RATS!

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When I did my qualifications the plan (integrated pest management plan) would normally consider

1) Deny harbourage. The areas on your property where they have a safe haven need addressing. If necessary re-stack the woodpile up off the ground and install pipe guards on the drain.

2) Deny sustenance. Any and all sources of food and drinking water need to be removed. Without food & drink rats are much less likely to stay. The numbers you describe must have an appreciable food source

3) Elimination. There are a variety of methods available but poison is likely to be the most effective for substantial numbers. It is no longer legal to use anticoagulant rodenticides in open areas. Their use is restricted to "in and around buildings". "Around" is a loose term but.for safety I adhere to the maxim of "touching the building".

The best poisons and most effective doses are only available to those with a professional rodenticide qualification who are appropriately trained in their use. You can take qualifications online fairly inexpensively. They last five years.

With these qualifications you can use more effective poisons in appropriate bait stations in open areas.

I would suggest sort out the woodpile & pipe, secure any food sources (bird feeders are notorious) & look into a professional rodenticide qualification through LANTRA on a scheme that follows the CRRU (campaign for responsible rodenticide use). Then deploy cholecalciferol as a rodenticide in staked, secure, tethered bait boxes.
 
All food sources have been removed about 3 weeks ago when I first noticed rats, also had the area tidied and cleaned up by my gardener.
I've removed the cover over the woodpile that was keeping it dry, and poured hot bleach water over it to make it wet, and smell offensive to rats, as per google advice. I've used essential oils as recommended by Google advice, on all entry points. Bleached the path along the back of the house outside the back door.
There are no water sources..... they still come.
 
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Thing is; if you're seeing so many, and killing so many, then there must be hundreds more in your neighbours gardens, and they're not doing anything about them by the sounds of it.
The whole neighbourhood needs to actively root them out. Otherwise you'll never see an end to it.
If you've cleaned out your part, removed food and water and hiding places, then they're coming from elsewhere and just chancing their luck, and you'll only be getting a few in the traps.

I'm sorry you're going through this; it's never easy getting rid of vermin, but they are so incredibly unhealthy to have around, especially since they seem happy to use sewers.
 
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Get a couple of good sized cats. Underfeed them a little (not enough to harm health, just keep them a little bit hungry)... Problem will solve itself. Cats will kill some, rest will know they will get chomped on... they will leave/avoid.

You get good company, pest control, and not needing poison around the gaff which i'm not a fan of.

We had 7 cats.. now got 5. A dog got one, and the road got another... They do like to apply for every Darwin award going... understanding a war of attrition will keep you well supplied with cute, savage, rodent controlling machines.
 
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It's difficult to really assess the root of your problem without actually physically seeing whats going on and being there. There could be all sorts of reasons as to the source of the rats. It may be a broken drain somewhere( majority of rat problems) or maybe you have a rat burrow nearby. You seem quite adept and knowledgable and have trapped a lot of rats yourself but still they come-so my gut feeling is that you may have a major problem and may have to resort to professional help-even though there is a cost to this. I hope I am wrong!
 
All food sources have been removed about 3 weeks ago when I first noticed rats, also had the area tidied and cleaned up by my gardener.
I've removed the cover over the woodpile that was keeping it dry, and poured hot bleach water over it to make it wet, and smell offensive to rats, as per google advice. I've used essential oils as recommended by Google advice, on all entry points. Bleached the path along the back of the house outside the back door.
There are no water sources..... they still come.
pouring bleach or other chemicals will absolutely not work
 
pouring bleach or other chemicals will absolutely not work

It is worth a try, I'll try anything to deter them.
Toddy is right though, I discovered yet another area today where they have actualy dug under the fence from next door. I've watched them climb over the fence before now.

Spring is breeding time, and the weather has been good, so they have had a good start.
Caught another this evening at about 11pm, so the trap has been reset yet again. I check it every two hours or so when awake.
Get a couple of good sized cats. Underfeed them a little (not enough to harm health, just keep them a little bit hungry)... Problem will solve itself. Cats will kill some, rest will know they will get chomped on... they will leave/avoid.

You get good company, pest control, and not needing poison around the gaff which i'm not a fan of.

We had 7 cats.. now got 5. A dog got one, and the road got another... They do like to apply for every Darwin award going... understanding a war of attrition will keep you well supplied with cute, savage, rodent controlling machines.
Plenty of cats round here, 10 houses and 7 cats. Am listening to cats fighting outside my bedroom window right this moment. Don't need any more of them , and they are themselves a problem using my veg beds as litter trays. Between them and the rats, it's a loosing battle!( and that's without the pheasants shi***g all over the lawn. These rats are the final straw!
 
Years ago our Welsh terrieri was the monta efficient rat killer ever, Rattus norwegicus did not have a chance if he got sight of it. A rat a day made him the happiest dog.
 
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It's all about perspective. A decent scalpel, needle and thread and you've got yourself a nice little side hustle.

View attachment 94587
Ye gods! That's absolutely stuck me for words better than yuk! , and twisted. How on earth is this cute? I guess some sad person would buy it, but realy....I can barely handle the things. Looking at that on a daily basis..skin crawls. Whuuuuuuah!(shuddering sound)

No new rats this morning, but it was extreeemely wet last night, so they probably stayed in the warm. I know I did!
I'm not celebrating just yet. I know there are more.
 
