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Help! Dead rats in the garden!
Comments
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Thanks for this wonderful topic title it made me chuckle and brightened up an otherwise boring day :-)0
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My mother told me that she has found the second dead rat in her garden in the last 2 weeks. She has a compost bin which is possibly why there are rats in the garden but there is an alleyway at the back of garden leading towards farm across the road which I have always considered to be a 'rat-run'.
She is worried that one of her neighbours has been poisoning them and then throwing them into her garden. While this may be the case, I have told her it's probably due to birds being able to spot the rats during the summer dawn mornings as we have quite a few crows & large birds in the garden (trees & shed). However, she tells me the rats appear not to have been eaten.
I thought some of you may be able to confirm whether you find dead but seemingly un-touched (ie. not eaten) rats in your gardens/allotments and if there is an increase during the summer months (May-August).
Thanks!0 -
The last time I saw an uneaten dead rat was about a month ago, on grassland near a housing scheme. Poison doesn't necessarily kill instantly: it's possible for a poisoned rat to make its own way into a garden before dying, though they're more likely to seek a hiding place.
Assuming the rats are entering the garden of their own accord, an ultrasonic deterrent may help. These little machines make a very high-pitched sound which is inaudible to humans but unpleasant to rats.0 -
Your rats could have been killed by a your cat or one of your neighbour's if you don't have one. We used to have a cat that killed mice and then stacked them up nicely in front of our garden door. Our cat never ate them so I think the deed was done as a matter of affection towards us. Anyway dead rats are better than alive ones in any case. I hope your mystery will be solved.0
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Good points travellingbum & containsmildperil, I don't know if there are any cats near her house but that is possible scenario.
Do these ultrasonic deterrents actually work?0 -
OK, after having spoken to a friend who lives in the countryside; I think containsmildperil may have a point. The problem is how do we speak to the neighbours about using rat poison.
Which department in the local council would deal with rats/pests?0 -
OK, after having spoken to a friend who lives in the countryside; I think containsmildperil may have a point. The problem is how do we speak to the neighbours about using rat poison.
Which department in the local council would deal with rats/pests?
Environmental Health - although our council doesn't so anything, as rats are too big a problem! I even had one run across my foot last year, walking from one council building to another........ :eek::j Almost 2 stones gone! :j
:heart2: RIP Clio 1.9.93 - 7.4.10 :heart2:
I WILL be tidy, I WILL be tidy! 0 -
travellingbum wrote: »Your rats could have been killed by a your cat or one of your neighbour's if you don't have one. We used to have a cat that killed mice and then stacked them up nicely in front of our garden door. Our cat never ate them so I think the deed was done as a matter of affection towards us. Anyway dead rats are better than alive ones in any case. I hope your mystery will be solved.
I agree,we would always get up in spring/summer to find the garden littered with rats,mice frogs,birds you name it if the cat could catch it it would be lying there.They were never eaten or chewed up in anyway either.
Also poison makes rats and mice get very slow( it causes them to slowly bleed to death internally) so they fall wherever and whenever the inevitable happens so they may well have been poisoned.0 -
Unfortunately we have a massive problem with rats where I live. We are all setting traps and baiting poision and regularly find dead rats in the borders or the middle of lawns. Unless your mother has problems with her neighbours I would think it unlikely they'd bother throwing them into your mother's garden, they'd probably dispose of the corpse in the bin.
Personally I would just dispose of them and be thankful they're not alive! Our council will come out but they charge £75 and just put down the same poison we do.It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.0 -
My mother told me that she has found the second dead rat in her garden in the last 2 weeks. She has a compost bin which is possibly why there are rats in the garden but there is an alleyway at the back of garden leading towards farm across the road which I have always considered to be a 'rat-run'.
Unless she's been putting any cooked food or meat scraps in the compost bin (which you really shouldn't do) there is nothing in there to attract rats so this won't be the cause. It's more likely they have come from the farm across the road.
Is there anything else that might attract them such as pet food, food scraps in bin bags etc left in the garden?“You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”0
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