Bird Feeding Ruined By A Rat

[Crankarm]

But we never see 'em!

Crafty buggers that's why. They eat babies and can bring down a small dog. They also carry the Plague.

 

[Elybazza61]

We have to remember that more unhygienic humans means more unhygienic rodents.

This^

Both our neighbours throw food on their lawn and wonder why they see a rat sometimes
And one had the gall to call the council in and tell them they thought they were all coming from our garden*;council guy had a look round and said to the other half 'you have a really nice garden';

Asked us just to keep an eye out and left.

The fact that he has loads of piles of wood at the bottom of his garden and plenty of wooden structures obviously wouldn't be a place they would stay in.

 

[brand]

I happened to look out of my kitchen window today to see a rat climbing up my bird feeding station. I dashed outside and scared the rat off but to be on the safe side I've had to throw away the food and remove the feeding station.

I actually feel quite upset by all of this. I enjoyed looking out at the birds. There was a blackbird and a robin that visited every day. Today they looked confused. All the birds did. I feel so sorry for them.

Does anyone know the best way to get rid of a rat? I might put some humane traps down but I won't use poison. I don't want to hurt anything that's not a rat.

You put the rat poison in a 6" tube only the rats will go up it. I am not sure why you want to be humane about rats. I am not fan of rat poison as it is not very efficient. Plus the ones I have caught go into my rabbit traps, which is weird as they are in the middle of the grass. They are supposedprefer to stay close to walls?
Also not sure why you through the food away, birds are unlikely to die of any rat disease.
The normal spring loaded rat trap placed on a run should not take out a field mice as it will close without catching them. But screw it down, lost one once and a few weeks later saw a 3 legged rat. Bas*ard!
A final option (ignoring an air rifle) is to pee into a jar and poor on and around the table. I pee into a large sweet jar and poor it into my compost bin. Its supposed to be an excellent compost starter which appears to be and it's supposed to put the rats of, again it appears to do that but that could be a coincidence!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

This^

Both our neighbours throw food on their lawn and wonder why they see a rat sometimes
And one had the gall to call the council in and tell them they thought they were all coming from our garden*;council guy had a look round and said to the other half 'you have a really nice garden';

View attachment 77422


Asked us just to keep an eye out and left.

The fact that he has loads of piles of wood at the bottom of his garden and plenty of wooden structures obviously wouldn't be a place they would stay in.

Looks like prime rat territory to me - plenty of cover to hide in.

 

[Mrs M]

This^

Both our neighbours throw food on their lawn and wonder why they see a rat sometimes
And one had the gall to call the council in and tell them they thought they were all coming from our garden*;council guy had a look round and said to the other half 'you have a really nice garden';

View attachment 77422


Asked us just to keep an eye out and left.

The fact that he has loads of piles of wood at the bottom of his garden and plenty of wooden structures obviously wouldn't be a place they would stay in.

Lovely selection of plants

 

[Saluki]

Crafty buggers that's why. They eat babies and can bring down a small dog. They also carry the Plague.

You forgot that they can leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

You forgot that they can leap over tall buildings in a single bound.

They wear their underpants outside their tights too

 

[Saluki]

They wear their underpants outside their tights too

 

[Elybazza61]

Looks like prime rat territory to me - plenty of cover to hide in.

I suppose so,although we have actually only seen a rat once in the past 10 years so I don't think we are over-run with them.

Lovely selection of plants

Thanks,that was a couple of years ago;here's another view from last summer;

 

[Tim Hall]

You might want to put a sign up to tell the birds - the pigeons that come to our garden scatter seed all over the place.

Reminds me of Dorothy Parker, who was alleged to call her canary/budgie/parrot "Onan", because he spills his seed on the ground.

 

[Fnaar]

How does a bird look confused?

Like this