Advise on rats

artydoll

We have a cheeky rat which eats out of the bird table,about 2 foot away from the living room window.
council vermin guy coming on Monday.YAY

artydoll

Here a pic of local rat,LOL.taken from inside my living room 10 mins ago.

adouglasmhor

fifi35 wrote: »

My house backs on to fields and I have a compost bin. I have lived here 15yrs and not once have I seen a rat until....... I found one dead on my lawn just before Christmas and about six weeks later found another dead one on my patio. My ginger moggy had obviously earned her keep for once. There have been no sitings since.

I did however see a mouse in my compost bin and have now stopped composting!

So my recommendation would be to get yourself a cat.

Hope this helps.

Not all cat's (or terriers) are ratters or mousers. You see cats that will sit and do nothing when a mouse or rats scurries about. Some do some don't and you have no way of knowing whether they will or not til you seethem doing it.

artydoll

We already have 2 cats ,they are no good,they sit and watch the rats .
the council rodent officer put some poison down today so if its any good ,it will be bye bye rat for a little while at least.

Deep_Ocean

artydoll wrote: »

We already have 2 cats ,they are no good,they sit and watch the rats .
the council rodent officer put some poison down today so if its any good ,it will be bye bye rat for a little while at least.

Did the council charge you? I will contact my council tomorrow, good picture by the way

Are rats still contaminated with diseases? With rat droppings decomposing in the garden I fear being struck down with the black death

Equaliser123

Very similar problem. .22 air rifle and problem is just about solved.

Poison is so indiscriminate about what it kills.

ukjoel

Have a friend with this problem and he went with the airgun approach and everynight now its like an SAS operation he goes out there with his airgun, silencer on the end so the neighbours dont get woken up, his night vision scope, and sits on the sun lounger listening to his ipod blasting away at them. He says its really theraputic and more fun than yoga but his mrs is worried he is goign a tad too far. Last time we were down he showed me some remote control mini mines you could set off when a rat got close and blow them to bits.

I would tend to stick to good old fashioned rat traps.
The secret is to look very closely to figure out the routes the rat takes and plant them all over. Dont put down one or two, order a bulk supply of 12 or 20 from ebay. If you only use one you tend to get the tail and then the rat either drags it away or bites their own tail off which is pretty nasty. If you have 5+ in a formation then if the first one gets tail they usually run into the second which is a head kill. I had one last year that had 5 traps on him when I found her next morning.

Dont bother with the nooski trap from australia - have had one of those in my shed for a year now and not a whisper of a catch - very dissapointing.
Rats love chocolate buttons and peanut butter so put them in your traps.

Also worth keeping a diary of what your catching as the council may decide if there are a lot around and being caught they may review the cause behind why they are there ie - is one of the houses down the road leaving rubish out, or is someone keeping chickens, or running an unlicenced takeaway etc.

covlass

Our local council do not charge for pest control. We are at present clearing the side and back alley in preparation for having it gated off. I spotted a rat on the sunday phoned council on the monday they came out and said they could not put anything down until the gates are up but if we spot them in our gardens they will come back out all at no charge.

Equaliser123

ukjoel wrote: »

I would tend to stick to good old fashioned rat traps.
The secret is to look very closely to figure out the routes the rat takes and plant them all over. Dont put down one or two, order a bulk supply of 12 or 20 from ebay. If you only use one you tend to get the tail and then the rat either drags it away or bites their own tail off which is pretty nasty. If you have 5+ in a formation then if the first one gets tail they usually run into the second which is a head kill. I had one last year that had 5 traps on him when I found her next morning.

Dont bother with the nooski trap from australia - have had one of those in my shed for a year now and not a whisper of a catch - very dissapointing.
Rats love chocolate buttons and peanut butter so put them in your traps.

Also worth keeping a diary of what your catching as the council may decide if there are a lot around and being caught they may review the cause behind why they are there ie - is one of the houses down the road leaving rubish out, or is someone keeping chickens, or running an unlicenced takeaway etc.

It is actually illegal to use rat traps outside due to the indiscriminate way that they work and the risk to other wildlife.

adouglasmhor

Equaliser123 wrote: »

It is actually illegal to use rat traps outside due to the indiscriminate way that they work and the risk to other wildlife.

Do you have a link for that?
I know it is illegal to set spring traps if they are a danger to birdlife. Artificial tunnels etc. have to be used in this case. But are they going to be a danger to birds?
Other traps not so.