Rats in garden

ahfat41

I think I have got rats in the garden.  I put a trap and caught a mice.  Poison bait seem to be disappearing so I decided to set a trap and was surprised that the rat trap has disappeared with the bait.  My flower beds are very dense and I think they might be hiding there.  I was watering the plants the other day and a black furry thing ran away so I assumed it was a rat.  I do not understand the disappearing rat trap.  Will need to call pest control.

twopenny

I would think it unlikely that rats are hiding in the undergrowth. They tend to go away during daylight hours.
And if you'd seen one you'd be sure. It's more likely to be field mice.
Rats come because there's food. Do you have a compost heap? Potatoes are their favourite. Or is their fat falling on the ground from a bird table?
Field mice though will pass through undergrowth on their road trip to somewhere else.

elsien

Every garden will have rats passing through at some point. They used to try to nest in my compost bin even though I never put food scraps in. If it’s just a run from one garden to another it’s not really an issue. 
Its more of a concern if they’ve taken up residence. Check anywhere they might be nesting, take up any bird feeders as that attracts them, see if any neighbours have neglected gardens where they could be nesting. 
Personally I wouldn’t be calling pest control unless I thought there was an infestation or they were getting in the house.  

twopenny

Good point Elsien. Pest control will be laughing all the way to the bank.

They may catch one or two to prove a point but they live among us so more will follow to fill the space.

Bossyboots

My aunty's cat was a thief and this includes bowling up one morning with someone else's trap. 

greyteam1959

The trap & the rat have disappeared because the rat was not killed outright.
Probably caught by one leg & then legged ( 😲😲 ) it with the trap.

donemedosh

If you see a rat or a mouse in daylight hours they are getting very hungry and need food as they usually come out at night. We have had rats in the garden a few weeks ago which were coming in for the bird seed. I have seen them climb up fence panels & steel tube to get to the feeders. I have a few damages fence panels on one side of the garden & one evening I sat and watched where they were coming from (took a few hours), found out a guy 4 doors away started keeping birds. I have replaced most of the fence panels & removed the feeders for now, then gave the garden a good tidy up & cut back the lower branches of shrubs so I can see most of the gravel boards. So far I have not seen anything. Best of luck. As for the vanishing trap it may have not killed the rat & it took of with trap attached.

quirkydeptless

I had a rat problem last year as they were breeding out of control under a neighbour's decking and coming into my and others gardens, and even some got into the house. Their agility was amazing, scaling wooden fences and trees with ease to get at bird feeders (I called the best one Ninja rat), and they could gnaw and tunnel to get wherever they wanted. Quite an amazing animal, but in the house, sorry, no, you've got to go

They were dealt with using poison traps.

This year, I have only spotted one so far , and that was in the process of being caught by one of the new local neighbours' cats. She likes to give them as gifts to a neighbour who has been feeding her. There are more cats around, I expect due to lockdown pets.

Jaybee_16

Put rat poison in a plastic tray in the garden. Looked the next morning and everything had gone. The rat had taken the plastic tray as well as the poison.