Rats!!!!! Help!

ScorpioLady_2

Any ideas how to get rid of rats please?
Despite having two cats(!), I have found evidence and actually spotted rats running around the garden!!! I've had a couple of chickens for a year or so now, and suddenly the food (in the chicken house) seems to be what they're attracted to.
I have put (B&Q) pellets down in clingfilm (as per the instructions) and they do seem to be going but the rats aren't!
Any ideas please?

Sagaris

I think the poison takes a while to work so you might not see results for a while. Certainly keep any food source away from them, as it's breeding season now so they will be after food for the babies.
We had then in our shed a while back, they burrowed their way in and wrecked all my bags of compost! OH cemented their tunnels up and we removed anything even remotely edible and we've not had a problem since.

chardonnay_2

argggh sorry to be insensitive but i would die:eek:

Sagaris

chardonnay wrote: »

argggh sorry to be insensitive but i would die:eek:

Nah - ex lab technician here so they don't scare me at all - my dog one bought me one that was half dead....and I couldn't leave it in that state.........:eek:

Mr_Warren_2

Rat poison is not a sudden death tablet but an anti-coagulant. The rats will hurt themselves somewhere, bleed and not recover. Their dead bodies will be found drying out (no smell) later on in a remote corner. That's why you should put poison inside foot long plastic tubes placed along walls that rats are likely to use as walkway or passage but chicken won't be able to touch

Plum_Pie

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rats-Year-Yorks-Unwanted-Inhabitants/dp/1862077614/ref=pd_bbs_4/026-3799963-4854857?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179994613&sr=8-4

I read the above book which states that poisoning rats actually increases the population as it results in a smaller number of rats eating the same amount of food which encourages them to breed faster. The only way to reduce the rat population is to reduce their food supply as they breed more slowly and resort to eating each other.

They also have very flexible skeletons and can squeeze into tiny spaces, much smaller than you might imagine from looking at one running along.

I'm afraid this doesn't help you much though, ScorpioLady... Sorry!

beer2006

Be thankful you aren't me, I pulled the lid off one of my compost bins the other day, to see a huge rat dissapear down a hole, it sat there with its tail sticking out, I almost had a heart attack.......

So I called the cat over..... who didn't want to come because the grass was wet :rolleyes: ... and pulled off the compost bin, it had gone

The best thing you can do, is get rid of any food overnight.

kickstart_3

An old chap once told me to sprinkle Jeyes Fluid around the area where the rats are , because they dont like the smell.Wont kill them but might make them move on ?

angelavdavis

We had them in our green cone - they had chewed their way underground into the side of it!

We have done everything we can to deter them

- poured men's urine over the compost heaps and into the green cone (apparently the hormones are supposed to put them off!)
- removed all food sources
- cleared the compost heaps (they weren't nesting in these thankfully but they were using them as food sources) and put thick gauge wire sheeting underneath to stop them burrowing upwards from the ground,
- crushed all their tunnel runs behind the compost heaps.
- put down poison - took about a week before we started discovering bodies! Then we put the bodies in the green cone and the other rats must have munched them too (yuck) as they disappearing within half an hour!
- cleared out areas in the garden that could act as hidyholes
- when it is likely they have definitely moved, and I feel brave enough, I want to dig around the green cone and put some more wire sheeting around the sides, but I'm not up to that at the mo!

I suspect they have moved next door as my neighbour mentioned she saw one the other day

brindles01

I watched a rat, early the other morning, having a spat with 2 magpies on my lawn. The wildlife all congregate around the tree where I have my bird feeders. I know they attract the wrong sort of animals - watching a rat scale the tree trunk and act like a trapeze artist to get to the feeder on the end of a branch is riveting, but I can't stop feeding all the birds. I too had rats burrowing into my compost bin so I have just stopped using it now. We are semi rural so I know that as I try to kill off one nest there will be another along quite quickly to take its place.

Drinda

This is how we deal with rats, get one of those biscuit/sweet tins, cut a round hole in the side just big enough for a rat to get in, go to the chemist and buy a bag of plaster-of-paris , mix half plaster half wholemeal flour in a plastic bag with a few bits of broken biscuit, put the bag in the tin opersite the hole and tape the lid down, put a few biscuit crumbs near the hole not too many just to entice the rat in. The rat rips the bag and eats the plaster/flour mix, and when it drinks the plaster sets in it's gut and it dies.
not very nice but it works.