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So yesterday I was standing at the computer in the living room, which sits beside a window overlooking our (completely paved) back garden, when I notice some movement.
I take a look, and it is a rat of fairly substantial proportions.
I am in an end-of-terrace with a solid brick wall surrounding three sides of the garden, and only a gate beside the house leading down a passage into the rest.
It was bin day.
Rat psychologists: Any guesses on whether the hideous creature was just exploring and this is a one-off, or if I can expect him to have moved in and invited his mates?
Should I be preparing for war?
Clean the mess from your garden. They won't hang around if there's no food.
Do a massive poo in the middle of your yard. That should err, well, just do it and report back. No need for photos.
They travel single file to hide their numbers.
Or is that sand people?
There's always more than one.
@saxon, as above give the garden a good clean out - no food = no interest for them. Re wall etc rats are good at digging 😉 , they will find a way in. TBH they are probably out and about most nights when you are tucked up in bed. Only really an issue if you have young kids and especially if they start coming into the house.
They're pretty good climbers too, I've caught one scaling the 6ft fence in my back garden!
Paint your fence in Rolandseal.
IGMC.
I saw one in my garden a week or so back – first one I’ve seen for a couple of years.
Last time, we were advised (by neighbour who’s retired pest controller) to stop feeding the birds as the rats just feed off stuff dropped off the feeder and bird table. He also suggested getting rid of my log pile, as apparently would make nice habitat for rats’ nest. (I only did the former…)
I suspect this new one could be living down the garden under shed, but I also saw it (or could it be one of its friends/siblings/parents) on the patio, which did concern me – too close to house for comfort, especially with summer and leaving patio doors open.
I don’t fancy the idea of putting down poison so instead bought an electronic zapper; they get fairly positive reviews on Amazon. So far though, despite being bated with bread (obviously in true STW fashion made in bread machine) and peanut butter I’ve not caught anything yet. Not seen ratty this week though, so maybe one of the neighbours has dealt with it.
They're pretty good climbers too, I've caught one scaling the 6ft fence in my back garden!
had a couple in the hawthorn trying to get to the bird feeders once, seemed quite at home in the branches
Just Nuke it from orbit!!
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**May be slightly overkill**
Google nooski traps for a non poison based catch.
If it was a squirrel would you be worried?
If it was a squirrel would you be worried?
You should be
[img][url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8717/17165251841_52643cf6a8_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8717/17165251841_52643cf6a8_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/s9QpkX ]Squirels[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/126516346@N08/ ]sandwicheater1[/url], on Flickr[/img]
If only it was in your kitchen. You could sing a song about it.
You'd be surprised just how close we all are to rats and mice. Lots of them everywhere.
In my old house I heard a scratching/breaking noise then suddenly what sounded like hundreds of little feet running across the attic above my bed.
When the ratcatcher says 'the traps/poison will catch em but they may smell for a couple of days if one manages to crawl off and die in a void....
If only it was in your kitchen. You could sing a song about it.
Thats a very old Ska/windrush song. UB40's was merely a cover of it!
No!! No!!
eeees a Siberian Hamster!
When I was kid, the occasional appearance of a rat in the garden was the cause of much excitement for my brother & I as it meant we could shoot something living with our air rifles with the full blessing of our parents.
Vicious critters - I mean the rats, although I guess a teenager with an air rifle is as well!
Still remember the time our Doberman got a rat cornered - and I had to pull it off. No - I mean I had to pull the rat off the dog - literally, as it bit through its lip and wouldn't let go!!
I just looked up the Nooski Rat Trap online, and was impressed until I looked on Amazon. First of all, it gets poor reviews, then I got grossed out when I saw that 'Customers that bought this product also bought the "OXO Good Grips Smooth Potato Masher"'.
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inside one of these
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They love strawberry 🙂
I get them in my loo too.
Nothing worse than a nice relaxing poo curtailed by the sound of free-diving turd burglars beneath your swinging undercarriage.
Twang
Worse if you have read this
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I've spent a few quiet evenings in my backward, beer and air rifle. Just waiting. Soon.
^This - not necessarily a cause for panic.hora - Member
You'd be surprised just how close we all are to rats and mice. Lots of them everywhere.
The dry stone walls in our garden are very old and we live (relatively) out in sticks, so they are home to frogs, toads, newts, lizards and at least two types of mice. Despite some of them being seen within a metre or two of the house, we've never had them inside.
Keeping the garden clean and tidy and free of food - at the very least close to the house - is key, as is ensuring the place is "animal tight"; mice can squeeze through unbelievably small gaps and also scale walls. I;d imagine rats are not far off in this respect.
SaxonRider - for the purpose of this thread, perhaps a change of username?
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When I was kid, the occasional appearance of a rat in the garden was the cause of much excitement for my brother & I as it meant we could shoot something living with our air rifles with the full blessing of our parents.
+1
As a kid I used to spend many a Saturday lying on top of a stack of hay bales, sniping rats on a family member's farm.
