2 Rats in the garden

happysellerbuyer

Hi All,

Just saw 2 rats in the gardens coming from the drain.

How do I get rid of them and ensure no more of them come.

Thanks a lot

singhini

i was told that rats tend to move from place to place (garden to garden) looking for food and water. Therefore make sure you don't have any of those things available to them. 

Also consider buying bait boxes and high strength rat poison. 


Good luck

Linus2864

Hi Happy Seller Buyer,

When we had our decking pulled up and replaced by a patio last year, several rats which had been living underneath ran out and disappeared into the garden.   

We used bait boxes and extra strong bait as recommended by Singhini, and stopped feeding the birds, and we have had no problems since.

Rats will go where the food and shelter is, so just deprive them of any food.

Hope this helps

L

pipmoss

Rats also need a water source so make sure there are no buckets or containers that may fill up with rainwater.

Albermarle

Rats will move from garden to garden. If you just see the odd one or two very occasionally, then putting down strong poison is a bit OTT.
Obviously if you see them regularly, they may well have their nest close ( under decking or sheds are favourites) and you need to do something about it.
You can call in a rodent specialist if you prefer not to be handling poison your self.

Silvertabby

Put pots of lavender and mint next to any possible access points.  Rats hate the smell.

twopenny

Is the drain on your property?

happysellerbuyer

twopenny said:

Is the drain on your property?

Yes. Back garden 

FreeBear

Put a sign up saying something like "Rats will be eviscerated". Won't do much good, but neither will poison.

My cat has caught, killed, and then brought in a small rat in the past. So a clear sign that they are present in the garden. As long as they stay out there, I don't consider them to be a problem.

lr1277

My mum had rats in her garden. She also saw something chewed up inside one of her floor level kitchen cupboards. If that was a rat how it got in there I don't know. But then I don't know what else might have done the chewing. She suspected her next door neighbour was putting food out in their garden. The neighbour also had a dog. So she suspected the rats would take the food from the neighbour's garden and bring into her garden to eat, though I am not sure she witnessed that.

Her council had a link on its website to a private pest control service. Also because she receives a pension, the fee was half the usual price. Anyway for the full price of £50 - £60, they made 3 visits and inspected the entry and exit points for the rats and put down poison. The visits were 4 weeks apart. Unfortunately they needed to be called twice. But since then, fingers crossed, no sign of the rats.

Btw the floor level kitchen cupboard was the one with the stopcock in it, perhaps that had something to do with it?

Edited to add: The rats were taking food from the bird table. She used to enjoy watching the birds at the table. Once the rats appeared, she stopped feeding the birds. She was sad that she no longer enjoyed the birds at the table.

singhini

FreeBear said:

Put a sign up saying something like "Rats will be eviscerated". Won't do much good, but neither will poison.

My cat has caught, killed, and then brought in a small rat in the past. So a clear sign that they are present in the garden. As long as they stay out there, I don't consider them to be a problem.

Good call -----> it should get rid of the local politicians aswell 🤣