Firstly i must state i find rats lovely animals, freindly, clever, and adaptable,etc, as pets, had loads.

But it appears a freind has rats in her garden, a few holes and a sen a few scurrying round,one or more has now found a way into the house, via a hole in the cavity wall made by a plumber to feed a pipe through, and theyre probably curled up somewhere in the nice cavity wall insulation,also part of the garden near where they seemed to live, has collapased.

Any ideas how to get them out, and should i dig the collapsed hole out and re fill,i dont really want to kill some of these very adapatable creatures, and dont play the pan pipes so cant charm them out like the Pied piper of Todmorden.

your friend needs to find someone who is willing to kill the dirty bastards.
my Mum had them in her garden and after a couple of weeks of flooding their tunnels with various household cleaning product cocktails they buggered off elsewhere.

Any ideas how to get them out, and should i dig the collapsed hole out and re fill,i dont really want to kill

So you want to get them out but not kill them ?

Have you thought of erecting a small sign to convey the message ?

Let me know how you get on.

Get a cat?

Don’t want rats dying in a cavity (the stink like hell when rotting) so do something about them quick. The local council will have a service.

Tell your friend to get in touch with a reputable pest-controller.

Borrow a Ferret.

Not sure if this helps, but I had a pet one called Vasquez, after the lady marine from aliens. Vasquez would sit on my shoulder watching tele, drinking southern comfort from the bottle cap, then, pissed, try to eat my ear.

Try leaving traps baited with southern comfort around the house and see if that works, or maybe show aliens through the night to tempt the rat out for a better view?

I guess you’ve been on the Southern Comfort again tonight? 😉

Perhaps. Does it show?

Not sure this helps either – My mum had rats some years ago and the council came and did the honours. This is a chargeable service now I believe. When they had baited and poisoned several the problem seemed to be sorted. No more sightings or scratchy noises from the loft. However there was a terrible pong from an obviously decaying corpse. We couldn’t find the body and called the council man back. He to couldn’t identify the source and left mum with a can to tackle the smell. It was an aerosol and it was labelled Rat Deodorant!

Call Javier Bardem. He knows what to do with rats.

Rats are photophobic – they hate bright light.

At the last place (barn conversion that the rats felt was theirs not ours) we fitted a couple of £10 B&Q security lights. Every time they moved in the garden they got lit up like the sun. The stuck it for about a week before leaving to find another darker abode. Doesn’t work with mice.

As an aside, a few years later some stoats moved into the garden. They are afraid of nothing, discourage rats mice etc and they don’t want to live in your house. Excellent neighbours.

Ernie, while rats are so clever and adaptable, i dont yet think they have reached the standards of a scholchild and be able to read and asimilate the information put in your poster.

Thanks anyway.

There is no ‘humane’ way to get rid of rats, just put the poison down and try not to think about it. Do not go on the internet to read about how it works, just believe me when I tell you that the rats go gently to sleep and have fluffy little dreams until they don’t.

Fellow rat lover (as pets), but wild rats need to be sorted ASAP, they breed at an alarming rate, and of course are carriers of deadly diseases.

Rats are photophobic – they hate bright light.

You should tell the rats at my local club fishing lake, they scurry around in broad daylight at the height of summer.

Get a cat or two. All the rats around here have disappeared. Although there has been some collateral, the cats seem to catch a helluva lot of shrews and voles.

If you have to use rat bait, make sure you , or the professional pest control, of it properly and safely, my cat was killed a month ago by poisen some nob had put down. Post some flyers and tell your neighbours your doing it. The death of our cat has left us devastated and my wife is grieving, he was her shadow. If I ever find who baited I will chop their danglies off or force feed him waferin and cut him, see how he likes bleeding to death.

The Mrs has a cat. It brings live mice, birds and rats into the house and lets them go.

We took over my folks place in the summer; every autumn they use to have ‘visitors’ into the building/walls and outbuildings (19th century mill and buildings built of stone, with drylining in the house). You could hear them.

Not this year though, and I think it’s because we’ve a Spaniel. He doesn’t catch anything but is in absolutely everywhere, everyday – constantly sniffing/searching as they do. I think his scent keeps them away.

One of our cats (while bringing home the odd live critter that required despatching), pretty much destroyed the local rat population. I’ve lost count of how many dead/decapitated rats I’ve found in the back garden in the past but apart from the the odd one nowadays I don’t see them any more.

