How to reduce rat numbers.

[animartco]

Rats like other animals are territorial. They need a food source, of course but are prepared to travel for it. The commonest thing that establishes a colony in your garden is a bit of prime rat real estate.
Now a lot of gardeners think that controlling the shrubbery is the way to discourage them. The couldn't care less about the shrubbery! To a rat prime real estate is anywhere where man has put something solid on top of the ground, with no proper foundation. Houses are put up with DEEP foundations, and roads and some garages have hardcore to a depth underneath the concrete. Rats will burrow for thirty or forty feet along under the earth but they can't go very far down into subsoil.
If you put up any structure with a solid wood or concrete floor laid without hardcore Rats WILL take up residence, and will create 'rat cities'.
So this is a warning for those of you who are thinking of putting up little sheds or decking or paving laid on sand, or chicken houses etc etc.
ONe way not to build a rat city is to make sure that whatever you put up has a free earth walkway all around it, which you can periodically fork through. Tunnelling into a city IS collapsable and occassional digging should do the trick. If the soil gives way tread the tunnels down.
I think it is this habit of building things hard against boundaries that is responsible for much of the rise in the rat population. You have 'rat runs' between houses leading to decking or a shed close to the wall. It is SO muc nicer than a shrubbery. Once they are under decking or a shed with little foundation they are warm and dry and NOTHING can get at them to dig them out. What more could a rat want?

[nightshade]

I agree sheds and composters!, using your garden is another way and changing things around makes them nervous

[Ladywell]

What a brilliant bit of advice. A while ago some of our neighbours did the decking, garden shed thing. They fed the birds on the decking - including huge chunks of bread.
I was round there one day when the daughter said to her elderly Mum - 'Oh look the big fat mouse is feeding again'. I pointed out that said fat mouse was indeed a juvenile rat - in which case it would have brother, sisters and parents.
The decking went the weekend following - and they don't throw huge chunks of bread down anymore.

[Jim Ford]

There was a poster a while ago that announced that rats are harmless and they like them. If they pop their head up again, perhaps they could volunteer to take people's unwanted rats off them!

Jim

[Words]

I'm not volunteering, and the advice here is great. Food scraps in the compost bin are also a problem. The rats learn to wait to be fed! On a slightly separate note I can see why some people like them. These are some photos taken in Regent's Park, London last autumn. Rats were everywhere!

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by animartco

If you put up any structure with a solid wood or concrete floor laid without hardcore Rats WILL take up residence, and will create 'rat cities'.

Hardcore is not in itself a protection, and if poorly laid/compacted is actually an invitation to rats. Whether it's a concrete pan or wooden sleeper based, the above ground elements of a garden structure are simply serving to provide a 'roof' below which the soil is dry and friable which is what the rats are attracted to.

If there is concern about a structure being vulnerable to rat under-running, then creating a horizontal seal of at least 50cms depth, set vertically to the pan (for a concrete base), or to steel mesh laid flat underneath timber sleepers, is the only viable protection.

Ulimately though, rats will only reman in an area where there is a ready food supply - and that's a lot more than just one compost bin. Problems with compost can be limited by ensuring a good mix of material, kept fairly well compacted and moderately damp. Open heaps will always be more attractive to all types of small animals, so closed bins, either sealed at the base or set well into tilled soil are better where rats are a problem.

CM

[animartco]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

Hardcore is not in itself a protection, and if poorly laid/compacted is actually an invitation to rats. Whether it's a concrete pan or wooden sleeper based, the above ground elements of a garden structure are simply serving to provide a 'roof' below which the soil is dry and friable which is what the rats are attracted to.

If there is concern about a structure being vulnerable to rat under-running, then creating a horizontal seal of at least 50cms depth, set vertically to the pan (for a concrete base), or to steel mesh laid flat underneath timber sleepers, is the only viable protection.

Ulimately though, rats will only reman in an area where there is a ready food supply - and that's a lot more than just one compost bin. Problems with compost can be limited by ensuring a good mix of material, kept fairly well compacted and moderately damp. Open heaps will always be more attractive to all types of small animals, so closed bins, either sealed at the base or set well into tilled soil are better where rats are a problem.

CM

Hi Cotham Marble. Yes I agree putting a verticle sheild down all round a building. Only it has to be made of thick concrete or cemented bricks or rust proof solid metal. Rats will eventually find a way through any form of wire netting, especially if there is food on the other side. I also agree that while putting narrow guage wire netting beneath the floor of a wooden structure will probably prevent the rats from coming up through the floor of your shed or hen house, it will not prevent them from building a rat city underneath it. They are incredibly intelligent animals and always try to hide their holes whenever they can, often running them a way out from the side of the building. Also they very seldom make a hole into somewhere and out the other side, in the same place. A few young naive rats might but I think the adults would fill in one of the holes, and show junior the way it should be done. Stoats or perhaps even small ferrets? can get some way down into rat holes, so an 'in and out' is never made too obvious. Underneath there would be some narrow squeezes in place, especially where there are large stones or man made obstacles, to prevent a predator entering the nurseries. This, apart from the dryness, is another cogent reason why rats love man made structures. They can turn them into impregnable fortresses, especially badly laid hardcore as suggested. It should always be pure, no soil or sand, and properly tamped down.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by animartco

I also agree that while putting narrow guage wire netting beneath the floor of a wooden structure will probably prevent the rats from coming up through the floor of your shed or hen house, it will not prevent them from building a rat city underneath it.

While rats 'may', nest anywhere, it is excessive to go down the route that says no timber based structure is immune. If the ground elements comprise full length 'front to back' 5 x 10cm sleepers, with a mesh underlay, then any nesting material on top of the mesh can be easily pushed through with a broom handle. If the base is a braced frame, then so long as it set solidly onto a mesh underlay and is soundly fixed to the main structure there will be little opportunity for rats to have access to the underfloor space.

Of course age and damage will make a timber structure more appealling to rats - but that's a maintenance issue, not a design flaw.

CM

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by animartco

Hi Cotham Marble. Yes I agree putting a verticle sheild down all round a building. Only it has to be made of thick concrete or cemented bricks or rust proof solid metal.

<snip>

This, apart from the dryness, is another cogent reason why rats love man made structures. They can turn them into impregnable fortresses, especially badly laid hardcore as suggested. It should always be pure, no soil or sand, and properly tamped down.

Live in a WW2 pillbox and save yourself the trouble!

;^)

Jim

[Les E]

HI All,
Im in the country and Ive a few rats in my garden,I dont mind one or two if they dont come into the house,but I feel Ive too many.During the snow I felt quite sorry for them and fed them at the same time as the birds,their quite comical at times especially when their heads dart in and out of their burrows as I walk passed.Theirs one big one who actually hangs from the feeders.I dont like and cant us poisons so Im getting someone in to shoot a few,while Im out and hope the rest will dispurse as the summer approaches.
Regard Les.