I’ve seen 2 rats prancing about on our lawn!!
I’m awaiting delivery of 2 humane traps. (I did have one but can’t find it) If the humane traps don’t work it will have to be poison. Eeeek I hate rats - what if they breed? We could become invaded!!
The council used to do it for free but now they charge £80 plus £20 for each time they come to check the traps - TOO MUCH!!
Anybody else got/had this problem & how did you solve it?
Humane traps I can’t kill anything.
Then I drive them several miles away to release
However I suspect the neighbours don’t have the same qualms as I haven’t seen any for a long while .
I feed the birds so it does attract wildlife .
Maybe the resident snake has solved the problem .
Oh I couldn’t bear it . I dont know what I would do .
I’m terrified of them . When I was young our house had rats in the roof. I remember hearing the gnawing when in bed . Bad memories
Only thing to do is buy a cat! 
or a terrier.
You beat me to it Tessa !
Or maybe a pet python??
Donkeyman!
Ah keep them as Pets Carol, they are lovely, not!
We had Rats in our old House and we put poison down, but they still came back, they were after the bird seed.
Carol, I occasionally have rats as l keep hens but I always called the local council and the pest controller comes out. The service is free in my area.
I once saw a few rats prancing on the lawn, not far from my kitchen window. This was because l had a bird station nearby and they were climbing up that.
The local council pest controller came, put a bait box down and told me to remove the bird station. Which l did.
I have just looked at the local council website and all pest control services have been postponed until further notice due to Covid-19.
Better than kangaroos in the top paddock.
about 4 years ago there were rats running all over all the gardens, we’ve been in our house for over 40 years and never once had rats. even the neighbors in the next street had them. one neighbor called the council and the pest controller came out and put poison down for them…must have done the trick, because there’s been no more rats.
hope you get rid of them, they’re horrible creatures to have running about , we were told that feeding the birds attracts them. the pest controller told one of our neighbors that people i the next village even had them in their house, keep you door closed…
I have to a\sk -why go the the council tgo get rfid of them? surely there are private vermin control firms that are cheaper
In my area, the council service is free for domestic property … :!:
If rats are reported in one property, adjoining and nearby properties are checked and treated for free as part of the service.
I stopped feeding the birds some months ago after seeing 4 baby rats on my bird table. Unfortunately my neighbours didn’t stop feeding the birds & from what someone has told me, the rats are now living under neighbours shed, he’s seen the holes there. I haven’t seen rats in my garden for a while now, but they are still around.
A few years ago I did call out the council pest operator, he was not helpful & said stop feeding the birds, you can be prosecuted for encouraging rats into your garden. So I did stop for a while & started again, it was a while but the rats came back.
I don’t think you can get rid of them, they are everywhere. Though if all households in this area stopped feeding the birds the rats would go, if no available food for them.
We had rats here when we moved in, they lived in the Devon bank/hedge at the bottom of the garden, if they had stayed there no problem, but they have gradually got closer to the house.
We got rid of the compost bin because they had taken over that as a nursery. When it was dismantled it was riddled with runs & dens. No rats though, they had fled.
I actually like rats, tame ones, my Son has had several over the years, they are very friendly, clean & intelligent, but wild rats are a different story, they can carry disease & chew wires etc.
The poison used to get rid of them is nasty & it can take a rat several days to die from it, in agony, it is totally inhumane & is also a danger to pets.
So the only way I can see to solve the rat problem is to stop feeding the birds. Harder for people who keep chickens or rabbits or any outside pet.
I had rats, visiting the back garden, for quite a while.
Then realised that it started after my cat died some years ago. we’d always had a cat & dog up 'till then,.
I was about to go to the cat rescue, to rescue a cat, when new neighbours moved in - with two cats!
Plenty of birds again, now, and no rats.
That’s great because I wouldn’t have wanted to rescue a cat, at my great age, only for it to end up back at the rescue whenever!
:twisted: (<cat)
if you’re a council tennant then it’s free , and the neighbor who called them out at that time was a council tennant
I had problems with rats in the late winter early spring,stopped feeding the birds and put down bait,took a packet and a half to rid them about 30 tablets made of seed and poison.
We found rats when we moved here three years ago but our two Jack Russells soon saw them off. It’s all farmland and stables here so rats go with the territory.
You should watch the youtube video I posted, it tells you how rats suffer from that poison.
My dad and his dad used to thresh straw with a threshing machine and steam engine,once they got down to the bottom of a straw rick the rats would be everywhere, terriers were their friend.
You could of course follow the advice from this fella:
How would you advise me to get rid of them Tiffany?