rats do you kill them or humanely release them?

Doglover88

get rid of them any way you can. My father used to have a large aivery full of canaries and one night the rats managed to get there way in and kill all the birds. We suffered for a few months because our new neighbours chose to throw their filled rubbish bags over the rear fence into the alleyway behind the houses, Dad wasnt keen on poisoning them as he worried they would crawl away and die and rot so we got the air rifle out. Hit several rats from close range and even though they'd jump 2ft in the air, they still managed to limp off before i could get another shot in!

suki1964

Unfortunately not all LA's will come out for free if you own your home - Merton for example will only deal with rats on their property charging private homeowners call out and costs
As I said previously rats are using our garden as a rat run but the nest is three gardens away - broken sewer on a council owned property. They know the sewer is broken and have tried for over three years to fix it with no success. Pest control say that untill the sewer is fixed we will have the problem and maintenence say fixing the sewer is beyond their budget for the forseeable. So in the meantime we have to regulary check our gardens for rat holes and place poison down ourselves

Doglover88

suki1964 wrote:

maintenence say fixing the sewer is beyond their budget for the forseeable.

I'd tell them sorry I'm unable to pay my council tax as its beyond my budget for the forseeable too! :mad:

Nile

glenbat wrote:

I'd tell them sorry I'm unable to pay my council tax as its beyond my budget for the forseeable too! :mad:

.........and if that didn't work I'd get my video camera out and then send the recording to the local ITV or BBC news studio.;)

calleyw

I have seen a rat once in garden about a 3 months ago and chased it out the garden and filled the hole that it got out under the fence.

I have not seen another since and have not put anything down. But live close to a industrial estate.

I have rabbits. I also have a compost bin which is dug in to the ground a few inches. I have been no rat holes or even droppings (not that I have clue that they look like) Should I worry or should I put some poision down.

I mentioned it to a neighbour but they said they had not seen any. But they have dogs so doubt they would go in there.

Yours


Calley

tigermatt

Next door had a rat problem and had the "rat man" visit who left them a box they could fill with poison. It could hold quite a few rats and they couldn't escape once they were in there. Anyway, the box was originally left with poison in, but next door neighbour emptied this out and used the box to catch the rats before taking them about 1/2 a mile down the road on the estuary and releasing them. Of course, they found their way back again because when they thought they had removed all their rats, their problem started all over again.

In my view, you need to poison them - it is the only way to remove them. I can't stand the thought of them crawling around my garden, infecting everything they come across. They'll never be an endangered species because you are always so close to one.

ukbill69

Just uploaded the rat we got hehe. Now To see the size of it, look its hanging off the back of the shovel. It was a giant.

Nile

ukbill69 wrote:

Just uploaded the rat we got hehe. Now To see the size of it, look its hanging off the back of the shovel. It was a giant.

***Board Guide Message***

The post with the photograph has been deleted and referred to the Forum Manager.

Cariad_3

I am an animal lover & my house is full of animals but sadly I agree rats are vermin and have to be disposed of because of disease.
we live near water and our neighbourhood have had to call out the Council rat man a few times in recent years.(no charge) Once, a rat burrowed in our shed and made a home under it. If you feed the birds in the winter that is a definite enticement for the rats so you should try and feed an amount that will be eaten up by the birds daily, don't leave feed out. The saddest thing I saw was a rat in our garden that was dying and bleeding from the nostrils, my o.h bundled him up in a towel and took him up by the river and lay him in the bushes to die quietly. (our dogs were barking at him) Horrible! If I had a gun I would have gladly shot him to put him out of his misery.

squirrelz

Isn't it actually illegal to release rats once they've been caught? I'm fairly sure this is the case for grey squirrels, so would have thought it was the same for rats.