Rats

mine are back as well !!!

I have a "dalec compost bin" so I will put the poison in there so keep everything else out of harms way as they like hiding in the top to keep them selves dry , dont ask how I found that out but the bin gets a whack with a yard brush before I open everytime now

 

I had a border terrier who was bitten as a pup,( we found her in the street one night) she was about 9 months old.We reported her to the police who said as it was 1 a.m.could we keep her for a while ,we said yes.A chap came 3 days later and more or less said she was nothing but trouble,so we came to an agreement and we kept her.She turned out to be one of the best ratters that you could wish for,every one on the the plots who got the odd rat came for her and of we went,we got quite a few in her 13 years she was with me.I only ever had 1 complaint,a chap said I had let run all over his plot ( I was allotment secretary at this time) chap next to him a rat and it ran over his plot but not far as she had it quick.The chap who I caught the rat for came to see the chairman and that was the end of his complaint.BUT 4 weeks later this same man came to see me and said I've got a rat in my shed can you come and get it. Sorry to say I cannot print what my reply was.But I bet some of you can guess what it was/

 

Yes, that is part of the problem but I have woodland here and come under the Milton Keynes area which offers no help with rats.
I am keeping the dogs close to me but while the rats are being driven out of their homes by the rain/wetness they will keep on coming.
I have asked a private company and they are run off their feet in this area.

 

I once watched a couple of Jacks clear a barn of 'long tails' in no time...i've never seen anything like it...the speed they went the LT didn't stand a chance....

 

And yet my JR hasn't a clue.

 

There's a battle going on here between OH who puts down humane traps for mice and then lets them go just outside the back door and my solution which is to whack them with a shoe. The six cats are the ones bringing them into the house.
Rats, though, I'd definitely go with Scrungee's method. Poisoned traps are effective and no chance of other animals/birds being affected.

 

Noisette......It's no good releasing the mice outside the back door, they need to be taken at least three miles away from your home, under that distance they will find their way back.

 

Mice will survive if caught 'humanely' and re-homed some distance away, but it's supposed to be different with rats who'll have such a hard time after being released in another area (which I've also been told is illegal) that they will suffer and die.