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Rats feeding on bird food! What to do?

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  • jo204jo204 Posts: 2

    Thanks for advice Dave, if we decide to try trapping again I'll definitely do that.

    the hedgehog we caught seemed ok and we released him at the same spot, hopefully we didn't do him too much harm and I had been checking the trap so he wasn't in there too long! 

    as we live in the countryside and do not have mains sewerage, I suspect that they are not sewer rats, but take your point about them not minding water. Perhaps I'll just have to rely on an element of surprise ( like sneaking up on someone and then shouting in their ear!)

    perhaps we need a rat psychologist?

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    jo204 says:

    perhaps we need a rat psychologist?r

    See original post

      Are you new to country living? Rats are rats whether they live in fields or sewers, as I said on page one, one pair of rats can make 2,000 in a year, that’s if you only have one pair.

    I would urge you to get the council on to it, if they get in your home for the winter or in your loft, they can do untold damage. 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • dav255dav255 Posts: 2

    Waste of time reporting it to the council. Many have closed their pest control services. I always thought that it was "Environmental Health" but apparently the great god "austerity" now trumps public health.

  • Nuke the rats with Neosorexa Gold (or similar). Don’t bother with Warfarin-based products...they don’t always work.

    Last edited: 11 February 2018 08:13:22

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,491

    I understand it is now illegal to put down rat poison unless it is in a special child and small animal poof box. The bait is locked inside it on a metal skewer and can be replenished when necessary. Please wear gloves!  It seems to work so far - and the rat runs away to die so no corpses to deal with hopefully.

    It's cheaper than a pest controller man.

    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,491

    sorry, shouldn't have specified the gender!!!

    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • We moved to Cardiff in March. After sorting out our small garden I put up bird feeders and got a brilliant selection of different birds.

    But yesterday I spotted 2 huge rats - as big as coypus - with a smaller one. It was quite frightening. They ran around the garden all morning as bold as you like. We phoned the council pest control, who couldn't have been more helpful and advised us what to do: take down the bird feeders and use rat traps/poison, following instructions carefulluy. If there is a big infestation we would need to call them out but that costs.

    So we did that. Lizzie is right in her advice about the traps/poison. We followed the instructions on the advice from the council and the hardware shop where my husband bought the traps/poison.Trays under feeders don't stop the rats as the smaller ones can climb.

    I feel sad to see the blue tits and sparrows searching for the bird feeders. But............

    No way am I having rats that size in my small garden or near the house! Rats are vermin and carry disease.They are as big as the ones we had, when we lived in West Africa! And that is saying something. I haven't seen any that size in Britain before. They aren't nice "ratties" ('Ratty' was a water vole anyway), they carry disease and their bite can be really dangerous.

    So I am sad. But rather sad that having rats in the house or being bitten by one! Or worse still our baby grandson being bitten!!

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