Yesterday I disturbed something in the compost heap. It crossed my mind that it could be a rat, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Today MrsAmbrose went to collect her pack from the shed only to find it gnawed through in loads of places. We have a dog who has an occasional habit of peeing in the shed (in reality, a built-on garage) accessible from the kitchen. We have an ultrasonic vermin deterrent running 24/7. Neither dog nor ultrasonic gizmo did the trick.

So I went to the locked drawer in the shed to get the rat poison I knew I had… It’s gone. Also mostly gone is one of those windscreen chip repair kits, a corner of a box of shrink tubing and to top it all off, the mouse traps have been nibbled as well.

Cheeky b******s!

Hopefully there are none of them in the house this time. More rat poison is on order.

So I went to the locked drawer in the shed to get the rat poison I knew I had… It’s gone.

How did the rats manage to get into a locked drawer?

They’ll be eating the compost, easy food for them. I had one in mine. Wrap in wire mesh, it went away and never came back

Poison is the worst way to deal with them, extremely unpleasant for the rat obviously but can also have serious impacts up the food chain, owls, foxes, cats, etc, etc. Just don’t.

ernie, they climbed up behind the units.

andrewh, I know. Can you suggest options that I can use?

Shed is not possible to  make rat-proof in reality so I need to remove and then prohibit the buggers.

Chicken wire on order.

I bought a Goodnature “humane” rat trap when Mrs Batfink saw a rat in the garden.

Seriously impressive bit of kit – rat sticks head into hole to eat the delicious peanut butter, triggers sensor, kablam!  Co2 cartridge powers a piston that kills them instantly….. and you get a push notification on your phone.

They are expensive though.  Have since sold mine on eBay, so total cost of ownership (-4 rats) was acceptable.

goodnature website

If you are so inclined, you can find something that looks suspiciously similar from Aliexpress

Aliexpress

 so total cost of ownership (-4 rats) was acceptable.

Cheaper than a carpet python? 🙂

Cheaper than a carpet python? 🙂

Depends, how much are you charging him for the postage? 😁

I’d prefer it if the trap was non fatal. So you could capture and take it somewhere where it could live with its fellows.

Is there a Tory constituency office in your town ?

Cheaper than a carpet python?

I’ve lived in Sydney for 10 years and only seen 2 snakes!  One green tree snake and one brown snake…. which could have just been a brown snake, rather than a brown snake.

To be honest the Possum that lives in the tree in my garden sounds like he’s fighting off all manner of wildlife at 3am every night – it’s quite possible that he’s dealing with the snakes and rats himself.

Going up to Palm Cove in July – will keep a lookout for anything suitable for dealing with rats

One green tree snake and one brown snake…. which could have just been a brown snake, rather than a brown snake.

I think/hope most of the ones I see are too. Definitely the safest approach.

Possums are normally fighting/warning off other possums I think – I found a near dead juvenile one by the car door once. Puncture wounds in its head 🙁

… good luck in Palm Cove, everything may have been washed away 🙂

With the poison the rats eventually crawl into somewhere cosey to die like under your floorboards then you’ve got that unmistakable ghastly stench for weeks on end. Traps or those nutcrackers above are best.

There is a new rat “poison” which is claimed doesn’t impact up the food chain – it works by overdosing on calcium or something similar – as used by our rat catcher of choice, not sure if it’s a professional-only product.

They’ll be eating the compost, easy food for them. I had one in mine. Wrap in wire mesh, it went away and never came back

But how did you hold it still while you wrapped it?
I’d be worried it might bite.

I had the ‘pleasure’ of working in a Portakabin with a rat infestation problem – the wise pest controllers put down poison and we got to enjoy the stench of putrefying remains during the warm summer, followed by a plague of blue bottles.

I quite like using live traps and getting rid of the rats with a humane air rifle shot. At least you know what you got and can deal with the corpse sensibly. I have a number around including a multi catch trap that hasn’t tempted a rat yet. Been thinking about getting a goodnature trap, was it effective?

I’ve lived in Sydney for 10 years and only seen 2 snakes!

I’m in the snakey paradise of Sweden and saw at least a dozen this weekend…

About half and half, Grass Snake and Adder/Viper, and 8-10 Slowworms to add to the mix!

(And that was all in a park on the edge of the city.)

Shed is not possible to  make rat-proof in reality so I need to remove and then prohibit the buggers.

Needs raising off the ground, like in the Great Escape 🙂

I quite like using live traps and getting rid of the rats with a humane air rifle shot. At least you know what you got and can deal with the corpse sensibly.

Agree, and less chance of the rat been half-caught by a trap and ‘eating’ off a limb to escape…

ernie, they climbed up behind the units.

Ah, that’s how the crafty buggers stole your rat poison!

We had a big rat on the lawn last week…. I shot it 😈

We’ve lived here (old farm) for 22 years and it’s the first one I’ve seen!

Your best first call is probably to find out exactly how the rats are getting into the shed and blocking that off, which might take some detective work, but without doing that, you’re dealing with a pretty much limitless supply of rats. Also remove/rat proof food sources, like compost heaps, chicken coops and bird feeders or they’ll just keep on coming back.

The Goodnature traps work really well if you follow the instructions and are humane in the sense that they kill instantly using a CO2-powered bolt to the head. Not very Buddhist I suppose, but I’m never sure how ‘humane’ relocation actually is. I suspect a lot of relocated rodents end up being predated on once set loose in unfamiliar environments. A bit like being removed to Rwanda for rodents… maybe.

Warm wet winter made for a “vintage” rat season I’m told.  Found out we had an uninvited guest(s) when we found the slug pellets no longer in their plastic sachet but scattered far and wide.

We back onto a park. A neighbour has a compost heap and has regular uninvited guests and we (seemingly) have none. Getting rid of the compost heap might be the only permanent solution.

+1 for Goodnature traps. If you have one outside it’s probably worth the bluetooth cap or the counter (as the instructions state, bodies might be removed by scavengers).

As @BadlyWiredDog says a clean kill is more humane than either relocation or poison.

we live next to a livery yard.

I have no sympathy once they are in my house. we had a rat eat through the eaves board and get into our attic- and another dig out the mortar in the rear step and come under the floor into the wall cavity.

i screwed large HD rat traps to a 6 inch x 1 inch board. killed the ones we had inside – and blocked up all the holes.

We dont have a compost heap for this reason.

terrier