Rats - do we just have to learn to live with them?

[fabindia]

It just seems a but of a losing battle sometimes.

I have seen a rat (or may be a few, if it's not the same one) running across the garden. The problem is we have an old drainage ditch that runs down one side of the garden. I am sure it is a haven for rats but not sure what if anything I can do about it. Just putting poison down at random seems dangerous to me - what about the hens, hedgehogs, local dogs, etc.?

May be I just have to live with them and make sure they don't get in the run, dig up my veggies, etc.

[wendy]

I don't think you can ever be rid of them.
Just try hard for them not to come in contact with the chooks, dogs or any type of food. Yes it is a losing battle,

[Richard]

My answer is.......

Yes !!

Just a case of controlling them a bit and look at it from the health angle.

Richard

PS. A lot can be said on location as in some of us are Townies, other more rural and in that respect, rats can be slightly different I believe.

[urbanchicks]

They go to my bird feeders ,saw one today,I have had the council EV health out a few times and they have put down the poison but it only deters them for a few months,it gets worse in the winter months, they say we have a rat only 12 feet away from all of us!

Maggie

[fabindia]

it gets worse in the winter months

I think so too. They seem to get a bit desperate for food - I have noticed them out in the day during winter under the bird feeder. Something they wouldn't do in the summer.

[Richard]

Rats around here spend most of the summer in the fields, ample to eat. Worse times seem Spring and Autumn.

Strange they usually hit a peak then reduce in numbers, can't quite work out why, but they don't just seem to keep increasing in population.

Cats probably get a few.

A favourite home for them beside underneath Coops are Compost Heaps, nice and warm, even under built up bonfires.

Richard

[Stef]

We live about 8 inches away form 3 - but I suspect they don't count

I won't even think about the rats and mice that like coming in over winter.... we met the first move in mouse just yesterday, so we will set out the usual delicacies for them in the sheds. They get into the house otherwise and cause trouble - like keeping me awake as they travel round the walls and roof.

We know the old abandoned compost heap has a colony, and some hedgehogs too. We also find holes in the hedge and more remote bits of the garden edges. It sort of depends on the water levels round here eeeeeeeeeeeeick!

[silverback]

You could try a few traps, using sweet sticky bait, this will cut down a few of them, but unfortunately you will never be rid of them! .
I put traps down, and or use an air rifle, if the problem gets that bad!

[animartco]

You could try a few traps, using sweet sticky bait, this will cut down a few of them, but unfortunately you will never be rid of them! .
I put traps down, and or use an air rifle, if the problem gets that bad!

I have heard, and I think it may very well be true, that shooting them is a bad idea, unless there are young ones about and you shoot them too. If you take out just the largest boldest adults you get 'hooligans'. You'all seen Lord of the Flies? Young rats without the adults to educate them, tend to become marauders, and can even become quite fierce predators working in packs.

[silverback]

animartco wrote: I have heard, and I think it may very well be true, that shooting them is a bad idea, unless there are young ones about and you shoot them too. If you take out just the largest boldest adults you get 'hooligans'. You'all seen Lord of the Flies? Young rats without the adults to educate them, tend to become marauders, and can even become quite fierce predators working in packs.

I have generally found its the younger ones that I have shot or trapped, to be the more daring than the larger adults!.

[Gwenoakes]

We keep poison down for them all year round and have found it is the only way to keep their numbers manageable.

We have a grain store just over the road, ditches and of course the horses and although we are extra careful about food spillage, some does get spilt and that in itself attracts them, so poison it is.

If it is a straight choice between them and us, then I am afraid we win, hands down. I cannot/will not let my family/animals be at risk of diseases from them. I dont like killing anything, but needs must.