Rats - Any Ideas?

[scrivomcdivo]

I live just over the road from a private lake and a massive piece of waste land / field. Subsequently, there is the odd rat hanging around. They seem to dig underneath the dividing fence between next doors front garden and ours. I put some poison down about 4 weeks back and didn't see any holes for a while but now they've started appearing again. I fill the hole back up with soil and bark but it's tunnelled again the next morning.

Any suggestions on powerful rat poisons or anything I can put down to prevent them coming in?

BTW, I know they're rats as I've seen them

 

[JohnD]

Try to find the food they are scavenging for. It might be rubbish in black bags, might be thrown-away burgers. If anyone has a bird-table, it is in fact a rat-table that birds sometimes steal food from.

Otherwise, if you have waste ground with water available, it makes an ideal rat reservation.

If you keep puting poison down, and burying or burning the bodies, you will reduce the numbers that come into your garden, but there will always be plenty more.

Rats and mice have no bladder, and leave a constant dribble of urine, which is why one rat will always find the path another rat has used.

They will easily dig through soil. You can use sand and cement to seal holes, but they will dig an escape hatch.

 

[scrivomcdivo]

JohnD, thanks for the reply. There is no food at all in my front garden. My neighbour puts out loads for the birds though and this is what is attracting them. I have mentioned this to him but he's not playing ball. Unfortunately, when the rats eat the bait, they must scatter off somewhere as I am yet to recover any bodies. I have just put down some more rat bait and hope they just bring it back to their nests

 

[JohnD]

if you find any bodies, perhaps your neighbour will find them in his garden. This might help him take it seriously. Suggest he gets a tall bird-table with a smooth, shiny leg that they can't climb up.

p.s. my mother had some nesting under the paving next door, and burrowing under the gap between the concrete gravel boards and her concrete yard.

I poisoned them first, then dug out enough soil to fill the strip with concrete. That prevented a new family from moving in or digging new tunnels.

 

[comms]

Unfortunately, when the rats eat the bait, they must scatter off somewhere as I am yet to recover any bodies.

I think you'll find the poison eats up the insides making the vermin go in search of water (thats what i was told by pest control bloke), so you'll find the deaduns by the lake.

Some good sport can be had with a decent air rifle with optical sight & rats & made even easier with the use of a thermal image unit

edited for p*** poor spelling

 

[gcol]

Rats and mice have no bladder...

Don't mean to be picky but yes they do. They do however scent mark often but it is not know exactly why.

 

[JamesHughes]

Trap and shoot? Got one in my parents garden the other day, daylight, Fathers excellent air rifle (Theoban?). Another caught in the trap then dispatched with same.

No re-occurance so far. Probably attracted by the huge amount of bird food my parents leave out (RSPB people).

James

 

[gcol]

Whilst I agree that Theoben make excellent air rifles (use to have the Grand Prix myself ) I can't help thinking that it's a bit unfair to entice rats in with bird food and then shoot them - cause that's what you're doing. You might have a short respite until you get rats back, but with bird food lying about you will get rats re-apperaring. The rats are there primarily for the food - remove the food, remove the rat. Shoot the birds instead .

Reminds me of a program on TV a few weeks back, about foxes in London. A family thought it would be a good idea to keep chickens, but foxes kept coming in and killing them. They asked some local old guy (fox lover) if shooting them would solve the problem and he said "no" and that if they did another fox would take the place of the killed one. So what did they do? Shot the foxes. Few days later with a fresh lot of chickens...... guess what? You guessed it - dead chickens.
Guy was surprised that the foxes had broke straight through the chicken wire. Does he not realise that it's called "chicken wire" cause it's used for keeping chickens in? If it was meant to keep out foxes, wouldn't it be called "fox wire"?

 

[par1sons]

your lucky my friend, i have them nesting every year in my loft space. crapping, p1ssing and chewing everything they can get there paws on. They have tunnels running through the wall installation in the cavity between my house and my neighbours. You have them in your garden, think yourself lucky.
Anyway, the best way to stop these pests from getting under your fence is to dig down 2ft from below your fence and line the underneath with chicken wire but make sure the chicken wire squares are no bigger than a pound coin, anything bigger than that and the b4stards can slim line there bodies to get through. You will have to apply a thin layer of concrete in the bottom of your 2ft hole to hold the chicken wire in place and then fix the chicken wire to your fence panelling. Once your happy then refill the hole with soil. The reason for using chicken wire is because rats cannot chew through it, thats why chicken breeders use chicken wire to stop rat and foxes from getting in. My diagram will explain all

AndyP

 

[mags1]

you could always get a dog,or borrow a friends

 

[gcol]

...... thats why chicken breeders use chicken wire to stop rat and foxes from getting in.

Did you read the post above yours?

 

[mags1]

when i say get a dog ,i mean to kill the rats,

 

[scrivomcdivo]

We have a dog but our vet told us to keep her away from them due to the diseases that they carry that can kill domestic animals

 

[par1sons]

i have emailed my diagram to the administrator but they have yet to put it up, sorry

 

[savcom]

We're in the country, so rats are a problem here too - along with mice and rabbits and squirrels.

We've also got a compost bin. They LOVE that. Thought about putting two layers of metal fencing down as a sort of foundation for the bin so the holes are smaller with chicken wire in between. That way the worms can get through to do their stuff but the rats are kept out.

I hope.