So our back garden has become the scavenging-ground of a rat that is frequently to be seen poking around. It’s just the one, it seems, despite the theory that where there’s one rat, there’s many – it’s quite recognisable due to a patch of fur on its haunch. I’ve seen it several times a day, generally round the base of the bird feeder, quite naturally, as the birds are quite messy and drop bits of tasty food. It’s also been digging tunnels in the compost heap. I don’t want it to be there. We have no pets or kids to worry about, but I would still rather not have it wandering about. We have a broad hedge that backs on to a path and strip of trees and undergrowth, which is something of a wildlife corridor so it could have quite an extensive territory and we’d have no chance of restricting access. We could stop feeding the birds but that gives us an enormous sense of well-being (and yes I do see the disconnect in wanting to nurture some wild creatures and kill others, but we need more birds and we don’t need more rats).

Of course I could try putting down bait and either poison or to trap the thing, but I would prefer a more targeted approach (pun very much intended) as I don’t like the idea of indiscriminate friendly fire poisoning or trapping hedgehogs, birds etc., or having to wait and hope that it will eventually take effect on said rat. However this seems to be the only option that the council or pest control firms will offer (not too surprisingly)

So, what I am considering is either getting someone to shoot it, or potentially get an air rifle and do it myself. Obviously the latter would cost a fair bit of time and money to train myself up to do it safely and accurately, so it’s not ideal. Therefore the question is – can I get someone ‘in’ to shoot it? The rat in question strolls casually across the back lawn several times a day, pausing here and there, so would be (in my opinion) quite an easy shot of maybe 10-15 yards from an upstairs bedroom window, shooting quite steeply down into the soft ground with no (?) risk of ricochet or shooting over boundaries. However I imagine neighbours seeing guns in windows might not be too impressed…

Is this the kind of thing shooters-for-hire will do? Would anyone with an air rifle in the Wiltshire area be open to it on commission? Should I just get out their with a pair of bombers? Will the rat wee in my shoes?

Who will rid me of this turbulent… rat?

UB40

UB40

It’s not in mi kitchen…

It’s a wild animal doing what wild animals do.
Is it really causing such an issue that you need to kill it?

Is it really causing such an issue that you need to kill it?

Need? No. But I don’t want rats in my garden, which I believe is quite reasonable, and they don’t take to any other form of persuasion. Would you be happy with rats in your garden – especially on the assumption that if one settles in, more will follow?

quite an easy shot of maybe 10-15 yards from an upstairs bedroom window

So long as your feeding the birds giving it an easy food source it’ll be resident in your garden.

PC Ryan Pilkington?

I have 2 rats running about in my garden, they even charge at the pigeons who are eating the spoils from the blue tit chucking half the feed onto the ground…

I have a squirrel/rat trap, and caught one using a mix of mouse/rat attractant and peanut butter. the other 2 bastards ignore the trap. I did catch (accidentally) a robin the other day who flew off a bit peeved when I opened the door. If anyone has any ideas for good bait, please let me know.

I’m gonna risk the wrath of the better half and not refill the feeders to try and encourage the rats to the trap, or at least get them to piss off temporally.

I have a humane rat cage. It catches the rat and you can release it a couple of miles away. You can borrow it if you live near Cheshire / Delamere area.

So long as your feeding the birds giving it an easy food source it’ll be resident in your garden.

I know. I would rather keep feeding the birds and take direct measures against the rat than not feed the birds and hope it gets hungry/bored and goes somewhere else. Like I said – birds > rats.

It catches the rat and you can release it a couple of miles away.

May not be legal to do that, if it causes it distress.

A tunnel trap, suitably baited for the rat, ideally inserted into one of its tunnels in the compost heap its absolutely the way to go if you must, if it spends enough time in the compost heap it’ll stink of rat and hedgehogs etc won’t go near.

Poison outside is a very very bad idea. It’s not even that good of an idea inside.

Though why you’re concerned so long as it’s not in your house is beyond me.