I still remember coming home though to find the cat, the dog and a large rat in the kitchen all pretending to ignore each other. I suspect the rat had proved too much for either creature to deal with and I must admit, it took me a few minutes to kill it.

Call a proper pest controller. They will have access to more effective poison than you will. They will also select the appropriate method and take into account children / pets etc in the area.

We had some in the shed which seemed resistant to the poison from the DIY shop. Cheeky beggars even ate through the tub to get it.

Proper rat man got them shifted over the course of a few weeks, we have chickens a cat and child and they were all fine. Bait went in proper boxes and out of the way.

Also worth looking at why they affect the house. Is there a food source easily available?

As for posting notes to your neighbours etc – perhaps but shouldn’t really need to if using the correct pest control. It could of course be them attracting the rats too…

I’ve got a rat that is eating 50% of my chickens food. Don’t want to risk poison in case the chickens get to it. Has anyone tried those electronic Rat Zappers?

we used rat bait but one of the dogs took a liking to it. Now use lead poison via an Air Arms.

Make sure there are no food sources around like bird food. At this time of year rats are often transient and settle where they know they can get fed. We had rats in our garden so removed all of the bird food and the rats soon went.

If I remove the chicken food my chickens will stop laying eggs. This will be a bad thing.

Mate got rid of his using the clean method of my 22 Crossman. Cleared a few that were in his garden , never to return.He tried baiting and other things, but was worried about his grand children and poisons.

Somebody near us had a rat infestation. However, since Basement Cat’s return to form, this problem has been solved for them.

NB – a neat row of dead rats in the kitchen is not the nicest thing to wake up to in the morning *looks for “vomit” smiley face*

for the people who have chickens and have unwanted rats, make yourself a trigger feeder which will stop the rats stealing the food. Dead easy to make if you want any more info post on here.

As for rats I would get some glue traps so you wont have dead rats festering and smelling in your house.

Trigger feeder you say.

and

After seeing ‘something’ scurry away in the garden about 6 weeks ago, I saw a rat today.

Armed with a shovel this afternoon, it appears to be living under the compost bin, and seems to have been burrowing under the fence into the neighbours garden.

A trap laden with peanut butter has now been set.

onewheelgood – Member
I’ve got a rat that is eating 50% of my chickens food. Don’t want to risk poison in case the chickens get to it. Has anyone tried those electronic Rat Zappers?

as said above get one of those feeders. We just brought the chickens food in each night over 3-4 weeks to encourage the rats to take the poison from the bait boxes.

We were surprised how many of the critters there must have been in the compost pile.

Now have all bags of chicken & bird food in metal bins in the shed. THe rats had chewed a Tom & Jerry style hole in the side of the shed and then into the plastic food bins.

I buried some waste pipe in the compost, filled with poison.

/hardman – You find them in the garden, not at all well, and can dispatch them with your spade.

/reality – Actually, I really don’t like doing it…

Another rat person here as well, i’ve owned a few, last one being named “Jake” that used to live “free range” so to speak having a large open enclosure on one wall of the living room and given free roam about the house, he had a litter tray in each room that he used without fail and liked nothing better than to sit on my shoulder and go for a bike ride or a walk about town – extremely friendly and would lie on his back with his legs in the air and let strangers tickle his belly as he sneezed in delight, he was a bit of a bugger for drinking red wine though and if i left a glass sitting out and turned my back he’d be into it like a wizened old glasgae weejie. His best pal was my Jack Russell dog “Scamp”, they used to lie together in front of the fire and “Jake” used to eat from the same bowl as “Scamp” quite happily. Jake lived to the ripe old age of 6 and i came home from work one day to find him lying in “Scamps” bed rigid and cold with Scamp just sitting there looking at him and whining, don’t tell me animals don’t understand death.

Saying all that i would not tolerate wild rats in the garden or in the house, they are an entirely different prospect altogether and unfortunately you’ll need to suck it up and deal with them with whatever method you are advised is best practice, they are a nuisance at the least and a health risk at worst so i’m afraid you’re going to have to deal with them which will involve some form of poison however distasteful that may sound.

@Mikeypies-more info on the trigger feeder please.

I.N.R.A.T.S

I’m making a couple tomorrow for some friends so i will take a couple of pics