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Rats!

LynfromSeaLynfromSea Posts: 133
in Problem solving
As soon as the weather gets cooler they are on the march which is why I never put household waste on the compost. Instead I bought an Australian composter 5 years ago which is very thick plastic shaped like a Dalek and they haven’t been able to get in, until now! The little devils have chewed their way through a tiny slit in the door so they’ve had a big feast!
Has anyone got any suggestions to keep them at bay or do I have to resign myself to the inevitable being surrounded by fields. And how do you recycle your left over household waste?
I did put paving slabs underneath and chicken wire so they went through the front entrance instead 😂
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  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    We have rats in the dry stone wall bordering our garden, as we're surrounded by farms.  There's a fortnightly waste food collection here:  presumably you don't have this where you live, @LynfromSea?  I compost any raw vegetable matter but not cooked food, bones etc.  I make room in the freezer for a few (compostable) bags of food waste, so that they don't start to smell.  Once a fortnight they get transferred to the outside bin on collection day.

    If food waste isn't collected in your area you could consider a Bokashi bin.  My son used that system when his children were just starting solid food and there was a lot of wastage; the Bokashi bin sort of pickles the contents, and you can eventually add it to your compost.  It stinks though so you need somewhere to keep it away from rats and away from you, while it works its smelly magic.

    So far we've had shrews but not rats in the compost heap...
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Rats don't like to be disturbed so knock on the side of the bin as often as you can. I had one in mine once. I don't know who was more surprised when I lifted the lid and we stared at each other for a moment. He/she ran off first though :). The only household waste I put in there is raw fruit and veg peelings etc, the contents of teabags, and sometimes eggshells.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    We get rats in our compost every year, which has nothing but uncooked vegetable matter and garden waste. They like the warmth. I agree that repeatedly disturbing them works best. I can’t think of a solution to the Australian composter thing, except to say that if they want to get in they will, no matter what you do. They chewed through breeze blocks to get to some animal feed in our barn. Then we got a cat, problem solved. But that’s in the country, I suspect that in town there are too many of them for the cats to keep on top of. Could it be raised off the ground a bit? It might make it harder for them.
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    We have a food waste bin from the council, collected weekly. This one is fox-proof ( at least, they haven't worked it out yet). The previous one, they just needed to knock over. 
    Uncooked vegetable waste goes on the compost heap or in the garden waste bin. Non vegetable food waste goes in the sealed council  food waste.bin
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    I noticed that the kitchen waste going into my allotment dalek composter was disappearing faster than I could top it up especially during the winter months so I stopped taking kitchen waste to the allotment during the times when the rats were chowing down on my compost, however not to be beaten and having a plastic water butt which had developed a small split around the tap and couldn't be sealed no matter what I tried I decided to use that as a rat proof composter instead, so after drilling a few small holes to allow water to escape and making sure that the lid was secure it has been composting kitchen waste for a couple of years now without any rat problems in fact it now acts more as a wormery as the rats can't get in to eat the worms it is now full of the little compost makers producing a batch of brilliant rich compost each year. That's what I call a win win, great compost and recycling an otherwise useless water butt.
  • LynfromSeaLynfromSea Posts: 133
    JennyJ said:
    Rats don't like to be disturbed so knock on the side of the bin as often as you can. I had one in mine once. I don't know who was more surprised when I lifted the lid and we stared at each other for a moment. He/she ran off first though :). The only household waste I put in there is raw fruit and veg peelings etc, the contents of teabags, and sometimes eggshells.
    Oh my word that is what frightens me every time I gingerly peep in the bin. I think I’m going to have to use the council collection unfortunately.
  • LynfromSeaLynfromSea Posts: 133
    Emerion said:
    We get rats in our compost every year, which has nothing but uncooked vegetable matter and garden waste. They like the warmth. I agree that repeatedly disturbing them works best. I can’t think of a solution to the Australian composter thing, except to say that if they want to get in they will, no matter what you do. They chewed through breeze blocks to get to some animal feed in our barn. Then we got a cat, problem solved. But that’s in the country, I suspect that in town there are too many of them for the cats to keep on top of. Could it be raised off the ground a bit? It might make it harder for them.
    Sadly I think the bin is damaged now so I’ll have to think of some other way to get rid of the waste. I threw some rat poison in as it won’t affect other animals or birds but now I’m worried that they will rot in the compost or worse still Ill find a dead one when I’m clearing it out 😂
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    Sadly, we can't be sure the poison won't effect other animals or birds: https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/hazards-solutions/rodenticides/
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,847
    Every now and then I take a look into the 4 dalek bins in which I compost any weeds that I dig up just to see how they are rotting down or if they need watering, the other morning I lifted one lid and noticed a hole of about 8cm with what I at first thought was either a very quickly moving worm or a very thin snake before I realised that it was in fact a very long rats tail, I gave the compost a good raking with a garden fork and have left the lid off for now.
  • Arthur1Arthur1 Posts: 542
    Think I have rats in all my compost bins, and I have many. Unwilling to use poison because of the environmental implications and because I doubt it will have much effect. So I just learn to live with them. I wash hands after gardening. They always keep away from me
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