Hole under decking

phil24_7

Yup...that's a rat run.

I would do one of 3 things.

1. Dig all the way around the decking, about 4 inches or so, pack the gap with a ton of cheap grease (rats hate it) and push the stones back.

2. Dig all the way round and add gravel boards below the gravel so that there is a solid barrier. (they could still dig under but are likely to find an easier route).

3. Dig all the way around and pour a concrete collar around the decking.

Or of course you could rip the decking up and formulate a new plan!

Regards
Phil

Davesnave

phil24_7 wrote: »

Yup...that's a rat run.

I would do one of 3 things.

1. Dig all the way around the decking, about 4 inches or so, pack the gap with a ton of cheap grease (rats hate it) and push the stones back.

2. Dig all the way round and add gravel boards below the gravel so that there is a solid barrier. (they could still dig under but are likely to find an easier route).

3. Dig all the way around and pour a concrete collar around the decking.

Or of course you could rip the decking up and formulate a new plan!

Regards
Phil

Or you could do as I suggested, opening up the area under the decking so that there isn't a nice, dark void for the rats to be secure in, because that is what they like.

J_B

Has nobody suggested getting the 'rat-man' in to poison them??

phil24_7

You won't get rid of rats by poisoning. There will always be more rats!

phil24_7

Rats would still be quite comfortable under the decking if you took all of the sides off and there is no guarantee that any cats etc would go under there to hunt. I'm not saying my options are the only ones but they are what I would consider. The grease thing worked very well in or work as they were getting in under the floor and coming up in an electrical cupboard that had gravel for the base. Liberal amounts of grease and we haven't had them return for nearly 2 years. No other actions were taken!

Gloomendoom

phil24_7 wrote: »

You won't get rid of rats by poisoning. There will always be more rats!

I have had rats twice in the last 16 years. The first time was in the garden as mentioned above. The cat staked out the holes for a week, night and day. As I said, he got two and the rest, if there were any, must have moved on because I filled in the holes and they didn't reappear.

The second time it was worse as they were in the attic. I couldn't really let the cat loose up there with all the fibreglass insulation lying about (although he was desperately keen) so I set a Nipper rat trap with a bit of sausage as bait. I got one monster rat and again, the rest seemed to clear off.



I think that rats must be quite intelligent and recognise an unsafe environment, unlike mice who never seem to get the message until you've killed them all.

Maybe with poison, they just think their mates have died of natural causes.

phil24_7

You are right. When we had a previous rat population around our commercial property we were shooting them. After a few months of shooting a few a week they stopped coming near us. There are still massive amounts of rats on the estate, they just seem to give us a wide berth!

Davesnave

phil24_7 wrote: »

Rats would still be quite comfortable under the decking if you took all of the sides off and there is no guarantee that any cats etc would go under there to hunt.

I guess cats may vary, but the ones I know would just stake it out.

Mice...well if the chickens didn't get 'em first. Not a nice sight, 20 chickens with a mouse!

beduth

That's rats, buy blocks of poison and put it under the decking. When they take it just put more there. Soon all will be dead.