Eeeest no a rat,eeeast a Siberian Hamster.

I have a humane rat cage. It catches the rat and you can release it a couple of miles away. You can borrow it if you live near Cheshire / Delamere area.

Cheers for the offer, bit far away. I might look into getting one myself as an alternative to lethal options…

May not be legal to do that, if it causes it distress.

Definitely isn’t legal if it’s a grey squirrel.

I don’t want rats in my garden, which I believe is quite reasonable

Why, specifically? In the house, I get, but wild things behaving wildly in the wild…..

Definitely isn’t legal if it’s a grey squirrel

No, you send them to Edukator’s wife’s doctor.

Like I said – birds > rats

You’ve never seen a pigeon roost have you? (or for that matter, most bird’s nests).

Would you be happy with rats in your garden – especially on the assumption that if one settles in, more will follow?

I quite like the owls, foxes and occasional buzzard they attract. Same as I enjoy seeing the sparrow hawks diving into the hedge after the blackbirds and starlings etc. Far and away the biggest (non “domesticated”) pest in my garden is the bloody pigeons, though I really should get round to eating some of those.

So long as your feeding the birds giving it an easy food source it’ll be resident in your garden

Not if it’s dead!

I have a humane rat cage. It catches the rat and you can release it a couple of miles away

Don’t do that. 1: it’s illegal, 2: it may well die (slowly) after being moved out of its home territory, and 3: I’ve seen rats caught in cages and I wouldn’t want to be opening the cage while the rat is still able to bite!

Double-post, edited below

I don’t want rats specifically in my garden because, when it gets down to it, they trigger a sense of repulsion – that bit may be instinctive rather than rational, but I do want to be comfortable in my garden. I’m not panicking and declaring the whole garden quarantined until the menace is dealt with or anything, but equally I don’t feel like going and sitting in the grass to enjoy the sun when I’ve just seen the rat tracking over it.

I am a big fan of wildlife and am happy to see it, but that doesn’t mean I want all examples of it in the spaces that I use… a garden isn’t really a wild space even if you make it “wildlife-friendly” and having rats in it will make it *un*friendly to wildlife that I do want to encourage e.g. hedgehogs. We do have plenty of other wildlife around (including pigeons which are a bloody pain when trying to feed other birds) but for me the rat just crosses the line.

they trigger a sense of repulsion that bit may be instictive rather than rational

– in you, my lad’s two are as cute as you like

but they certainly can carry diseases

as do birds

https://www.ufaw.org.uk/animal-welfare-publications/infectious-diseases-of-garden-birds—minimising-the-risks

they urinate and defecate on things

true, but actually they tend to use it to mark territory so the reputation of doing it all over is not correct, they will mark but also will have a litter area. whereas birds do it all over, but particularly on my patio once the cherries arrive.

they trigger a sense of repulsion that bit may be instictive rather than rational

Institutional ratism innit. Endemic in our modern society.

another rat will just move in. You are never more than a couple of metres from a rat

Goodnature A24 trap kills them well dead pretty much instantly. It’s a thing developed in NZ to protect indigenous fauna from rats and other pests. Not cheap, but very effective and works like a small automated bolt-gun. Resets instantly.

https://goodnaturetraps.co.uk/humane-rat-traps/

but equally I don’t feel like going and sitting in the grass to enjoy the sun when I’ve just seen the rat tracking over it.

Ah, the easy solution is don’t watch the garden unless you’re lying about in it then.

to wildlife that I do want to encourage e.g. hedgehogs

You know they are a great carrier and disperser of ticks?

I don’t want rats specifically in my garden because, when it gets down to it, they trigger a sense of repulsion

It’s the same reason I don’t want other people in mine to be fair.

Goodnature A24 trap

Also good for carrots, squirrels and fingers as I understand it.

Also good for carrots, squirrels and fingers as I understand it.

