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  • It,s a hard coice to make,do i put feed of for the birds or for the rats.I have watched a rat scale up a pole and climb down with a full fat ball.And i certainly would not feed with seed, as birds scatter it everywhere.This is just asking for trouble.

     

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,007

    Contact the local council environment health department immediately.  Tell them it's coming through from your neighbour's garden and they will respond.

  • granmagranma Posts: 1,931

    Make sure you keep all the doors shut . I only tried a rat trap once it was just an oversized mouse trap . I put it down and the bugger must have ran off with it ,couldnt find it anywhere . The chocol;ate. works on the traps for mice . I melt it and dribble it on the pad, so it sets hard  Got  mice in the greenhouse ? use this  all the time .

  • I have 2 cats so im quite used to them bringing in mice as presents for me but the rat was the last straw. The man from pest control was lovely and put my mind to rest. There does seem to be a lot more rats around this year could it be that so many people dont dipose of their rubbish properly?

  • waterbuttswaterbutts Posts: 1,242

    I find all this aggression very distressing.

    Gardening is about finding a little peace in life and trying to form a relationship to Nature rather than the artificial life we lead in the world outside. Sometimes, Nature isn't quite the mother we hoped she would be. We have to accept a certain amount of discord in any relationship. If your mother shows you a side to her character that you don't much care for, you don't shoot her.

  • I feel the same way, waterbutts. I sometimes get the impression that I'm wrong or not a real gardener because I strive to accomodate wildlife in my garden because I truly believe that every living thing, vermin or not, has an equal right to life.  I admit I find it distressing sometimes when, for instance, the morning after I have lovingly planted something I find it strewn all over the lawn because something has decided to burrow for Australia but I just shrug, replant (sometimes a dozen times) and eventually the critter gives up.  I find it irritating that I built a series of raised beds only to find they were in the route of a 'fox run' but, rather than try to get rid of the foxes, the raised beds have been turned into a wildflower meadow instead of the planned veggie-beds. The bees and butterflies are thrilled image

    I understand the health issues of rats and reluctantly accept that calling in pest control is probably the wise option here, but I am distressed by the casual and almost joyful descriptions of killing that seem to have become the tone of this discussion.

  • waterbuttswaterbutts Posts: 1,242

    image

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    It is lovely to live in a world where wildlife is not destructive, damaging or disease-ridden, but try sitting beside a hospital bed where a close relative is stricken with Weils Disease from kayaking  on a river or doing electrical work on a bit of harvesting equipment in a barn or attending the funeral of a young rower who fell in a river.

  • waterbuttswaterbutts Posts: 1,242

    Yes, it's true that nature is red in tooth and claw. I have had the distress of watching a good friend die of anaphylactic shock after a bee sting. He was only 21. But I still love bees.

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    But I don't love rats!

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