Rat burrows.

[Elizabeth7]

Hi, I live in the countryside. I see lots of rats around the roads but they are also in my garden. I put down poison but having seen one animal take two days to die near a pond was not able to do this again. But, there are lots of holes appearing in the banks around the garden. Outside these there is a huge amount of earth. I have been blocking those holes near the house but next morning a new hole and new pile of earth appears. I assume they are rat burrows, no moles in Ireland so can't think of anything else. On these really old banks, grow some large trees and shrubs and I think the banks started life as stone walls. I am concerned about undermining with what could be pretty serious results.
I wonder if anybody has suggestions how to get rid of the rats in a humane way ; no cages please I doubt I could cope with rat removal! Thank you.

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth7

Hi, I live in the countryside. I see lots of rats around the roads but they are also in my garden. I put down poison but having seen one animal take two days to die near a pond was not able to do this again. But, there are lots of holes appearing in the banks around the garden. Outside these there is a huge amount of earth. I have been blocking those holes near the house but next morning a new hole and new pile of earth appears. I assume they are rat burrows, no moles in Ireland so can't think of anything else. On these really old banks, grow some large trees and shrubs and I think the banks started life as stone walls. I am concerned about undermining with what could be pretty serious results.
I wonder if anybody has suggestions how to get rid of the rats in a humane way ; no cages please I doubt I could cope with rat removal! Thank you.

sounds like rats! Are your stone walls like the Cornish walls (stone with earth in the middle)? The only reason I ask is that I have a friend who had a similar problem and he found a weird way round it because of this. If it is I'll drop him an email to find out if you want? Whatever he did it solved the problem. For the ones near his house I think he initially used fine wire wool to block the holes and after a couple of attempts thy stopped appearing near the house but as for the rest of it...?

[Elizabeth7]

Thanks Tuftie, yes the walls are probably a mixture of large stones and earth. They are very old and as I said there must be a lot of tree roots which I am afraid may be undermined by these burrows. I block the holes with stones and how they manage to remove some of these or else make yet another burrow is a mystery; they must be monster rats!! It would be great to find out how your friend solved the problem. Many thanks to you.

[Muggsy]

get a proper pest control person in.

phostoxin (aluminium sulphate)

Had a really close, 30 year old mate, strong as an ox, 6 year old daughter and twin girls of 3.
I used the video camera to film a litter of puppy's we had bred between us, I used his dog.
Dave had lots of dogs and lots of rats and wouldn't use poison in case of secondary poisoning.
In the video, filmed one wednesday night, Dave leans against the barn wall, after having run round like a looney for an hour, and says "**** mate I feel like ****"
Friday morning 8-30am Dave died, he died from leptospirosis, contracted because of those rats
I never had a problem with rats before that time, today I hate them and they get short shrift on this farm.

RIP Dave, I'll never forget you mate

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth7

Thanks Tuftie, yes the walls are probably a mixture of large stones and earth. They are very old and as I said there must be a lot of tree roots which I am afraid may be undermined by these burrows. I block the holes with stones and how they manage to remove some of these or else make yet another burrow is a mystery; they must be monster rats!! It would be great to find out how your friend solved the problem. Many thanks to you.

Okay I'll email him for you later. One thing though, just how big are these holes - if they're moving rocks?! Are you sure they are rats?!

[Elizabeth7]

Muggsy, my deepest sympathy to you on the loss of your friend Dave. I will take your words to heart and seriously consider your suggestion.

[tufftie]

Had an email back for my friend, sorry it took so long! If you're sure they're rats then he said to wire up a couple of sonic rat devices (think you can get them quite cheaply from ebay). He played around with some mole chasers because they weren't available then (he's good at that sort of thing!). Hope this helps! block any holes up near the house with wire wool, you may have to do it a couple of times but they will give up because they don't like it!

[Elizabeth7]

Thank you , I will get those sonic thingies and see if they work.