Rats

For years my wife and I have taken great pleasure in feeding the birds in our garden but just recently we've notice unwelcome visitors in the way of rats obviously attracted by seeds etc being dropped from the bird station. All the feeders were removed about 6 weeks ago and we've not seen any rats since. Is there any way of telling if they're still lurking or moved on. We are concerned for our grandchildren and our inquisitive little pooch.

 

Removing the bird feeders will encourage the rats to look elsewhere for an easy source of food. I removed my bird feeders for the same reason and have not seen a rat since. I have a bird bath, lawn (with worms!) and many plants which offer shelter and food for birds so they are still frequent visitors, but no rats!

 

First time we've ever seen a rat was this year early on. We have numerous feeders, but only ever seen it on the one - wooded stand type, but had squirrel proof cage on it, however the rat was spotted inside the cage... It was not a particularly small rat! We stopped using that feeder and said rat has not been seen since

 

We’ve had an invasion of house mice in the garden and house this year! Think they were living in a neighbour’s overstuffed garage and when he died and his family cleared it the mice here homeless and came here … they’ve been scavenging under feeders and in the greenhouse and then moved into our home. We’ve decided not to feed the birds this summer … our garden is full of seedheads insects and grubs etc that the birds harvest … they’re really not that interested in the feeders so to discourage mice and to avoid spreading diseases amongst the birds we’re only going to use feeders in the winter.

 

You may laugh, but each time I see the word (and I spell it) R-A-T I switch to Isle of Man mode, even now I struggle with the word. I lived there for 24 years and that word isn't spoken due to superstition, they are called longtails mostly but have various other names. If R-A-T is spoken in the hearing of somebody Manx they tend to hold their collar and whistle.

Living rurally here I see them on occasion and they come through from my neighbours garden which I describe as a wilderness. They have a very old septic tank which I'm sure attracts them. Birds of prey help to keep the numbers down.

 

Like most of these kinds of animals they are all around wherever there are humans, and probably travel miles each day looking for food.
So even if you dont have them nesting in your garden they are probably still in the area.

I occasionally find the odd dead one as the large cat population around here does tend to kill anything that moves from slow worms, frogs, birds through to rats and mice.

 

We did have the occasional rat for the last year or two but have only seen two dead ones in the garden this year so a neighbour must have a problem. I started buying only sunflower kibbled hearts for the hanging feeders which the goldfinches/tits seem to prefer as they don't spit so much out. I also put paving slabs under the feeders to make it easy to sweep any debris up but the pigeons usually beat me to it.

 

Its been a while now since we stopped feeding the birds and I thought they may have moved on but spotted one scoot under the shed yesterday. Thinking about buying some solar powered ultrasonic deterrent thingies for the garden and possible a 230v plug in devise for the shed or do you think I'll be wasting my time and money?

 

Stick the hose pipe nozzle under the shed and turn the tap on hard … the rats are under there cos it’s dry and warm.

 

Probably, though not actually used one.
Equally would not bother with poison / bait.

As said Rats will go for an easy food source or somewhere they can get in to nest, so we would suggest you get some cheap bird cage mesh or small chicken wire and place it all around the shed base that is open, and any other such garden structure.
Might be worth blasting under the shed with a strong hose pipe or pressure washer to ensure the rats do leave the building before using the mesh.

We do feed the birds, but by leaving the food in deep saucers on the patio, weighed down with a stone to avoid the food being scattered around.
We can sit on the patio and quiet a few birds will still come and feed within a few feet of us, the young Thrushes will actually come up and beg us for food !
If by sunset all the food has not be eaten we remove the saucers so the rats will not have them.
We use a camera , part of our cctv, down at patio level to watch the wildlife and about once a week do see a big rat, who sniffs at the empty saucers and promptly goes out of our garden.

You can get a range of single cameras reasonably cheaply to work with your smart phone or monitor etc and watch the wildlife, day and night.