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Compost babies

Doogie72Doogie72 Posts: 62
in Wildlife gardening

I found these mini guys in my compost heap yesterday., I really hope I didn't scare Mum away for good.  I will leave the compost undisturbed now for a while - not sure how long to leave them alone for though?

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Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 24,692

    I'd let nature take its course. 

    Devon.
  • WintersongWintersong Posts: 2,436

    What are they?

  • flumpy1flumpy1 Posts: 3,114

    Hope they are not Rats ?

  • Doogie72Doogie72 Posts: 62

    I've not seen any sign of any rats in my garden.  I have seen both mice and voles so I think these babies are either of those - they are tiny I know there's no size reference on the picture so it's hard to tell their size.

  • LanaLana Posts: 3

    Yes be careful, if they are rat babies you will have problem getting them to leave your garden.  If you are a bird feeder you may end up with my problem, my bird feeders have attracted rats to the garden and the neighbours garden (much to his disgust!) sadly I am now stuck with what to do.  I am so upset at the prospect of taking the bird feeders away as I have many different species that visit.  I don't like seeing the rats though so don't know what to do!  Will the birds be o.k if I take the feeders away?  Shall I remove them gradually??  Any ideas??

  • cathy43cathy43 Posts: 373

    Surely if they were rat babies there would be a lot of them, I thought rats had large litters?

  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 863
    Kana, could you try switching to a type of feeder that has a tray attached to the bottom, to collect fallen seed?



    RSPB online bird food shop has them.
  • LanaLana Posts: 3

    Hi LeadFarmer,  I have tried that but they just run up the tree and nibble it from the trays.  Tried the Chilli powder thing but they still were happy to munch.  I had TWO come into the garden this morning eeek!  I fear the only course of action now is to remove the last remaining bird feeder and pray the birds will move on to another decent food source.  I will just have to endure seeing the small birds coming and having no food at all for them.  Its very upsetting to see but what choice do I have?  At least there is an abundance of natural food around at this time of year so perhaps it is a good time to remove the feeder..

  • cornellycornelly Posts: 844

    Rats they can be killed, cleared them from our garden.

  • LeadFarmerLeadFarmer Posts: 863

    I had rats on my patio earlier in the year and saw them going in my garage. I bought a few bait stations and poison from eBay, along with a few rat traps. I caught half a dozen in the traps and found a couple that had been poisoned. Haven't seen any since.

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