Rats! What do I do now?

[julia.julibob]

I seem to have rats in my greenhouse. Unfortunately we have a ditch and then the railway directly behind it.

We put down poison last week, and when they stopped eating it we filled in the holes where they have been burrowing in. For 4 days there was nothing, and then yesterday the one hole was back. I bought some new poison (the last had run out) called "Neosorexa Gold" and put 2 trays down. Last night it had not been touched.

I went out to check this morning, and the other hole is back, and they are huge! The trays of poison are covered in dirt from it's/their digging and it has not been eaten.

Here are some pics of the holes, so you can guage their size. Could it be anything other than a rat?





Julia

[naturelover]

hi julie are you sure there not rabbits as you say the holes are quite big.

[Ollie]

They look a bit big for Rat holes but I can't see a full size image

Keep a look out for dropings as Rabbit droppings are quite different to Rat droppings. Bigger and rounder
Roger

[Seajay]

Definately rats! Look at the size of the hole compared to the trowel. Get professional pest control in.

[Venger]

scatter sand or flour out in front of the hole, see if you can get a print.

[julia.julibob]

For some reason, my images haven't been approved yet, and you can only see the thumbnail.

I have had a rat in my greenhouse before, and successfully dealt with it. I was about the size of a squirrel, so quite large.

I dont think it is a rabbit, and as yet, there are no poo's to be seen. The hole by the trowel as about 4" wide and about 2 1/2" deep, so quite large and the soil has been scattered about 1 1/2 feet from the front of the excavation!

Julia

[julia.julibob]

Just seen it!!! Huge rat (body larger than a squirrel).

Have a friend who is going to come and set some traps tomorrow.

Julia

[ronscams]

I had a rat in my garden, they are lovely animals, dont know what all the fuss is about. I hope the traps you are going to use are live catch traps so you can release them go somewhere else.

[witham]

I've just written in the other rat topic, you need a proper bait box for the poison, a tray is no good, these have a hole at each end for the rat to access, you open the box put the bait in the sections inside then close the box and put it as near as possible to their run, live catch traps are ok, but what do you do with the rat then, you would have to release it a very long way away for it not to find its way back and also you are perhaps giving someone else the problem, rats can cause health problems particularly if you have young children who like to run outside with bare feet in the summer, as like other rodents they are practically incontinent and leave a trail of urine everywhere they go so not very hygenic to have as 'neighbours', you can't fit them with Tenna Lady

[shei111]

I myself cant see anything good about rats running around the garden urinating on everything that we are likely to touch. If I had rats in my garden I wouldnt hesitate to poison them .