Wood stores and rats – how to avoid?

So, we’re going to have a log burning stove installed next month.

I intend to build up a supply of wood – though not mcmoonter levels of insanity. The ideal spot would be against one side of the house.

However, it’s got me thinking about rats. We live in a small village next to farmland, so it’s inevitable that there are rats around anyway.

I have a small child, so I need to be mindful of what I;m doing for her.

Any sensible advice on how to avoid/minimise rats in the woodpile?

My woodstore backs onto woodland. Not seen any evidence of BFO rodents… but now you’ve got me paranoid. 😯

Thanks.

Cat? The brother of ours “removed” a whole family of rats when he moved in with friends of hours.

Keep the logs in the kitchen?

Cat?

Hmm. could rely on next door’s, though he’s a big bugger. I’ll have to build it with large enough gaps around and underneath.

I’ll have to build it with large enough gaps around and underneath.

I wouldn’t have thought they’d be any need for that. IME hunting cats don’t actually need to be able to access a nest to successfully clean it out. Patience is a virtue, and cats will happily sit and wait somewhere nearby for many hours at a time.

Daft question maybe, but a genuine one – what’s the issue with rats in the woodpile?

what’s the issue with rats in the woodpile?

If the woodpile is close to the house / where children play, then the rats are equally close to the house and the play areas, giving the risk of disease.

I thought Rats were only interested in food, not woodpiles?

Its not the rats you need to worry about, scorpions, snakes, black widow spiders and killer bees might be an issue though 😉

I think you’re worrying too much about how dangerous rats are, and how much of a disease risk they carry.

(ex gamekeeper, ex laboratory rat doser, two kids)

I used to get rats in my compost, but never seen them in my wood store, as footflaps mentions, as long as they dont have a food source, it should not be an issue, I hope 😉

More cats. Lots of the buggers.

Can’t see a flaw in this plan at all.

OK. Stress ameliorated. Thanks.

Zulu – not sure lab rats and wild ones can be compared.

(Thoughts for child are around rat poison.)

what Zulu said

You may well have rats allready.We had them in the barn but not the woodpile and no one died.

ski +1

Never had problems with rats in wood store but I have found them in my compost bin before.

A bit of chicken wire and making sure the lid is securely on is proving enough to keep them out (as far as I am aware).

You may well have rats already.

In spite of living next to a field in which maize is grown, I’ve never seen any (not even at harvest). Which surprised me when we moved there.

Never saw many as a lad, and we had stables and several outbuildings (no such luxuries now).

Be careful abutting it to your property – you may get damp issues with water creeping down and getting trapped. I wouldn’t put anything against a wall.

Be careful abutting it to your property

Am mindful of that. Intention is to leave a gap between the store and the house. Will make it big enough for Mars the cat from next door.

I’ve never had an issue with rats. However I often find birds’s nests in mine, and there is a territorial Robin who is continually on my case. We have caught hundreds of field mice who would eat all the newly planted out stuff in the garden. When the New Forest was planted they had mouse trouble on a massive scale. They employed people to catch them. I read somewhere they caught hundreds of thousands.

EDIT

If you have the space a free standing wood shed allows access and uniform drying. I regret building my first one with enclosed sides which can only be accessed at each end.

dont worry then you will just get mice then 8)

If you have the space a free standing wood shed allows access and uniform drying.

Alas, not really. The house pretty much fills the plot side to side. The space identified is next to its sister house (they were built by brothers), hence abutting (but not nec. touching) the side of the house. Store will be alongside the LPG bottles. Wall is actually the garage (but it’s an integrated garage).

Next door just stores swiss style – no woodshed, but no-one has to look directly at it – I figured at least an angled roof would avoid too much of an eyesore for them.

I’ve never seen any

6 months living in the country and neither had I until one night taking a slightly different route home and passed a barn where I saw about a dozen of them and big fekkin things they were too.
where I am now, in 2 years, I’ve seen a rat twice, once in the woods by the house, but we know they’re there because they help themselves from the veg patch. Rats are very clever and nearly invisible. However, they’re also an excuse to get an airgun and sit outside with some beer and some bullets (well pellets, but bullets sounds better)

Store will be alongside the LPG bottles

..or maybe not

..or maybe not

What’s the worst that can happen….? 😉

In addition to Ski’s list there are capricorn, wood worm and all manner of wood devouring beasties that will just as happily eat your house timbers if they haven’t been recently treated (says the man who had to treat the floor joists a few weeks ago).

However, they’re also an excuse to get an airgun and sit outside with some beer and some bullets

After I discovered my mother had skipped my old BSA Meteor (FFS woman!), I’ve been hankering after another. Not sure Mrs North would approve (always a good reason to go ahead IMO).

says the man who had to treat the floor joists a few weeks ago

Er, trying to think where the are any… (60s built bungalow – a lot of brick, concrete and, er, asbestos).

Edukator, are you in France?

Les termites and woodworms are ferocious down there.

We get rats in one wood pile that backs on to the compost heap. Well we di. Now , as I fill it I chuck in bags of poison. Soon sorts them out and as the bags are at the back/base they are where kids couldn’t reach. As its 2013’s wood you are stacking you will have plenty of time for the poison to be eaten.
Cats work but an airgun is sport.