Rat trouble!

treliac

Not exactly a pet, I know, but any suggestions please?

A rat has recently begun to run into our garden, from an adjoining property, and pick up the bread put out for the birds, piece by piece, taking it back through into the neighbour's garden.

We would like to prevent this, as humanely as possible. I don't want to stop feeding the birds given the harsh weather we are having. Any ideas?

BlightyAndy

You can trap it (at a cost) by using one of these.
Basically, just put a piece of cheese inside and the rat will get it, try to get out but will be trapped!
Then you can release it where you want (away from your garden), just let it out (and run if your scared) and re-collect your trap!

mrcol1000

I would suggest you stop putting food down for birds. If your placing food on the ground this is illegal and if your neighbours complain about you doing this you could get in trouble.
If you are going to feed birds you should hang the food up in proper bird feeders or get fat balls and hang them up. Sadly birds are messy eaters and food will still go on the ground which will can attract rats.
Sadly feeding birds leads to rats, pigeons and other pests being attracted to the food source. Councils across the country regularly get caught in the middle of neighbours where one is feeding birds and the other has a rat/mice problem due to them being attracted to where the food is. Some councils bury their head in the ground and pretend its not happening and others will take action agasint those feeding the birds. So I would get down to Wilko or B&Q and get yourself some proper bird feeders.
Just to add once a rat finds a food source they will keep going back to that food source until it goes. They are quite happy to travel miles if they know they are going to get a feed.

treliac

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I would suggest you stop putting food down for birds. If your placing food on the ground this is illegal and if your neighbours complain about you doing this you could get in trouble.
If you are going to feed birds you should hang the food up in proper bird feeders or get fat balls and hang them up. Sadly birds are messy eaters and food will still go on the ground which will can attract rats.
Sadly feeding birds leads to rats, pigeons and other pests being attracted to the food source. Councils across the country regularly get caught in the middle of neighbours where one is feeding birds and the other has a rat/mice problem due to them being attracted to where the food is. Some councils bury their head in the ground and pretend its not happening and others will take action agasint those feeding the birds. So I would get down to Wilko or B&Q and get yourself some proper bird feeders.

Thanks for this not such a constructive reply. We have a proper bird feeder and provide fat, seed and nut foods. We, like our neighbours too, also throw out additional bread at this time of the year.

How amazing that councils prosecute householders who throw out scraps to garden birds. Must be fulltime work.

treliac

I've just been doing some Googling and came across this. Might be worth a try in the first instance.

http://www.rattyruns.com/index.html


P.S. Thanks AndyGray - I think that'll be my back up plan, but a very useful suggestion. I am slightly worried that it may have a litter, but I suppose I can't check that out.

foreign_correspondent

These are really good, dunno if there is anything similar that would work for the garden - the website may be worth a look-
http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/mouse-repeller-whole-house-p-36.html?cPath=24_25

- it needs to be both the ultrasonic and electomagnetic field though I think, as this one is, as I have heard some reports of the untrasonic alone not working - I have had one in the past and it cleared a bad mouse infestation in a flat we had, I recently got one for my grans house, as she had what she thought was a mouse (it was a rat!) and I hate poison because of what it does to birds of prey etc, - the sonic device worked in days!

treliac

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

These are really good, dunno if there is anything similar that would work for the garden - the website may be worth a look-
http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/mouse-repeller-whole-house-p-36.html?cPath=24_25

- it needs to be both the ultrasonic and electomagnetic field though I think, as this one is, as I have heard some reports of the untrasonic alone not working - I have had one in the past and it cleared a bad mouse infestation in a flat we had, I recently got one for my grans house, as she had what she thought was a mouse (it was a rat!) and I hate poison because of what it does to birds of prey etc, - the sonic device worked in days!

Excellent, thank you. I've just seen the spider repeller too - that's gone right to the top of my shopping list.

RacyRed

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I would suggest you stop putting food down for birds. If your placing food on the ground this is illegal and if your neighbours complain about you doing this you could get in trouble.

Eh!

I don't think the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds would give the following feeding advice if it wasn't legal!

Extract_from_RSPB_website wrote:

Thrushes and dunnocks prefer to feed on the ground. For these birds, scatter food on the lawn or use a ground feeding tray or hopper well clear of cover to avoid lurking cats. Remember to change the area you scatter the food over every few days, and never put out more than is eaten the same day to avoid attracting vermin.
If you put food such as apples and bread on the ground, space it out in different places in the garden. This will reduce competition between birds so that more birds can feed at any one time. If there is snow on the ground, clear small areas before putting down the food.

Horace

A call to your local council pest control dept should do the trick as they will come out and put bait boxes down. If they are coming from next door maybe they have a major waste problem or their drains have collapsed and the little beggars are coming up from the sewers:eek:

LittleTinker

If rats are getting into your property, then a call to the EH is in order.

Other than that, you may find yourself fighting a losing battle. There are more rats than people and if there are dark places to hide and food to be eaten, then rats will be there. The only way to stop them is to cut off the food supply.

Mutter_2

Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcol1000
"I would suggest you stop putting food down for birds. If your placing food on the ground this is illegal and if your neighbours complain about you doing this you could get in trouble."

Puttting food out for ground feeding birds is most certainly not illegal. What utter tosh.

Whether the feeding of ground birds attracts Rats, no idea!