Composting and rats?!

maninthestreet

Compost bins do attract rats, due to the contents of the bin - they're like fast food restaurants for rats.
The rush to compost waste instead of putting it out for dustman to take away has some consequences - rats in your compost bin is one of them.

Debt_Free_Chick

MMCG wrote: »

They say you're never more than 12 feet away from a rat! And that you never get them alone. We've just invested in a greenhouse and I'm browsing for a copost bin. But after reading this, I'm fast changing my plans! I love the idea (but not of rats...) Let me check all this again, I need to put the peelings of fruit and veg only in the bin, maybe teabags. What else so that I'm not going to end up feeding my local rat neighbours etc?

There's good advice and a "recipe" for compost from Garden Organic here

noonesperfect

You might be able to get a good deal on a compost bin (and a kitchen compost bucket with lid maybe too) from your local council.

I don't want to speak too soon but I've never found any rats in my "dalek".

"Edible" stuff I put in are washed and crushed eggshells (raw eggs only), fruit and vege peelings, teabags and coffee grounds (tho' I wouldn't imagine a rat would eat the 2 latter items!)

squiggle37

i put some eggs shells from boiled eggs yesterday should to go and take them out.

Lotus-eater

You need heavy duty wire across the bottom and folded up the sides a way, you must cover the opening to get access to the compost if you have a plastic bin, otherwise they will squeeze into this opening. I put loose bricks around the outside to hold the wire in.
Since I have done this, I have never had rats in the compost, but I did before, often.

Washing edible stuff won't make the slightest difference to rats. Egg shells are ok, but I leave them out as they take a long time to rot down and they definately do seem to attract rats a great deal.

potsofmoney_(I_wish)

"I hope you are not putting cooked food in or meat and bones."

Nope, my kitchen caddy came with stickers that tell you what you can and can't put in and we follow it to the letter. It's a dalek compost bin, which I've been scared to approach since. We've got chicken wire so will have a go at that. Very scared after reading about nests and things.

"I only hope he is just feeding from it .... I've had rats nest in my compost bin, complete with babies " :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Eeeuuuw I think oh is definately going to have to deal with this one, I'll be having nightmares about the horrible long tailed things!!

Thankyou all

angelavdavis

I had a green cone last year that got infested with loads of them - it was awful. They also tunnelled into the compost heaps.

We ended up doing what skippy suggested - we emptied the compost bins into a wheel barrow, destroyed the tunnels leading to each bin underground, then laid thick chicken wire underneath (ensure it stretches well past the width of the bins so they don't manage to squeeze past it) and put the compost contents back over the top.

Once the food source has been removed - in our case, we stopped using the green cone and obviously our work had prevented them from enter the compost heaps, they moved on.

noonesperfect

Lotus-eater wrote: »

You need heavy duty wire across the bottom and folded up the sides a way, you must cover the opening to get access to the compost if you have a plastic bin, otherwise they will squeeze into this opening. I put loose bricks around the outside to hold the wire in.
Since I have done this, I have never had rats in the compost, but I did before, often.

Washing edible stuff won't make the slightest difference to rats. Egg shells are ok, but I leave them out as they take a long time to rot down and they definately do seem to attract rats a great deal.

After reading this I maybe won't put in eggshells anymore!

squiggle37 - it might not be a bad idea in view of what lotus-eater has said.

jennybridger

we live near a farm where they repack eggs also there is only one house behind us before open fields (other than the farm!)

we are careful as to what we put in but we found stopping putting egg shells in didn't make any difference. and i noticed when we were sorting out the problem that a pineapple core had lots of little teeth marks on it!

we have had chicken wire underneath both for the last year and although they have tried to dig back underneath on empting the bins this spring they hadn't gone through the wire.

before the wire we put bait down in trays, which worked as i found a dead one, or what was left of it when i dug out the compost last year. so that worked. the trap worked well - i think the tally from that is about 6 rats, a couple of mice. but i refuse to set that any more after it caught a wren and we also now have a blackbird without any tail feathers!!

so with the chicken wire back in place after digging out the compost we now have one of the bait boxes so it is covered hopefully from the animals and wildlife we do welcome in the garden.

Debt_Free_Chick

Rats eat pretty much everything so I can't see that leaving out eggshells will make much difference