I recently discovered a very glossy rat in the compost heap. I knew something was living there but thought it may be voles or mice which are small enough to tolerate. All the compost heaps have been shut down so there will be no more exotic fruit and coffee for the rats and I've stopped feeding the birds. Later in the year the heaps will be restarted with wire at the base to prevent rodent invasion.
I've come across rats a few times in the garden and they are the only wild creatures that will stare back and won't immediately run even when we are just 2 feet apart. I always get the impression they are studying us.
Thanks everyone. It sounds as pausing the bird feeder may be worth a try, shame as it is. And yes, rats are so bold and clearly think the garden is theirs...
I got a beauty a short while ago. Size of a 6 month old cat. Glue traps are out and a sign that says "Rats will be stucketed" !!! Out of the way of cats etc.
Ugh, @tui34 - mine is pretty big too. The irony is, my neighbour has 5 cats who come and poo in my garden, but they don't appear to be interested in catching the rat.
@susiebower, if you're squeamish get a Pest Controller in. They have access to more potent rat poisons which do a quicker job and will dispose of the carcasses for you. Not cheap, but well worth it.
@lizzy27 - thank you. I did call the local council who have a pest controller and they said they could put down a baited trap, but I didn't take them up on it at the time as I hoped the rat would go - they're actually free, amazingly. I think that's a 'last resort' plan for me.
Hi @susiebower you sound exactly like me, I absolutely love feeding the birds but last summer I started seeing quite a bold rat then saw two rats on my wildlife camera. I found out they were trying to set up home in my wooden compost bin. I did some research and found out that rats need 3 things; somewhere to make a home, food and access to water. Well I was providing all 3 as I also have a wildlife pond!
Although I really hate rats, I couldn’t bear the thought of killing a rat through poison and it getting into the food chain (we have tawny owls that nest very close by) so I tried various ‘natural’ methods including putting eucalyptus oil in the compost heap, nothing worked.
In the end, I dismantled my compost bin, moved my feeders into a more open area of the garden so the rat would have to venture out into the open and fitted a squirrel baffle to my feeder pole. The first night the pole had the baffle fitted my wildlife camera caught the rat trying to climb up it but it didn’t succeed, hooray, I also fitted trays under my feeders to catch any stray food. After all this the rat(s) eventually gave up and moved on, I haven’t seen one for months, thankfully. I was a bit worried about a month ago when I started feeding the hedgehogs we get visiting but no rats have appeared on my camera so good news. I’ve attached a photo of my bird feeding set up, I hope this helps.
Yes it/they have been using my shed and I've been trying to sort it this weekend. I noticed a burrow under the shed a while back, when I've started to clear out the mess yesterday one was underneath some fleeces inside, it scurried out of a hole in the side.
I'm going for the remove everything , fix holes and disrupt first and hope that does the job.
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Not cheap, but well worth it.
I'm going for the remove everything , fix holes and disrupt first and hope that does the job.