Rat in the garden

[watchmychops]

hi, am so glad to read your reply, someone talking sense! we cant leave the rats for nature to deal with as we have made a mess of that as humans, a shortage of owls due to building on every bit of waste land availabe and over tidying of forests etc. mean an increase in rat population. do agree poisoning not nice though.

[ragweed222]

Originally Posted by Garden Carpet

Thank you one and all. After discussing it with Henry (he was in Knight in Shining Armour mode ) I have decided to call the pest control officer tomorrow . I dont like killing.. even bliddy rats!!!
jaki

you should just leave them alone they are lovely creatures and are not as muchof a health risk as some peoples preshes gardenbirds and theyhave every right to live

[salukiwhippet]

Ferret scent or poo won't work, certainly not long term. I've got 13 ferrets at the moment and have just finished trapping the rats that had moved into the shed!!!

Mk.4 Fenn trap correctly set, or an accurate air rifle if you're a good shot and it's safe to use one would be my choice.

James

[LBuckland]

Great to see there are some people out there who aren't intent on killing rats. I agree that they are living creatures and as long as they aren't doing us any harm why should we kill them? Just because they are not cute and cuddly we shouldn't hate them.

[watchmychops]

People dont want to kill them because they are not "cute and cuddly", i dont find them unpleasant creatures to look at, its just that they do present a health risk(weils disease) particularly if you have children.

[LBuckland]

Do you know how serious the health risk is and how weils disease is caught? i.e. does the rat have to bite you or can it contaminate surfaces, etc? Do you know of any actual cases of people catching it? Thanks very much.

[Fieldfare95]

To be honest I would halt feeding and put down poison straight away, if you didn't do anything you would be overrun with them.

[salukiwhippet]

Weils is very easily spread through rat urine, which they dribble constantly. Therefore the disease is likely to be on any surface that a rat has passed over.

Very dangerous to kids (and adults but kids are more likely to put their hands in mouths without washing hands.)

I don't hate rats (or any animal for that matter) but people are more important.

James

[jakdaw]

Originally Posted by LBuckland

Do you know how serious the health risk is and how weils disease is caught? i.e. does the rat have to bite you or can it contaminate surfaces, etc? Do you know of any actual cases of people catching it? Thanks very much.

Hi there, Lbuckland, yes i do know of an actual case of weils disease, a work coleague caught it in the early seventies on the farm where we worked, and he very nearly died, it was only the fact that he was a very fit young man that kept him alive, and he's never been in good health since, i dispatch every rat i see, by whatever meens are available.

[AnnofSuffolk]

Hello - I originally posted on this site 2 years ago & didn't want to kill rats. Time has moved on - they invaded the house eventually & disabled the alarm system I saw one in the kitchen etc! So - I found a brilliant product called Eradirat. It is not a poison & therefore doesn't kill anything else like owls, foxes etc. It works on the rat's digestive system. Within one week every rat had disappeared! I made the local rat catcher who came round use my Eradirat & he was very skeptical & he was amazed! I'm quite phobic about poison so I was really pleased with this find. The wildlife bird sanctuaries use it.
We didn't have any rats at all for a whole year & then this year I saw a couple by the feeders & husband popped thenm off with an air rifle. I would have done more Eradirat but no more have been seen.
I don't hurt the moles or the squirrels or even the slugs nut I have now hardened my heart to the rats - and actually it is good for the little birds & the nesting ducks! Ann