I agree with Lyn ... most food put out at night will be taken by rats ... we feed hedgehogs but we do it in an enclosed space which we monitor carefully to ensure it's not attracting rats.
I wasn't putting bird food out at night, I was putting the mealworms and suet mix out during the day time but they hadn't finished it and I noticed that it was going by morning.
I thought it could be a fox, hedgehog or badger taking it but I read that hedgehogs shouldn have dried mealworms so I've stopled that and just been putting out dried cat biscuit.
i think I will stop putting food out because obviously I don't want to attract rats and if it is a hedgehog then it will find its food elsewhere as I have no way of seeing what's eating the food.
i was about to say that wildlife cameras are not for the faint hearted but on second thoughts, they are a good idea, at least you can see if you are attracting rats and then do something about.
i know a lot of people don't like killing anything but where rats are concerned it can become a matter of them or us.
I wasn't putting bird food out at night, I was putting the mealworms and suet mix out during the day time but they hadn't finished it and I noticed that it was going by morning.
...
Duh, got it ... I'm easily confused
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I wasn't putting bird food out at night, I was putting the mealworms and suet mix out during the day time but they hadn't finished it and I noticed that it was going by morning.
I purchased a humane trap from Amazon and within a few days successfully relocated the two rats to a new home in the middle of some woods several miles from our back garden. I have continued to monitor the bird feeders and thankfully we sorted the problem out before they started to multiply.
Did you think only two rats needed that much food, I would suggest you sweep up or take in any food at night, put your camera out again in a week or two and see if there are any more rats on the ground, they will certainly grow quickly on that much feed.
Two fat balls at a time is plenty for birds to feed on.
It is said that for every one rat you see, there are ten waiting.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
The footage is from April and apart from several cats, foxes, a badger, a couple of deer and a hedgehog I can safely say there are currently no rats visiting our garden.
The camera is in use every night and positioned in different locations to keep an eye on things. We were able to locate the newly constructed rat hole, along with our missing fat balls, and with the help of the humane rat trap catch the male and female rat before things got out of hand.
Thankfully we have not spotted any rats which were previously quite common when lured with some peanut butter or a broken up fat balls!
I’m not an expert but I am confident rats will nibble most things including dried mealworms and suet berry mix. The only time they left food alone was when it was positioned inside the humane rat trap, very clever! In the end I removed all other sources of food and placed half a fat ball in the trap and finally caught my little friends.
Mark56’s suggestion of a hedgehog feeding station is good. I attached a mesh ground feeder onto a tree branch and pushed this into the ground to construct a raised feeding station.
Depending upon what you want to attract I can confirm badgers love bird suitable peanuts, foxes love raisins, cats love dried meal worms and deer like young plant shoots!
Just be aware, I am quite sure that my playing with the wildlife camera and putting out food encouraged the rats to come and feast in our garden, the badger decided to dig up the lawn, the deer munched through all our tulips and we have numerous cats wondering around!
If you require information about a wildlife camera let me know. I asked my family to group together and purchase the items I required as a Christmas present last year, the three items I use came to £97.92 on Amazon; my brother in law now has the same setup.
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I wasn't putting bird food out at night, I was putting the mealworms and suet mix out during the day time but they hadn't finished it and I noticed that it was going by morning.
I thought it could be a fox, hedgehog or badger taking it but I read that hedgehogs shouldn have dried mealworms so I've stopled that and just been putting out dried cat biscuit.
i think I will stop putting food out because obviously I don't want to attract rats and if it is a hedgehog then it will find its food elsewhere as I have no way of seeing what's eating the food.
I just wished I could afford to get one because I'd love to see if it's a hedgehog.
I have a cat and I have no problem with him catching rats, just don't want him to bring it in
Duh, got it ... I'm easily confused
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Me too
I noticed our bird food was disappearing especially quickly overnight so I setup a wildlife camera and managed to catch the culprit in the act!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiPTOrShxWQ
I purchased a humane trap from Amazon and within a few days successfully relocated the two rats to a new home in the middle of some woods several miles from our back garden. I have continued to monitor the bird feeders and thankfully we sorted the problem out before they started to multiply.
Did you think only two rats needed that much food, I would suggest you sweep up or take in any food at night, put your camera out again in a week or two and see if there are any more rats on the ground, they will certainly grow quickly on that much feed.
Two fat balls at a time is plenty for birds to feed on.
It is said that for every one rat you see, there are ten waiting.
Thank you for the advice.
The footage is from April and apart from several cats, foxes, a badger, a couple of deer and a hedgehog I can safely say there are currently no rats visiting our garden.
The camera is in use every night and positioned in different locations to keep an eye on things. We were able to locate the newly constructed rat hole, along with our missing fat balls, and with the help of the humane rat trap catch the male and female rat before things got out of hand.
Thankfully we have not spotted any rats which were previously quite common when lured with some peanut butter or a broken up fat balls!
Thank you for this Jacobsback, would they eat dried mealworms and suet berry mix?
Caught a cat eating the cat food that I had left out just in case it was a hedgehog.
really need to get a wildlife camera.
Last edited: 04 October 2017 19:52:42
Try a hedgehog feeding station Stagbeetle, at least then it will narrow it down. Check the hedgehog thread for advice
I’m not an expert but I am confident rats will nibble most things including dried mealworms and suet berry mix. The only time they left food alone was when it was positioned inside the humane rat trap, very clever! In the end I removed all other sources of food and placed half a fat ball in the trap and finally caught my little friends.
Mark56’s suggestion of a hedgehog feeding station is good. I attached a mesh ground feeder onto a tree branch and pushed this into the ground to construct a raised feeding station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6UTSlskEWI
Depending upon what you want to attract I can confirm badgers love bird suitable peanuts, foxes love raisins, cats love dried meal worms and deer like young plant shoots!
Just be aware, I am quite sure that my playing with the wildlife camera and putting out food encouraged the rats to come and feast in our garden, the badger decided to dig up the lawn, the deer munched through all our tulips and we have numerous cats wondering around!
If you require information about a wildlife camera let me know. I asked my family to group together and purchase the items I required as a Christmas present last year, the three items I use came to £97.92 on Amazon; my brother in law now has the same setup.