted to water sources. We've since filled to pond in and hopefully fixed the problem.

I just keep a packet of rat poison permanently on the shed floor. It is in container. Other animals cannot get at it, nor can children.

There was a rat in our yard a couple of weeks ago. They don`t scare me, but obviously I don`t want them to get in the house. I won`t put poison down though, because of my cat, also neighbouring cats.

We do not put bird food out and our garden is very tidy and constantly well maintained but for some reason they visit us every year about this time of year

We have a rat in the garden every other year the little or large blighter chews away at anything it likes in our shed. We buy rat poison from B&Qs lay it out in the shed, usually it feeds on it and doesn’t come back. Sorry all animal lovers but that’s the only way we can get rid of it.

That pole thing is food for thought, then, NfkD! Backing onto the garden next to ours is a large orchard where someone keeps chickens and geese. It could have come from there, I suppose, with a ready supply of food at its disposal.