Unwelcome visitor
Bookwormy
Posts: 16
I have recently seen a rat in the garden which seems to be coming in from the very overgrown, neglected garden next door.. I am horrified!! What to do? I don't want to put down any poisons, so any thoughts on how to discourage this visitor much appreciated!!
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Posts
If you call the council they will put poison down.
If you don't want to use poison, borrow a good Jack Russell.
Rats are everywhere. Make sure you don't leave any food around. If you decide to put poison down you can put 'throw packs' inside lengths of drainpipe, which you put alongside walls, etc, where rats are likely to run.
The Environmental Health or its equivalent will tell you if you have rats, but it is up to the householder to do something about it if they wish to.
They can also be trapped, but you have to be certain how you are then going to kill them. Know anybody with a suitable gun?
Welshonion - nope, no guns around here! I only object to poison because of the chance of birds or visiting dogs eating it by mistake!! I've only seen the one so far but its a big one and I worry about it coming inside the house.
Poison may slow them down but more importantly take away the food source. clean out cans and bottles. You can burn stuff on the fire if available or even flush it in reasonable quantities.
You can now get traps which are very easy to set,just push it down and it is set. I use them in my green house and put either peanut butter or choc spread, it works every time.Once they start to breed they are everywhere.It is an incredible number that just from one pair is amzing how many they produce.Nip it in the bud a.s.a.p.
Have had one in the house this luckily with the help of my daughter and my friend Sluggy we managed to get it out. Cornered in the bathroom and caught it in the bucket. Talked to the rat man with the local council who dais it sounded like an isolated incident but if i saw anymore he would come out and put poison down. I too was concerned about the poison as i have 2 cats. He said that the poison was fast acting and they would diie" in their beds". So far havent seen it again hoefully 3 grown women shouting and yelling at it was more that it could cope with.
There maybe a broken manhole cover in the overgrown garden. Has there been any renovation work or building work done in the area? Builders sometimes break or temporarily remove the manhole covers and the rats come out for a look around.
Blackest - we are careful not to leave food ouit but unfortunately it seems to be the bird feeders that attracted it in the first place! I haven't refilled them since but I am torn- I really want to feed the birds through the winter!
Maud - that sounds like the stuff of nightmares!
Waterbutts - there is building work going on but it's quite far down the road. Sadly a lot of houses on our street have very overgrown front and back gardens - lots of renters so inevitable I guess.