I don’t want carrots in my garden. they’re a funny colour and attract cartoon rabbits 🙂

and attract cartoon rabbits 🙂

I’m not sure I see the problem.

And there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just drawn that way.

It catches the rat and you can release it a couple of miles away.

May not be legal to do that, if it causes it distress.

That would narrow down options, but in all honesty what other choices would you accept, now you’d discluded one reasonably humane method ?.
Bucket of water with a tight fitting lid ?, or the bag and trusty shovel ?, there aren’t many options if you cant transport it 20 miles and release.
You in that option have to look for someone to take it off your hands and dispose of it however they see fit.

So while not ideal, transporting said rat a fair distance and releasing is by far the best option, if you don’t like the others especially if they involve killing a small minding its own business mammal.
And if someone reports you for it, tell them it was a holiday you sent Mr Rat on, and if he finds work in that area while there, then the very best of luck to him I say.

So while not ideal, transporting said rat a fair distance and releasing is by far the best option, if you don’t like the others especially if they involve killing a small minding its own business mammal.

apart from it might not be. It might get picked on by other rats, or if there aren’t other rats there, maybe that’s because there are no food sources, or whatever.

Plus, it may be illegal if (rare chance of course) you were prosecuted under animal welfare laws.

I get people don’t want rats in the garden, but if you really don’t the best way is to make it inhospitable (they dislike some scents, for example), don’t leave food out for them, and if you do get an infestation get them trapped and disposed of properly. If it has to die, do it well.

Then the only choice there Jonv, is to contact a pest exterminator and hand said rat to them saying, I dont really care what happens to it. OR it is let go back where it was found.

or get the pest controller to come and do it properly to start with if you can’t / don’t want to set killer traps yourself. Don’t bother humane trapping them yourself.

Then the only choice there Jonv, is to contact a pest exterminator and hand said rat to them saying, I dont really care what happens to it. OR it is let go back where it was found.

Or do the job your self.

Getting someone else in to do it doesn’t get the blood off your hands if that’s what your worried about.

How ever what I will say is …… Don’t get too close to a cornered/caged rat.

Or do the job your self.

No because that would be inhumane, and illegal as such. So the only logical options are give it to someone else, licensed to remove rodents, in the full knowledge and understanding that could mean killing the rat, or to let it go, and look at other tested methods of deterring the rat off your property.
.
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Nobody would be asking these questions if it was an infestation of kittens 😕

No because that would be inhumane, and illegal as such

Well no. Its only inhumane and illegal if its inhumane. Dispatched properly its not unreasonably inhumane so perfectly within the law. Drowning etc is not humane.

I’m with the OP. We have a neighbour who has a garden that is not fit for even a rat to live in. I think what happened was that one of them moved out and into our garden. Next thing they had invaded the shed. And I mean invaded. Ate through the floor to get in then ruined everything inside.

We didn’t notice until it was too late as I think they got in during winter. They chewed all the garden furniture cushions and almost everything else they could get hold of. Even a blow up canoe. Everything they didn’t chew was covered in poo and pee. It stained the wood so much that we had to sand it down and repaint it all.

So I am way beyond a humane way of getting rid of them. We had a one or two hedgehogs in the garden regularly so didn’t want to go down the trap or poison route. Eventually after watching a YT video we set up a trap in the shed. A steel bin with water and a balloon on the top. Was a job getting such a big balloon. Spread some seed and corn on the top and left it. Came in to check in the morning and there were about 25 in the water. Not nice and I did feel a bit guilty. Set it up the next night and got another 25 or so.

We had a rat rooting around in our old compost bin*. They apparently like egg shells and on corn on the cob. We stopped putting them in and the rat didn’t seem to visit as much (it’s now plaguing the neighbours bird feeders instead…;)

Our new compost bin is apparently rat proof, it has a mesh base, so we can now put anything in it. The old compost bin has gone to the allotment, where I spotted a rat the other day.

*one benefit of the rat was that it ‘turned’ the compost really regularly and saved me a job.