Argh Rat

I spotted a rat in the garden a couple of weeks ago so taking a further look It had taken residence under my decking so after a couple of rat bait stations were put down I was getting increasingly frustrated with how brazen it was becoming, as if it was taunting me looking at home made rat poison recipes I thought I'd give the peanut butter , baking powder a go, expecting another drawn out game to my surprise within 10 minutes the first little ball I put under a bit of decking I loosened was taken, for the next hour I put 2 balls down around every 10 minutes all taken, the next 2 and the 2 after are still there, I'm hoping that's a good sign.

 

@mazambo , having had a quite severe rat problem here, I would suggest you speak to your council.
I found mine very helpful and considerant to other wildlife.
The problem did ultimately become bigger, than just in my garden, and lots of neighbours where affected.
I originally didn't mind seeing the odd rat, theres never just a few though!
Wherever they are coming from they need dealing with.
We ended up with dozens of baby rats everywhere we looked in the garden! I couldn't even let the kids play out at one point
Good luck,

 

@Loki, thanks, I agree with everything you've said, it doesn't help when you put out mealworms, sunflower hearts, peanuts, sultanas etc daily even though I keep the garden as clean as I can, my biggest nightmare has always been neighbours complaining about me feeding the birds, If the rats are there and I can't see them, no problem, but if I can see them I guess others can too, I can honestly say I've only seen one but I'm sure there are more, if i see things getting out of control then i won't hesitate to take your advice and get in touch with the local council

 

Try regularly poking something like a long metal rod under the decking if you can, they do not like things disturbing.
Also turn the hose pipe onto all the decking and really flood underneath, again they do not like that.
Was able to get them out of my compost heap that way on the second infestation.

If you are a veg /fruit grower, do not make the mistake I first made , avoid any proper rat poison as if they take the bait into your veg plot, or more likely their droppings still containing the active poison , it could affect you.
I tried to find out the life of the poison but no one would give a clear answer, seems to be years.

 

@ricky101, thanks, was severly tempted to unscrew all the decking but hosepipe sounds like a cracking idea, thankfully don't have a veg/fruit plot but that's real good info.

 

We have decking, that wasn't the nesting point though. They where in the overgrowth near by.
Yes decking is prone to infestation but decking doesn't = rats!
Re feeding the birds....
I stopped ground feeding, I do have a tray on my feeding station. I put a small amount out and refill if nessary.
By biggest change was storage of bird food!
I keep mine under cover, outside my back door. Silly me didn't think to put it in sturdy container Needless to say, it's all in rat proof containers now!

 

@Loki know where you're coming from fortunately I have a spare bedroom so all seed sacks are stored there (much to the delight of my dear wife) I don't have trays but all excess seed is dropped on paving which is swept daily, sultanas and mealworms were until today put out on two raised beds one which has a cherry tree grown from seed that the birds dropped and the other a mahonia total time to be emptied 5 mins, all that will now be put on a metal table 5ft high, in shifts I will do what I can do but I won't stop doing if you know what I mean, at the last count I had 4 pairs of house sparrows nesting and when they have young they go mental for the mealworms.

 

@mazambo , completely understand, I work my garden around the birds! It's my happy time, washing pots watching my feeder!
Good luck with the rats!

 

@Loki

 

If theres food around, no amount of disturbing will get rid of the rats.

There was a restriction on the amount of rat poison that you can buy without passing a course. I took this as we have rats around the chickens and need to keep them controlled through poison.

One of the first steps to take in removing rats is to remove any source of food.

If you don't want to use poison there are electric rat traps available

 

@andrews yes had an electric one delivered yesterday.

 

We have neighbours who chuck loaves of bread/meat scraps/etc. on the ground to 'feed the birds', but all they achieve is attract rats.

 

Thanks everyone for all your input, they've already twigged the peanut butter mix, one week in work then two off, so if need be I'll take up the decking, maybe for good, priority always has been and always will be feeding the birds