Gnawing plastic bins from beneath is a hard one. Some people wrap the base in fine chicken wire or the like, but tbh, a determined rat is likely to get through that.
I like your description @pansyface of your squirrels 😂 I’ve ordered a squirrel baffle, half a plastic dome to fix to the pole so that as the rats climb up they can’t go any further. I don’t actually mind squirrels and we have a dedicated squirrel feeder that the squirrel has learnt to open the lid to get to the nuts 😁
I might just get rid of my compost bin altogether as like @Fire says a determined rat will get in somehow and @MikeOxgreen I don’t need lots of compost and for all the trouble it’s causing it doesn’t seem worth it sadly.
Getting rid of compost bins won’t stop rats. My daughter lives in a town, no one gardens much, no compost bins anywhere, lidded dustbins bins. they still have rats. If neighbours have chickens, there will be rats around. It depends on what wildlife you are prepared to home, personally we don’t like squirrels, they take birds eggs and baby birds. Baffles on the poles work well for both.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Hi @Lyn the baffle has been delivered today so hopefully that will help. My wildlife camera shows them climbing in and out of my compost bin all night and I don’t want them breeding in there. I’m quite happy for them to pass through my garden but not set up home here so getting rid of the compost bin might make it less attractive.
Out of interest when we lived out in the sticks the rats we got were brown rather than black, ie not sewer rats.
They managed to chew through 4 inches of concrete to get into the apple store, so not much is going to stop them.
Worst thing that happened was when I was turning the compost and the fork came out with a skewered rat. Already knew there were not hedgehogs around so was not really expecting anything to be living deep in the heap like that.
We had a rat killing cat most of the time. Cost us a fortune in Vets fees as every time he got bitten he developed an abscess. Didn't stop him going after the rats though.
I found the rats sped up the composting process, but eventually I decided not to continue to home them, as I was concerned about them getting into our neighbors and our houses. I found a metal coal bunker at the local tip for a fiver.
The compost is slower, but the rats are gone.
Btw please don't use poison (not that you would) - if you look at the Barn Owl Trust website you'll see why.
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If neighbours have chickens, there will be rats around.
It depends on what wildlife you are prepared to home, personally we don’t like squirrels, they take birds eggs and baby birds. Baffles on the poles work well for both.
https://ptes.org/get-informed/facts-figures/black-ship-rat/
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.