Rats, I've got a rat

[Placido]

I can but sympathise with your predicament. Rats can be very persistent once a source of food has been identified and unfortunately most of the activity is during the hours of darkness when watching what is going on is near impossible. Do any of your neighbours have a Moggy which might be asked to do the night watch or are they all curled up on a nice warm sofa until spring finally arrives?

Never any food out there when darkness falls. I feed as and when during the day and then early brekkies. This appears to be a diurnal rodent .
Moggies ?!?!?!?!?! Knee-deep in the ***** things thanks to The Cat House across the road. Not a sight of any of them (4 at last count, but maybe they got a new one for Christmas )yesterday.

AND I was let down by Santa again when I re-ordered my standing order for a deluxe 12-bore with scopiscopic sights .

[Jacksparrow]

The only redeeming feature of Moggies is their ability to control vermin. Unfortunately they cannot distinguish between what is vermin and what isn't hence their nuisance value in our gardens.

[Butterfly]

I looked out the window to see what's going on on my garden feeders and spotted, what I thought was a squirrel (!) , on the ground feeding tray. I've seen squirrels eating out of a tray before, which I don't mind. Only this time, on a closer inspection, I realised its a huge rat!
I went out to chase it, it run under the outside stairs, I grabbed a bamboo stick and hit the area few times, but it was gone. There are concrete blocks on the ground in that area, and I noticed that quite a bit of soil was on top of them. I am really worried that it dug a tunnel under it . I mean the tunnel would lead into a garage, but still, I'm a bit freaked out
I moved everything from that area and I removed ground feeders , hoping that it would make it not come back again.
I actually don't mind rats, I see them every time I go for a walk near the lakes in my area, and they try and steal sometimes crumbs of food I throw for the birds and ducks, which if fine, but I just don't like the idea of having them in my garden!
I'm thinking of buying a humane rat trap, has anyone tried them?
Where are the neighbourhood cats when you need them??

[Willpar]

Sorry to hear of your problem butterfly. If you go down the humane trap way and you manage to trap them, then you will need to take and release several miles away from where you live. Just what i read on the net. If there is a burrow leading to where you think, then it could be a nest of them. They are very prolific breeders, so you will need to bear that in mind. Female young can get pregnant at i believe at three months old and can have several litters a year. May pay you to get some professional advice in the new year.

[Jacksparrow]

Whatever you decide to do try and keep them out of your garage. At this time of the year they will be looking for somewhere a little cosy . Nothing is safe from them including your car.

[Butterfly]

Thank you guys, I have to see how it goes and try and resolve the problem somehow. If I am not successful, I will take your advice Willpar and seek professional help. But that would be my last option. And as I'm not keen on killing any living creature I was thinking of going humane route, like I did with the little mouse I had around. I drove it few miles away from my place and never seen it again, hoping that it lives happily in some new cosy home . But catching and driving a cute little mouse in your car, and catching and driving a big fat rat in your car are two very different things . God, this is really not easy

Whatever you decide to do try and keep them out of your garage. At this time of the year they will be looking for somewhere a little cosy . Nothing is safe from them including your car.

He/she/they better don't come close to my car!

I'll keep you posted

[Butterfly]

I haven't seen my visitor since the time I posted about it last, which is a good thing. I moved everything I could, spend time around that area (just to make sure if they are there they could hear the noise and it disturbs them ) , put some stones in places where I thought they could travel through, but most importantly, few nights ago when I got back home and opened the gate I startled my neighbours cat, who was clearly sitting in the dark stalking . Boy was I glad to see him . Its early days and I will wait and see, but I do hope I don't see my visitor again!

[Willpar]

Sounds good to me butterfly. I did read up on them a few days ago, and from what i can gather, they don`t like change. They like the same runs and stuff like that and not obstacles in the way. So it may pay to just shift stuff around now and again like an obstacle course.

[Charles B]

Sunday I had washed my balcony good with a garden hose and hot water, cleaned the birdbath good with more hot water and paper towels, plus installed new plastic feeding trays with fresh sunflower seed. I also washed down the deck good as the tits make a big mess under the suet-seed ball cage. Now there certainly should not be any fear of of the H5N1 Virus here anyway.

The world now appears all in order, or??? But this morning when I took a shower, dressed and then opened all the balcony curtains I saw something of a ball sitting in one of the seed trays in my 'Berry House' structure. Amazingly all the movement opening and tucking away the curtains didn't scare it off either.

So I fetched my glasses and also my phone get get a shot of it expecting a Bullfinch but no it was as rat! Heavens! By what trick of acrobatics did it get up onto my balcony which jas even been squirrel-free here for a long time.

I opened the balcony door quietly and approched it taking a closer look but grabbing my broom too.
It only got up very slowly out of this comfy bed of seed and as I came closer with the broom mumbling obscenities (the tits were also perched up upon their bamboo poles appartently doing the same) did it slowly get up and make a not so graceful exit over the metal balcony fence: "Plump, plump, bang, thud!!!"



I sure hope it doesn't return! It appears the neighbor's new cat is only good for killing birds and no other tasks.

Please tell me your thoughts on this one! Bye!

[TrevLincs]

Rats are a problem when you feed birds. We have an ongoing battle with keeping a rat out of the garden dammed thing is clever at making new ways into the garden. Last year we were losing the battle and at one point had 6 baby rats as well. This year we have only recently had it reappear a couple of times which prompted us to find and block its entry into the garden, we only have a very small fenced garden so not to difficult to find its point of entry.