Possible rat hole?

moonpenny

Apologies if this is in wrong section.

I am horrified to think I have found a rat hole in the garden.

I have a large piece of heavy plastic covering section to keep weeds down till I get around to it. This morning it had all blown up so went to straighten it and found a round hole about 3 inch going down into earth about 18 inch away from main sewer. I managed to drop a heavy paving stone over it but dont know if there are more holes until the weather eases and I can have a look.

II have never even seen a rat so it fills me with horror.

Does anyone have any experience of what to do with this?

twopenny

I've not seen a rat hole so I looked it up. All references of course are someone trying to sell you something 😏

It may be they were digging for worms or beetles that would be underneath ot just getting some warmth during the cold spell.

This seems to have some ideas

https://compassgm.co.uk/rat-holes-in-garden-heres-what-to-do/

But basically if you keep disturbing it every few days they will go elsewhere.

I'd start by lifting the sheet every day and exposing the hole during rain or cold weather. Get a solar light that illuminates the area. If it's triggered by movement even better. They don't want predators to see them.

They have a bad rep because they are clever and agile.

We seem to have automatic double spacing since the changes today 🤨

CliveOfIndia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6652396/possible-rat-hole

"Horrified" seems a tad of an overreaction. A rat is just like any other living creature - it wants to find shelter and food.

Do you put out bird seed, bread crusts, anything like that? If so, that's almost certainly what he's after. Basically if there's any source of food, they'll stick around.

But there's nothing to worry about - unless it's 6' long, it's not going to cause you any harm. Heck, we used to keep rats as pets when the kids were little, they're adorable little creatures.

Dustyevsky

It's often said, “You're never more than a few metres from a rat.” That's an exaggeration, but nowhere is immune from visits from these rodents. However out here in the countryside, where we feed the birds and keep chickens, sightings are still rare. I know, because we keep a wildlife camera active overnight. Cats, foxes, hedgehogs, mice, and possibly a weasel, have all been photographed over the past few months, but rats? No.

We did have 2 rats in the chicken pen about 2 years ago. It was a simple matter of buying bait and a feeding station, then waiting. It took some weeks for the rats to 'trust' the bait station, but once they did, it was 'Goodbye.'

At this stage, with the hole unidentified, I'd not be concerned. Mice and voles make similar holes under objects. When you see a rat is the time to act!

moonpenny

"Horrified " is exactly the right word. Makes my skin crawl.

No bird seed or food of any sort. No pets etc.

The area is at the top of my drive where there is about 12 ft of land before garage and sided with a lawn. (Wondering what paving etc to put down hence plastic covering)

The area is tidy and no bushes ,trees etc so not sure what it would find there.

Farway

I've had rats, and they got into my kitchen 😠, and ate apples & figs off my trees and so IMO you are right to be concerned

If you look on You Tube there are videos about how to deal with them, or what to look for

I used poison, from Amazon, other suppliers available etc but they had large choice

Not sure which poison did the job, but they did like the pelleted types over the blocks

I had some came in rat sized carry out bags, seems rats love to grab N go, jury is out on those becuse they died out before they had opportunity to grab one.

I also set traps, in old jam jars, using bicarb of soda & flour mix, no idea if this works or not, my rats never touched it 😠