Oh Jacky that's very upsetting, my advice would be to get a cat,they keep vermin out of the house and compost bins, much easier to deal with the dead voles etc. they bring to me than finding live babies! Good luck with the task in hand.
Both my husband and I felt that we should have killed the babies but I just couldn't have done it. I know I'm 'brushing the problem under the carpet' but I felt shocked enough to have found them, if I'd killed them as well I wouldn't have slept for a month!
We have two dogs, a Border Collie and a Chihuahua and we don't really want to get a cat because it's such a pain if you want to go out/away, at least we can take the dogs with us.
I'm hoping that the rats will disappear, if they were rats and we won't be bothered by them again. I know they are probably someone else's problem now but believe me, if they were to come anywhere near my house then the traps and probably the poison would be at the top of the shopping list.
I love all animals, but if there is one animal I'd love to rid the garden of, it would be cats. They just decimate the wildlife. I'm really fed up with it now, and am trying to think of ways to cat proof some wildlife areas.
I'd be tempted to have raised the rat babies. Though they say fancy rats have been bred to sieve out aggressive traits. Terrible quandary...
I would have taken the rats in a sealed box to a very distant area and released them or perhaps knocked them on the head where I found them.
If the rat eats poison, owl or kestrel or similar then eats the dead rat that has ingested poison, not only do you have dead rats but also a beautiful bird of prey dead too. Poison is a definite NO as far as I am concerned.
I agree with Fidget - get rid permanently. Growing up on a farm and having had a small holding I've seen enough of the damage they can do to harbour any illusions. And a child at our school died from Weil's disease caught from rats.
If you want a pet rat buy one from generations of fancy rats bred in clean conditions which don't carry disease and don't romanticise vermin.
Sorry if that seems harsh, but it's the truth.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
After putting wire underneath my two compost bins , Opened lid this morning fright of the week 6 grey four legged monsters rats made their escape, Suffice to say compost bins are now empty .
Rats will gnaw through wire ... my brother who is a potato farmer says they'll gnaw through concrete to get to potatoes ... if you have rats don't put potatoes in any form in your compost bins, they love them. Keep the compost damp and turned regularly ... this will discourage them as they're looking for a warm dry and quiet home for the winter. And get a Pest Controller in. If you have 6 rats now you could have a hundred by next summer.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree with you Muddle-Up regarding cats catching rodents although cats also catch birds which I don't like and since the cat moved in (to our daughter 5 metres away) we have not seen the owl, and the kestrel rarely comes now either. It's swings and roundabouts, but the cat is certainly good company for me when I am out in the garden.
Posts
Oh Jacky that's very upsetting, my advice would be to get a cat,they keep vermin out of the house and compost bins, much easier to deal with the dead voles etc. they bring to me than finding live babies! Good luck with the task in hand.
Both my husband and I felt that we should have killed the babies but I just couldn't have done it. I know I'm 'brushing the problem under the carpet' but I felt shocked enough to have found them, if I'd killed them as well I wouldn't have slept for a month!
We have two dogs, a Border Collie and a Chihuahua and we don't really want to get a cat because it's such a pain if you want to go out/away, at least we can take the dogs with us.
I'm hoping that the rats will disappear, if they were rats and we won't be bothered by them again. I know they are probably someone else's problem now but believe me, if they were to come anywhere near my house then the traps and probably the poison would be at the top of the shopping list.
I love all animals, but if there is one animal I'd love to rid the garden of, it would be cats. They just decimate the wildlife. I'm really fed up with it now, and am trying to think of ways to cat proof some wildlife areas.
I'd be tempted to have raised the rat babies. Though they say fancy rats have been bred to sieve out aggressive traits. Terrible quandary...
Bucket of water and drown them. Rats piddle everywhere and spread disease.
Sounds like my husband.
I would have taken the rats in a sealed box to a very distant area and released them or perhaps knocked them on the head where I found them.
If the rat eats poison, owl or kestrel or similar then eats the dead rat that has ingested poison, not only do you have dead rats but also a beautiful bird of prey dead too. Poison is a definite NO as far as I am concerned.
I agree with Fidget - get rid permanently. Growing up on a farm and having had a small holding I've seen enough of the damage they can do to harbour any illusions. And a child at our school died from Weil's disease caught from rats.
If you want a pet rat buy one from generations of fancy rats bred in clean conditions which don't carry disease and don't romanticise vermin.
Sorry if that seems harsh, but it's the truth.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
After putting wire underneath my two compost bins , Opened lid this morning fright of the week 6 grey four legged monsters rats made their escape, Suffice to say compost bins are now empty .
Rats will gnaw through wire ... my brother who is a potato farmer says they'll gnaw through concrete to get to potatoes ... if you have rats don't put potatoes in any form in your compost bins, they love them. Keep the compost damp and turned regularly ... this will discourage them as they're looking for a warm dry and quiet home for the winter. And get a Pest Controller in. If you have 6 rats now you could have a hundred by next summer.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree with you Muddle-Up regarding cats catching rodents although cats also catch birds which I don't like and since the cat moved in (to our daughter 5 metres away) we have not seen the owl, and the kestrel rarely comes now either. It's swings and roundabouts, but the cat is certainly good company for me when I am out in the garden.