Two rats in garden

Toby said:
Obviously didn't mean to insult any rural dwellers there - I was just trying to give all relevant info so I can get the best advice. Instead of "south dublin" I should have said "urban area with slightly larger than postage stamp size garden". I'm originally from the country myself :)
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I thought with a name like "bullbars" he lived in South Dublin as well ;)
 
Toby said:
BTW we live in south Dublin, not in countryside
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I am guessing but I would imagine there are far more rats in urban areas per square metre than in the countryside.

Did anyone ever drive into a dump late at night, turn off the lights, wait a few minutes and then turn on the full lights ? Oh my God, scary site. The surface looks like liquid with all the rats running around.....No ? OK, I'll admit it, I am a weirdo.
 
Teabag said:
Did anyone ever drive into a dump late at night, turn off the lights, wait a few minutes and then turn on the full lights ? Oh my God, scary site. The surface looks like liquid with all the rats running around.....No ? OK, I'll admit it, I am a weirdo.
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Oh no, now I'm tempted to do that in my back garden tonight !
 
Decking is a haven for rats, they go together like a horse and carriage.
It may not have mentioned it in the brochure but that's the way it is. Given how cold this spring has been it's even less surprising that you have these tenants.
 
Oh I am getting the shivers here reading this thread!. Rats scare the hell out of me - mainly because of the diseases they carry, so dangerous. Filthy disgusting creatures they really are.

I'd echo the other posters saying never put down poison to catch rats - you wouldn't know where they would crawl off under to die and it could be a hassle to find them (imagine, under a floor board or something!)- and I could only imagine the smell.

I remember hearing about these "sticky pads" you could get to catch them. Basically the rat steps on the pad and is stuck and cannot move and eventually dies. I think I heard they are banned now though because they are cruel. Maybe they are a bit cruel but i have to be honest, if I had rats in my garden I would have absolutely no problem using them!
 
Purple said:
I thought with a name like "bullbars" he lived in South Dublin as well ;)
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I'll forgive you for that :p, on the few occasions I have been through South Dublin or any part of the city I'm half expecting wild animals to be roaming around as I see all the shiny chrome bullbars on the roads!!
 
We had a big rat under our garden shed 2yrs ago. Cheeky bugger he was aswell.

Only way I got him/her in the end was a conventional trap. Woodies stock the larger rat traps. Even at that, it didn't look big enough, so I got 3.

Pleaced them in a circle with the snap section facing into the middle of teh circle so the rat had to walk into the middle to get the food.

Cooked up a frankfurter, then nailed and tied it down with thread to each trap and then smeared them with Nutella.

Caught the bugger on the first night.

How we noticed we had him was we saw the bana skins I put in the composter out in the garden. Stopped putting food stuff in the composter after that
 
tosullivan said:
How we noticed we had him was we saw the bana skins I put in the composter out in the garden. Stopped putting food stuff in the composter after that
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Yep we had a composter. I opened it one day to see a big rat sitting on top of the 'compost' about 1.5 feet from my face. I froze. He had burrowed from underneath all the way to the top of the heap to get the fresh veg etc. He was happy out chewing away in the warmth of the composter. He looked at me and then ran back down his burrow and out past my foot. I jumped.

I started out using poison but then I found a deat rat in the composter. After that I used metal rat traps. I caught 2 more rats and a magpie. Dont ask.

To stop the rats getting to their food source I put chicken wire at the bottom of the composter. I recommend everyone should do this. Composters do need contact with soil/grass I think but chicken wire will stop the rodents.

I get the shivers thinking about it. I know a lot more about rats now than I want to but they dont bother me anymore.......
 
I think poisoned bait is the only effective way to control rodent populations. I say "control" because you can't really get rid of them completely. But you can reduce their activity on your property. Eliminating an easy food supply is essential - pet food left out, kitchen waste, insecure bins, scraps, badly designed compost bins. To test whether you have a rat problem try putting some bait (the blue block kind) in a piece of piping small enough for a rat to enter (small-bore yellow drainage pipe would be ok). Put the pipe in a drain or ditch or under decking or near where you think rats are active. If the bait disappears in a day or so then you know that rodents are at work. After that its up to you to decide how to tackle the problem. You can repeat the blue bait process until the blocks remain untouched for several days. This means that you are getting on top of the problem for the time being. But you will probably need to repeat the procedure periodically.
 
Teabag said:
Yep we had a composter. I opened it one day to see a big rat sitting on top of the 'compost' about 1.5 feet from my face. I froze. He had burrowed from underneath all the way to the top of the heap to get the fresh veg etc. He was happy out chewing away in the warmth of the composter. He looked at me and then ran back down his burrow and out past my foot. I jumped.

I started out using poison but then I found a deat rat in the composter. After that I used metal rat traps. I caught 2 more rats and a magpie. Dont ask.

To stop the rats getting to their food source I put chicken wire at the bottom of the composter. I recommend everyone should do this. Composters do need contact with soil/grass I think but chicken wire will stop the rodents.

I get the shivers thinking about it. I know a lot more about rats now than I want to but they dont bother me anymore.......
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Are you sure that you are putting the right things in the composter?
Any cooked food (including raw rice, raw pasta, raw bread) or raw meat is liable to attract rats. Some composting guides say that rice, pasta and bread are good for a composter, but it may attract rodents.
 
Gautama said:
Are you sure that you are putting the right things in the composter?
Any cooked food (including raw rice, raw pasta, raw bread) or raw meat is liable to attract rats. Some composting guides say that rice, pasta and bread are good for a composter, but it may attract rodents.
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Yeah I never put cooked food of any kind in there. They were actually eating vegetable skins (potatoes/turnip/carrot). I researched it and it seems rats will often eat raw vegetables when their diet is too full of non carbo food like meat/faeces. God knows where they were eating that stuff...
 
On the whole topic of rats & Composters, we’re planning on getting one of the ‘mini-pig’ recyclers, has anyone any experience with them…and rats? I’d imagine as they’re elevated from the ground rodents cannot access
 
Well now - I don't want to speak too soon, but no new catches in our traps and I suspect we may have gotten to the bottom of our rat problem - looks like they may have been living in old shed in neighbours garden, recent activity involving cleaning out said shed must have flushed them out to us. Don't know where they were getting their food from but hopefully any that are left are either poisoned or gone elsewhere now.

BTW, in my research into the fascinating world of rats this week a guy in the Co Co pest control said they can break through weak points in the walls of sewers and manholes and dig through the soil to get into gardens. This may explain the holes I found in our flower beds. They should not be able to come into the domestic sewer pipes from the main sewers on the road because there are "traps" that stop them leaving the main sewers but if these have been removed for any reason during building etc then they can get through. A CCTV sewer survey by the likes of DynoRod will be our next area of investigation if they come back.

So, our kids can now return to the garden - just in time for it to start raining again!
 
Sorry if it was already mentioned but you might consider buying one of those sonic wave plugin devices, apparently they can stop rats/mice coming into your house.
 
bamboozle said:
On the whole topic of rats & Composters, we’re planning on getting one of the ‘mini-pig’ recyclers, has anyone any experience with them…and rats? I’d imagine as they’re elevated from the ground rodents cannot access
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I'm afraid you may need to elevate it on a concrete slab, as the parents had awful trouble with rats digging down under and burrowing up into the Composte drum ( not sure the technical name ) they are incredibly determined creatures!
 
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