One tip...you need a good backstop. 😳
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^devils advocate. So if cats werent cuddly, would we be fussed about the above picture reversed in someway? 😉
^ you can play fantasy mammal face-off to your hearts' content, Barnaby and I are not interested 😀
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We had one visiting our garden and my experience of live traps and poison with mice led me to buy a rat sized snap trap.
Didn't take long to not have a rat in the garden
With poison they run off and die - horrible death.
Live traps you have to take them miles away to be effective.
Snap trap - clean, quick and painless.
Years ago one of my kids came in the kitchen and told me there was a big mouse in the garden. Was actually the biggest rat you've ever seen. Went for it with a length of wood (been doing some diy) and it shot into a drain, cover was off, jammed stick down, water seemed to be foaming with rats. I was sure there were at least three. Horrible. But actually only one, big bugger, that I wanted to parade in triumph up and down the street. (I probably had a touch of that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, mind, as a few weeks later on hols at a cottage with friends we thought there was a mouse in the drain. I got a stick and gingerly moved the drain cover and a little sparrow flew out, is what happened; monster rat jumped at my face is what I thought, for an instant.)
Anyway, the moral of the story is hit it with a stick!
[i]Live traps you have to take them miles away to be effective.[/i]
<insert Double Face Palm>...
You kill them there and then, either an air rifle or just drowned them (while in the trap). Plus no half-caught rats (ie legs) left as in a normal trap.
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Went up into the loft yeaterday, lovely smell at one end and mouse crap lying about the place, can only imagine what it could havce been eating up there.
We got a decent electronic scarer that worked, think it chased them all upstairs though, will need to get some more...
I had a pet rat called mr sleeks....he was a lovely little fella. Much nicer than that horrible looking cat up there...given the choice between shooting a cat and a rat, the cat would get it every time. Loathsome creatures...
Get a cat, then you find dead rats in your house most weeks....
IIRC, legally if you catch a rodent, you have to kill it. If you take it somewhere else you merely displace the problem/infestation.
I seem to remember something too about an obligation to control pests on your own land, although that is a bit vague and is not tantamount to zero tolerance.
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Don't hurt the poor chap, probably got a family.
Any building work going on near you?
When I was sanding our floors one came up to the French windows for a look .
Cheeky bugger. It was massive and looked as healthy (shiny coat) as the cute one up there.
Poisoned it .. Now the fox keeps most nuisance animals away.
i use to have a pet rat...Mr Sleeks was his name. Lovely little fella. I'd rather shoot a cat than a rat...hateful creatures. When I was younger i use to try to take them out with my catupult when they were attacking the birds in my garden. never hit one one..mores the pity..
Are you hoping for more of a reaction to that post then you got when you made exactly the same one 10 months ago, in this same thread?
did i? As you point out it was 10 months ago, i'd obviously forgotten.
Not looking for any kind of reaction...just pointing out i think cats are disgusting creatures.
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Tpbiker...yawn. How does rat thread get turned into another cat hating thread?! Live and let live I say and that goes for the rat too.
You can clean your garden as much as you want chances are they aren't getting food from there, in our case it was from the school behind us. Your local authority will send someone out to lay poison for you.
When I was sanding our floors one came up to the French windows for a look .
Cheeky bugger. It was massive and looked as healthy (shiny coat) as the cute one up there.
Rats are naturally illusive - if you see them at all - but especially if their behaviour bold and brazen - then they're probably ill.
Toxoplasmosis is a brain parasite that infects rats and cats and in rats its changes their behaviour making them very curious and less furtive, it also makes them find cats really interesting and makes them seek them out rather than flee from them. That makes it easier for cats to catch and eat them - this passes the disease to the cats who then get the squits and/or die and the rats feed on their bum gravy and/or corpses and the cycle continues.
Toxoplasmosis infects humans too - one in three of us carry it apparently. Historically it been considered to be asymptomatic but in the last few years there its beginning to be thought that it has subtle effects on human behaviour too - alterations in reaction times, reduced risk aversion, more accident prone and so on ( as well as making some blokes taller and better looking too apparently)
Historically it been considered to be asymptomatic but in the last few years there its beginning to be thought that it has subtle effects on human behaviour too - alterations in reaction times, reduced risk aversion, more accident prone and so on ( as well as making some blokes taller and better looking too apparently)
WCA I think you need to speak to your GP.
WCA I think you need to speak to your GP.
You missed the bit in brackets (mind you - he could be a 3 from a 1)
Live trap was what we used in our poly tunnel,then they had long swims in 40 gallon barrel to exhaustion ,takes a while for em to drown .
Farm /rural area so will always be around ,just not sharing our crops.
Bet that was fun , watching a rat drown to death after swimming for its life, bet the winter nights fly by in your house
Funny this should be resurrected. Saw a big rat (easily three times the size of the cute ikkle pet ones) in our garden the other day eating the bread my wife put out for the birds. Stopped putting out bread, bot seen it since.
We have rat issues at times.
We have large stock of wood for burning, keep hens, at least four compost bins, feed the birds, hay in barn, live by a beck. The only solution is a very cold winter or traps and air rifle.
Peanut butter placed on a rat run while you hide in range the air rifle works if you keep at it for a couple of weeks.
