You very rarely see a dead rat from poisoning. They take themselves underground.
Half bury a piece of 2 or 3 inch pipe in the ground, birds wont get in there, put stone or slate loosely over each end just leaving a little gap for the rat. If you look carefully on the ground, you will see their route, they make the same one every night, it will be very smooth where they almost polish it with their bellies. Usually it will be close to the fence or wall, this, they prefer. Along this track is where you put your pipe, you can put it in a little coffee jar lid or similar, whatever fits in your pipe. Rats are, by nature, very nosey, they will go in out of curiosity and love the bait
The only poison that works well and very quickly is Neosorexa, they have become immune to most others and the stuff you buy in the hardware shop or similar is no good at all.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Do whatever but dont use breakback traps. I had 3 traps in our garden which caught 10 or so rats but all in one heartbreaking day caught a wood pigeon that was trapped by the wing and a cock blackbird both of which had to be killed. The traps were both hidden away out of sight or so I thought
Just seen a rat in my compost bin this morning, first one after eight years in this house. It kept my two dogs entertained when they realised where it was. I put food out for the birds, both in feeders and on the lawn ( for the blackbirds) so my fault really. Not sure what we are going to do? I might tolerate it but not sure my neighbours will.
There is never only one rat Kate. The gestation period is 3 weeks and they have on average 7 offspring, each of which is sexually mature in another 5 weeks..
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
We have finally just got rid of our rats under decking due to feeding birds with fat ball feeder, we had to ring the council and pest control have been visiting and putting rat poison down every two weeks as, its took about two months but it was worth it and free too, i can now get on with my gardening without fear of meeting a rat!
I think the dogs could disturb them if not eradicate them. If you are lucky they will move on to your neighbours and it then becomes their prob But I think you could temporarily stop ground feeding the blackbirds. I have hung an old wicker hanging basket from my feeding station and make homemade fat seed lumps to put inside, now I have blackbirds and robins arguing over the spoils I would never have thought it
You would find there is enough spilt seed under the feeders to keep the blackbirds fed. Thats the case with mine. I only feed sunflower hearts and the greenfinches and goldfinches much at the seeds and drop loads of crumbs and the blue tits take one but often reject one and drop it on the floor. My wood pigeon dont come down till the finches do lol
Save yourself some money and throw a 5-Gallon Water Bucket trap into your garden. These things catch sh** loads of rats and cost almost nothing.
Tools needed 5-Gallon Bucket1/2″ PVC Pipe1/2″ PVC Pipe CapsScrewsDrill BitsCordless Drill Or Corded DrillSome Reese’s peanut butter cups or plain Peanut butter.Building the DIY bucket trap 1. The First Step is to measure the width of the top of the 5-gallon bucket trap. Minus two inches from your measurement, then mark the new total of your measurement on the PVC pipe.
2. Cut the PVC pipe to the length of your measurement, then insert the PVC end caps. Ensure that the PVC pipe fits between the sides within the top of 5-gallon bucket trap. There should be a small gap on each side of the PVC pipe so it can spin freely once on its “screw axes”
3. Now mark a drill point on the center of each PVC Pipe Cap.
4. Use a drill with a small drill bit to drill a pilot hole into the center marks on the PVC pipe caps.
5. Now use a Sharpy to mark two drill points straight across from each other on opposite sides of the Bucket trap. These drill points should be located around one inch down from the top rim of the bucket.
6. Drill out the marked holes in the bucket with a Drill Bit that is big enough to fit your Screws, but still small enough so that the larger end of the Screw cannot fit through.
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My cat is very useful for rat control
You very rarely see a dead rat from poisoning. They take themselves underground.
Half bury a piece of 2 or 3 inch pipe in the ground, birds wont get in there, put stone or slate loosely over each end just leaving a little gap for the rat. If you look carefully on the ground, you will see their route, they make the same one every night, it will be very smooth where they almost polish it with their bellies. Usually it will be close to the fence or wall, this, they prefer. Along this track is where you put your pipe, you can put it in a little coffee jar lid or similar, whatever fits in your pipe. Rats are, by nature, very nosey, they will go in out of curiosity and love the bait
The only poison that works well and very quickly is Neosorexa, they have become immune to most others and the stuff you buy in the hardware shop or similar is no good at all.
Just seen a rat in my compost bin this morning, first one after eight years in this house. It kept my two dogs entertained when they realised where it was. I put food out for the birds, both in feeders and on the lawn ( for the blackbirds) so my fault really. Not sure what we are going to do? I might tolerate it but not sure my neighbours will.
There is never only one rat Kate. The gestation period is 3 weeks and they have on average 7 offspring, each of which is sexually mature in another 5 weeks..
I think the dogs could disturb them if not eradicate them. If you are lucky they will move on to your neighbours and it then becomes their prob
But I think you could temporarily stop ground feeding the blackbirds. I have hung an old wicker hanging basket from my feeding station and make homemade fat seed lumps to put inside, now I have blackbirds and robins arguing over the spoils I would never have thought it 
Save yourself some money and throw a 5-Gallon Water Bucket trap into your garden.
These things catch sh** loads of rats and cost almost nothing.
Tools needed
5-Gallon Bucket1/2″ PVC Pipe1/2″ PVC Pipe CapsScrewsDrill BitsCordless Drill Or Corded DrillSome Reese’s peanut butter cups or plain Peanut butter.Building the DIY bucket trap
1. The First Step is to measure the width of the top of the 5-gallon bucket trap. Minus two inches from your measurement, then mark the new total of your measurement on the PVC pipe.
2. Cut the PVC pipe to the length of your measurement, then insert the PVC end caps. Ensure that the PVC pipe fits between the sides within the top of 5-gallon bucket trap. There should be a small gap on each side of the PVC pipe so it can spin freely once on its “screw axes”
3. Now mark a drill point on the center of each PVC Pipe Cap.
4. Use a drill with a small drill bit to drill a pilot hole into the center marks on the PVC pipe caps.
5. Now use a Sharpy to mark two drill points straight across from each other on opposite sides of the Bucket trap. These drill points should be located around one inch down from the top rim of the bucket.
6. Drill out the marked holes in the bucket with a Drill Bit that is big enough to fit your Screws, but still small enough so that the larger end of the Screw cannot fit through.
Note this info came from howzak.com's DIY Rat Removal post