Rats

[spudders]

Having invested in several bird feeders I love to watch the antics of the birds in my garden - even the pigeons!

However, I am becoming overrun by rats - one even ran over my foot in its haste to get out of my garage - uugh!

We have had the council, but Roland and his merry men just keep coming back.

How can I feed my birds without hosting Roland and crew as well?

[Chantal]

Hi Spudders and welcome

From my recent experience, you can't. I back onto a nature walk (old railway) and there are rats living their by the hundred. I keep chickens at the bottom of the garden and have done for years with few problems.

However, last winter the rats moved up the garden and dug under the raised beds, moved into the garage and got very close to the house, because ny neighbour puts out a carrier bag full of bird food every day of the year about 10 feet from the houses.

The only way we got rid of them was to stop the bird feeding for a fortnight and, secure the garage and put down a lot of rat poison. Once we were sure they were all gone, the bird feeding recommenced. Until the next time.

[Primrose]

Welcome Spudders. We've had a similar problem in the past and rats are very difficult to dislodge, especially if they've found a reliable food source. All you can do is ensure that your bird feeders are not located anywhere where grain & seeds and drop onto the ground - perhaps have them on paving where you can sweep up surplus grain on a daily basis. short of using rat poison, I fear you're not going to find them easy to dislodge. We got to the point where mother rat and babies were running all over our patio and becoming quite fearless and they were even climbing our fences to get at the peanut cages. One rat we could live with, but the situation got to the point where we daren't leave our patio door open in summer for fear the rats would invade, so had to call the Pest Control people in, and that's expensive. You're going to have to be ruthless I'm afraid, and watching poisoned rats die is not a pretty sight either.

[spudders]

Thank you. I feared this would be the case. I will follow your advice to try to dter them. I suppose I can live with them as long as they don't run over my foot again!!

[Chantal]

Spudders, you are deluding yourself if you think you can live with them.

One pair of rats (and you won't have just the one celebate rat) can produce TWO HUNDRED offspring in one year, each of which can breed at six weeks of age. You do the maths.

If you don't eradicate them now, you could be having to move out whilst the exterminators move in to deal with the problem.

I'm talking from experience here as I thought one rat under my chicken shed wasn't a problem. Within six weeks I had to call in the Council rat man who put down poison and estimated, from the amount of poison taken, that there had been upward of 140 rats in residence. It took a month to get rid of them. I see a rat? I get out the rat poison. There's no room for sentiment.

Apart from anything else, rats pee to mark their territory and many rats carry Weils Disease which can be fatal to humans.

Deal with them, before it's too late.

[Lurganspade]

Some years ago, a new plot holder moved in to our allotments,as some do every year.

This one,as usual said he was "totally organic," and with him came the usual pallets, polythene, carpets,bits of wood,broken slabs and other detris!

He cleared the weeds, though never actually got all off the soil turned over, BUT he put a "brand new shed" on the plot, raised off the ground, not close boarded to the ground!

Naturally the rats moved under it, when some of the other plot holders complained, he told them where to go to,and that the rats had to have somewhere to live.

Glad to say the shed burned to the ground (I never even thought of it) he was never seen again, thank goodness.

Why is it that the so called "organic gardeners" cannot be given or take any sensible advice from anyone, aka! Joe Swift?

cheers

[Johnboy]

Hi Lurganspade,
Years ago Organic Gardening was a great pleasure when Lawrence D Hills was the head of HDRA. There was a total minimum use of chemicals but where they were used a common sense approach was the order of the day. When the Soil Association were given 'carte blanche' reign over Organics that was the day I ceased to be Organic and became a Pragmatic grower.
To my way of thinking the Soil Association have ruined what was such a pleasurable pursuit and made what amounts to a nightmare for growers.
Nowadays nobody would be allowed to make a gardening programme that was not totally organic because of the Soil Association. They have been given too much power and you will notice that certain Organic Preparations are now available not bearing the SA logo. This is because the organic rules laid down by the SA have neither rhyme nor reason attached to them and manufacturers are now registering their products with the European Directive and circumnavigating the stupidity and the exorbitant charges of the SA.
JB.

[Lurganspade]

Hello Johnboy.

Have nothing against the so called Organic movement, just the nutters I try to make welcome on our allotments, whose first word are;I am totally organic, I am not going to feed my family chemicals!
I am sorry to say "NONE" of these idiots ever take a single vegetable out of the soil.
Most never get to plant anything,as it is too hard work to get rid of all the rubbish left by the previous Organic gardener!
It really is sad,they come with preconcived ideas from watching Gardeners World on TV, they never stand a chance.
The rest of us normal gardeners,wish they would succeed,if nothing more than to keep the weeds down and stop the thistle seeds from blowing onto our plots.
I myself do not need to use weedkiller, or fungicides or insecticides (except on Cauli's)and do not use any fertilizers,except in pot plants, and I do not consider myself "organic".
Cheers for now!