Rat in my garden (what am I gonna do)..

retrogeezer · #1 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 06:33 PM

Hello all,

I was watching the birds in my garden this morning when this large brown rat came out from the flower bed and climbed up the bird table. He couldn't get onto the platform but soon found some bread on the floor.

I'm not sure what to do about it, I have an 8 year old daughter that plays out in the garden a lot. I know there is no big risk of catching anything as long as she washes her hands etc.

It's just that it is rather big and I don't really want to have a family of them settling down. Over the back of the fence is about 40 feet of scrubland and then a golf course. There is also a smallholding just to the right and a culvert under the golf course. I guess it would be impossible to eradicate them and I do find them rather cute, more so than the pigeons!

Any opinions on what to do? Live & let live? Stop feeding the birds?

Thanks in advance.

RG

Kayleigh · #2 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 06:50 PM

Get a Little snapper rat trap put some chocolate buttons on the spike and in a few days you will have your rat dead..
I did this and have not seen another this was about 2 years ago you don't that where there a kids playing..
Don't use poison as something might eat it and you have no idea where it will go off to die.

retrogeezer · #3 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 06:54 PM

Here he is:

tcvarlh · #4 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 06:55 PM

Make sure you leave no food on the floor after eveningtime. Stuff left lying around will bring the Rat (and buddies) back.
h

retrogeezer · #5 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 07:03 PM

this was at 11.00 this morning!

fairplay · #6 (**permalink**) 31-01-2012, 07:42 PM

Yeh, cute little thing, did he invite you down the culvert for cup of tea and to meet his extended family ?

Neil.

Billabong Karen · #7 (**permalink**) 01-02-2012, 08:37 AM

Oh my god - he's HUGE!!!

Wild-Woman · #8 (**permalink**) 01-02-2012, 08:51 AM

I'd definitely stop putting bird seed out and leave it like that for a month. This is what my Mum did when a rat turned up on a daily basis and it did eventually take its business elsewhere. With any luck, nature will provide a predator that needs a good sized meal!

Billabong Karen · #9 (**permalink**) 01-02-2012, 08:53 AM

I have wood mice under my feeders... Nowhere near as much of a problem as your rat, of course, but each winter I worry about the amount of food on the ground... Then the spring comes, I stop feeding the birds, and the mice disappear

.

Also, I tell myself I am providing a nice dinner for the tawny owls I hear calling in the garden.

Janec · #10 (**permalink**) 01-02-2012, 10:48 AM

We've had an ongoing problem with rats for several months. Because we are soft and don't like killing anything we've tried sonic scarers, granules etc. but basically these are a waste of money. As other people have already suggested, the only thing that has worked has been to change the type of feeder so that very little, if any, food ends up on the ground. I haven't seen a rat by the feeder by the house for weeks. We have though got other feeders further down the garden which they still visit but as long as they are not by the back door we can put up with them.
We did buy a couple of live capture traps intending to move them on (although I've since read on this site that this is cruel) but luckily since the traps arrived, no rats have appeared so they obviously work really well