What Can I Do About Rats In My Garden??

[Sandy777]

Can anyone help? I've got at least two rats in my back garden and I'm not sure what to do. We filled in an old pond a while ago which was broken, and they are living in amongst rubbley bits we filled it in with. I've been feeding the birds since we were given part of the garden a few months ago - a bird table and some danglies full of nuts. I really enjoy feeding birds and have been buzzing all summer about it, binoculars and so on. I know I'm attracting the rats, but in the other part of the garden (it's split in two) there are loads of massive apples all over the lawn from a huge gorgeous tree which the neighbours don't tidy up, so even if I stop feeding the birds they will still have the apples and also the neighbour on the opposite side puts food out for birds. If I mention rats to the guy downstairs he will more than likely go off his nut and get the poisoners in! (Also, how easy is it to catch Weils disease??) - It's only a matter of time before everyone clocks on, - should I just stop feeding the birds completely and just hope for the best? Should I put on my pixy togs and get a flute and charm them away?? The one I keep seeing is getting very daring and It's massive!

[Roxy]

Is it possible that the birds will migrate during the colder months? Perhaps the rats will disappear along with the birds.

Sorry - not much help, I know. Just a thought.

[RedWellies]

It probably is the spilt bird food that is attracting the rats. We had the same thing here when my mum was feeding the birds seed and the squirrels knocked the feeders so the seed spilt on the floor.

You could try making sure there isn't spilt feed left lying around. You could also clear up your garden so there isn't the vegetation for the rats to scurry around in. However, that's not good for the other wildlife.

Cats and dogs are a good deterent (but they could catch and kill the birds). It's a tough one; I tend to leave the rats alone and hope nature controls the numbers but it's difficult if other people are affected. I stopped putting seed out and put peanuts instead as there was less wastage.

[harpy]

There are a few rats round here as we live near a railway line, but there are also a lot of cats (including ours) which usually seem to keep them from coming too near the house.

Maybe you could switch to bird feeders that prevent stuff dropping on the ground, if there is such a thing? Then the rats might clear off... Otherwise I wouldn't worry too much myself unless they are actually coming inside your house. I don't see how you could catch anything from them unless you are actually having contact with them. There are rats all over the place and if it was that easy to catch Weil's disease I think we'd all have it by now.

http://www.iphe.org.uk/health/weils_disease.html

ETA great minds think alike

[Blue moon]

I've had rats in my garden, personally I like them as much as the birds and squirrels, they're quite cute when you watch them! They get a bad press, but they're just trying to find food and get by in life like any other creature.

I think my horrible neighbours must have put poison down, I haven't seen one in ages now I wish there was a way to protect them from it!

They used to do a great job of cleaning up the spilt bird seed, now it just rots and goes mouldy, I think that is much more likely to cause disease to wildlife and humans

[herbwormwood]

Here is the Wikipedia article on Weil's Disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis
you will see that there is little risk of catching it merely by having rats in your garden.
You and your freinds and family should always wash your hands carefully after being outside, particularly if you have been doing gardening or maintenence work around your home.

[Holly78]

I think the only thing with rats is to cut off the food supply. I am sorry that isn't a great answer because you like watching the birds feed, but maybe you could try the bird feeders rather than scattering seed and the like as someone suggested?

[soyabean]

In our last flat, we were 2 storeys up with a steel fire-escape staircase the only access to the back door with it's cat flap - and our cat still used to regularly catch rats, and bring them up and in through the cat flat and release them alive and not visibly harmed to run around our flat, leaving me to corner them and take them back out and find somewhere to release them.

He also liked to pick up discarded packaging from meat-type foods left in the alleyway, and bring it in through the cat flat, and once memorably, a used condom

[Risker]

Nasty!

[Memma33]

Usually rodents and felines hate the smell and acidity of citrus fruits such as lemons - we used to put cut lemons and squirt lemon juice around our gardens to keep the stray cats away.......that might work

[Pob]

You could treat the bird food with hot chilli. Won't affect the birds at all, but the rats won't be able to eat it.

[Farflame]

I've had rats in my garden, personally I like them as much as the birds and squirrels, they're quite cute when you watch them! They get a bad press, but they're just trying to find food and get by in life like any other creature.

I think my horrible neighbours must have put poison down, I haven't seen one in ages now I wish there was a way to protect them from it!

They used to do a great job of cleaning up the spilt bird seed, now it just rots and goes mouldy, I think that is much more likely to cause disease to wildlife and humans

I agree with you, rats are very cute if you watch them. It is a shame that they have such a bad press.

My parents had a rat in their garden which kept eating at the water pipes to their pond and caused a lot of damage, so they eventually decided to kill it. I explained to them that rat poison caused a very painful death so apparently they tried putting down some pain-killers, which it ate and apparently just 'fell asleep'... this is their story though, so I can't say for sure if it really is a painless death.

[Sandy777]

Here is the Wikipedia article on Weil's Disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis
you will see that there is little risk of catching it merely by having rats in your garden.
You and your freinds and family should always wash your hands carefully after being outside, particularly if you have been doing gardening or maintenence work around your home.

Thanks for your comments everyone. I'm not being paranoid about diseases, and I do wash hands etc. It's more what my neighbours will make of it that is the problem. People just associate rats with diseases and stuff. I read somewhere that pigeons carry more diseases than rats, and then some people let pigeons eat from their hands etc.! I think rats have had a bad press for a long time. It's a shame - they are really sweet creatures I think.

[Gorilla]

my next-door neighbours came round the other night to ask if i'd seen any rats in my garden because apparently they've found some in theirs. my cat's brought in a couple of animals recently which could've been rats but i think they were large mice. still my neighbours said they were calling out pest control. i hope they don't find any - not because i dislike rats (i love them!) but because i don't want any to be killed by the pest control people.