If you get a real bad infestation particularly under sheds, in wood pile or hen houses, get a good ratting team in. A few mad blokes with terriers can an exciting spend a morning (pretty scary really). it works well though.
They'll always be around just try and keep things tidy and do a bit of culling as required.
Plummer Terriers ftw!
Any working Terriers will do.
Saw a big rat (easily three times the size of the cute ikkle pet ones) in our garden the other day eating the bread my wife put out for the birds. Stopped putting out bread
I'd stop putting bread out for them anyway - my next job is part of a campaign to dissuade people from feeding bread to birds - generally not good for them and in some cases responsible for quite nasty birth defects (or hatching defects I suppose)
was only being told last week about lad, who has a huge rat phobia.. saw a rat at the bottom of their garden and was trying to convince his wife to sell up....
Border terrier and Patterdale terrier (aka the Devil dog), plus the big fluffy killer (British shorthair tabby) certainly no rats in our graden.
I'd stop putting bread out for them anyway - my next job is part of a campaign to dissuade people from feeding bread to birds
I've been trying to discourage her for ages.
I've been trying to discourage her for ages.
I don't want people to get the message too easily - wait til I've been paid, then discourage all you want 🙂
I'd stop putting bread out for them anyway - my next job is part of a campaign to dissuade people from feeding bread to birds
Bread has very little nutritional value to birds.
The best thing to feed rats on are .22 air rifle pellets.
With those videos up there I almost feel sorry for the rats.
Interesting that the dogs lose interest in the rat once it's dead.
They must be the happiest dogs in the world.
So far though, despite being bated with bread (obviously in true STW fashion made in bread machine) and peanut butter
If the rats know that you're a forum member you should at least be using cashew butter
Had some rats in our garden which got me in to making a blow gun using a piece of 15mm pvc tube zip tied to a straight dowel rod( to keep the tube straight ) and a milliput mouthpiece with bamboo skewer darts with paper and duck tape cone flights. Missed one cocky rat by inches with that, eventually got the council over with poison cause child plays in the garden.
Don't bother with a nooski trap. I wasted my money on that. Totally useless.
After hearing scratching in our extension roof (no access from inside the house) I lifted a tile and cut a hole in the lining to look underneath.
Looks like a rat has been having a cr*pping party in there. Need to get the council out. Then figure out how they're getting in. Then get the roof lifted, all the sh*tty insulation binned and new stuff put in and the roof rebuilt with no rat doorways in it. 😐
I probably can't put a terrier in the roof space can I? Or how about a snake?
With those videos up there I almost feel sorry for the rats.
Interesting that the dogs lose interest in the rat once it's dead.
They must be the happiest dogs in the world.
I think the guys that take joy in this as a hobby progress onto badger baiting and dog fighting.
Live trap was what we used in our poly tunnel,then they had long swims in 40 gallon barrel to exhaustion ,takes a while for em to drown .
If that's true then you are one sick puppy.
We'd had heard noises in the lift for months. Had though it was birds as there was some poo up there but when up there to get my skiing stuff down to find rat poo too. Council won't deal with them no so had to get pest control in. He didn't do much other than lay down poison and say block any potential entrances. Rat is now decomposing and all holes around eaves have been blocked. Still not sure how in got up to eaves level.
If we get them again I'll lay poison or set a trap myself its not rocket science.
Terrier
Badger baiting and dog fighting seems very different from dogs being used for pest control (I haven't watched the videos above)
In certain situations it's more effective than traps or poison. Badger baiting and dog fighting is plain horrible. Pest control is actually helpful
Border terrier and Patterdale terrier cross is the perfect combination for the job.
km79 - I can see how you would think that about ratting but it sometimes has to be done and is the best way with a large infestation in the shortest possible time. With other animals around, for me poison is out of the question as its it impossible to control what can get hold of the dying or dead rat. We have plenty of owls near our place and it would sad to inadvertently kill them, plus the use of rat poisons (that work) are very strickly control (obviously) and there are now few of them left that work. Sometime it's best to get on with it.
[i]I probably can't put a terrier in the roof space can I? Or how about a snake? [/i][i]
Ferret, plus they leave behind a 'scent'.
And only yesterday I bought a new (to me) .22 now Spring is coming 🙂
We've stables opposite us, certainly attracts them.
When I worked on the farm we had our Spring rat hunt surprisingly in the Spring. It wasn't so much a hunt as a massacre. Young heifers turned out and time to empty the shed of all the straw they had been bedded on, before you did that you had to move the feeders which is where the fun started. There were about four of us and about 6 terriers, move a feeder and just watch the chaos rats going everywhere, terriers dispatching them and then onto the next one. Arthur one of the boys would stand still with his feet together and rock back a bit on his heels, poor panicked rat would see a dark hole and dive under his boots where Arthur would just crush it, quite astonishing to see. It would last about 15 minutes, usual tally was about 30 to 40 rats and at least one terrier had to go to the vet for stitches, self inflicted by running into sheeting or some other pointy thing in the yard. Never got all of them and they would scatter into the outdoors for the summer until the next lot of heifers were born, then the cycle starts again.
the circle of life. You try telling that to the young uns today.