We have rats in the garden. Always have and probably always will. So do our neighbours as I doubt the rats respect boundaries. So if I put out poison or traps they would simply repopulate from next door? Nature abhors a vacuum. I don't kill them partly because I don't want to buy and use poison but also because it is surely only a short term solution. I have two allotments where the rats live in my compost heaps. The council keep the poison bait boxes well stocked!!
Move out to where? My place … your neighbours, the children's play park down the road?
The problem is one we’ve created … we imported the brown rats … they are not native to the UK … we have then created the perfect conditions for them to live and breed exponentially … our drains, sewers and rubbish tips … and in urban areas they have few predators. There are far too many of them to live uncontrolled.
City sewers are full of them and they access our homes and gardens via broken drains and manhole covers.
They spread a dreadful disease in their urine … all rats are ‘incontinent’ and it is natural for them to dribble urine wherever they go.
When I was a child the young brother of a school friend caught Weil’s Disease from rat urine in their family garden … their row of houses had no mains drainage and there was an overflow from a septic tank into the ditch due to heavy rainfall. He died … he was seven years old.
A few rats where they have little impact on our lives are fine … but once they spread into our parks, gardens and homes they have to be killed as humanely and safely as possible. Humane for them, safe for us and other wildlife that is. There is not a natural way to control their spread, and IMHO controlling them is a necessity.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have the same knowledge as you do,and know that we have a great problem with rats.Call me an ostrich if you like,but I just can't bring myself to kill anything. All I can do is make sure I don't make it easy for them.
If you put the poison down and it’s gone next morning, you need to put more down until it’s left there. Giving small amounts and not killing them will just make them immune to the poisons, it’s happened with quite a few brands over the years, what you used to kill them, doesn’t anymore. Just how vaccinations work for us.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
They come in boxes from B&Q or other DIY stores. I bought the rentokil one but only because I'd heard of them. I don't know if they're any better or worse than the other brands. If you have children, you would need to be REALLY careful as they look like sweets.
We always track them by the run, find the burrow and put the poison down there, then cover with a slate or big stone. my daughter had one in her outside loo, she put one of those green cubes in, ‘cubes gone’ she said to me, thinking that was it, I said she has to putting them down constantly, it took 4 of those, In the end my son in law bought a trap, got the the beast.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Get a professional in … check with your local council … some will do the job either free or at a reduced rate … or otherwise get a reputable pest control company … the council may recommend some.
If you have any suspicion that the rats may be coming from a cracked sewer or similar contact whoever you pay drainage rates to, they should take responsibility.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
These days the 'Rat Man' will only come if the rats are IN your house, otherwise you have to pay for the likes of Rentokil services, which do not come cheap. We keep chickens and goats and have a few bait stations - they are checked regularly and sometimes we have to fill them EVERY day - it does become expensive. The poisons that are available now are not as potent as they were a few years ago because you now have to have a license to use them. Just remember, rats can kill birds, mice and hedgehogs as well as other wildlife. I know what I would rather have in my garden or nature area. Rats need to be kept under control, in my opinion. 🙂
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I don't kill them partly because I don't want to buy and use poison but also because it is surely only a short term solution.
I have two allotments where the rats live in my compost heaps. The council keep the poison bait boxes well stocked!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Just how vaccinations work for us.
If you have children, you would need to be REALLY careful as they look like sweets.
my daughter had one in her outside loo, she put one of those green cubes in, ‘cubes gone’ she said to me, thinking that was it, I said she has to putting them down constantly, it took 4 of those, In the end my son in law bought a trap, got the the beast.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We keep chickens and goats and have a few bait stations - they are checked regularly and sometimes we have to fill them EVERY day - it does become expensive. The poisons that are available now are not as potent as they were a few years ago because you now have to have a license to use them.
Just remember, rats can kill birds, mice and hedgehogs as well as other wildlife. I know what I would rather have in my garden or nature area.
Rats need to be kept under control, in my opinion. 🙂