Victorians! They made all sorts of this kind of gruesome rubbish. Characters made out of various skulls, lobster and crab claws and chicken legs.

Edited to add:
Then again: Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland puts stuffed rats around Alnwick and its guest rooms
 
Curious -When/how did rats drowning become illegal? How would anyone know?, might have filled up with rainwater or they've fallen in by themselves (as does happen, also to birds). Why is this less humane than poisoning them?
It's not the same as throwing a sack of puppies into the river. Some of the survival strategies are based on testing on rats like this.
 
I was wondering that too.
A couple of years ago I found two very young rats drowned in the bucket under my garden sink beside the greenhouse. It drains into the bucket.
I have no idea why they got in there anyway, but they were definitely drowned.

I dug up the compost bins that sat on the soil, and laid down chicken wire and a load of gravel. Himself baits a poison box every week, but there's been nothing eaten for a long while now.

I think rats are one of those vermin you have to be aware of, have to keep on top of, otherwise we end up with scenes like the horrors in Birmingham, and none of us want that on our doorsteps.
 
I'm being swarmed by rats, catching at least two a day over the past week, in my snap trap with peanut butter as bait. That's twelve of the little b*****s. Another last night.=13!
I've cleaned up the area as best I can, but they seem to be using the woodpile as home. I can see their walkways as they enter and exit, plus they also use a drainage pipe that is buried into the sloping garden to drain the ground to stop it becoming too wet. (Clay soil) I think I've got most of them, but they are still coming, thick and fast.
I tried poison, but no noticable effect on numbers, Now using snap traps, and putting the bodies in plastic sandwich bags. disposal has become a problem. I'm reduced to putting them in the dog poo bins, as they are too stinky for the bin, which is collected fortnightly.
What else can I do? I've also noticed they come through from next door, broken fence, won't be fixed untill June. So I'm killing my neighbours rats too. He won't do anything,
I'm at my wits end.
Short of more traps, and a big tub of peanut butter, which just seems to pull in more rats, from next door, anyone got any ideas?

No ratting dogs I can borrow.
Rat man too expensive
Poison seems futile, and even when effective,I've been accused of trying to poison my nasty neighbours dogs, by throwing poisoned rats over the fence...of course untrue, I can't control where they die. But it does rather show they are also coming from his property.
Pop pops are not realy suitable for such a confined area, and rules prevent discharge on my small property.

They are breeding faster than I can catch them! Help!!!!!
The problem is the supply of food. That you must tackle.
We had this issue when we still had chickens. Once we noticed that we had unwelcome visitors they had already grow big and were many. We tried shooting them. Popped off a few almost daily, some at pointblank range (air rifle), but it was no use. Tey had burrowed under the cook and took feed and hatchlings at will. That was one of the reasons we stopped having chickens.
The rats were gone in no time.
 
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I'm being swarmed by rats, catching at least two a day over the past week, in my snap trap with peanut butter as bait. That's twelve of the little b*****s. Another last night.=13!
I've cleaned up the area as best I can, but they seem to be using the woodpile as home. I can see their walkways as they enter and exit, plus they also use a drainage pipe that is buried into the sloping garden to drain the ground to stop it becoming too wet. (Clay soil) I think I've got most of them, but they are still coming, thick and fast.
I tried poison, but no noticable effect on numbers, Now using snap traps, and putting the bodies in plastic sandwich bags. disposal has become a problem. I'm reduced to putting them in the dog poo bins, as they are too stinky for the bin, which is collected fortnightly.
What else can I do? I've also noticed they come through from next door, broken fence, won't be fixed untill June. So I'm killing my neighbours rats too. He won't do anything,
I'm at my wits end.
Short of more traps, and a big tub of peanut butter, which just seems to pull in more rats, from next door, anyone got any ideas?

No ratting dogs I can borrow.
Rat man too expensive
Poison seems futile, and even when effective,I've been accused of trying to poison my nasty neighbours dogs, by throwing poisoned rats over the fence...of course untrue, I can't control where they die. But it does rather show they are also coming from his property.
Pop pops are not realy suitable for such a confined area, and rules prevent discharge on my small property.

They are breeding faster than I can catch them! Help!!!!!
Here is my experience. several people have noted their food source. I had a problem and it was only when I made the connection to my bird feeders and removed them that things got massively better.. I went from half a dozen mice and 3 or four rats in my tent in winter to just one rat. I got them all but prevention is better than cure.
On the subject of poisons. I crush the block up and mixed it with peanut butter. It works well. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I am certain that once ingested then secondary poisoning does not occur ie dog eats rat, dog dies.
And finally a slingshot is a belting way of killing rats and you get to get a new skill which you can use for hunting if ever you want or need to. good luck WG . DD x
 
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Mice are fine, so long as they live outside. Rats are another thing. My wife likes to feed the songbirds so we will have a few rats around no matter what.

We shoot them with a pop-pop from our upstairs kitchen and I have laid baits as proscribed with the enclosed boxes etc. I did try an American suggestion though: make a small clingfilm bag and fill it with 50/50 flour and bicarbonate of soda; drop it into a known rat hole. Supposedly the rats will eat the flour mix, but are unable to digest the bicarbonate, and the resulting bloating will kill them. It seemed to work and it doesn’t affect other wildlife.
 
As an air rifle shooter I know there are always people looking for shooting permissions, most would never charge and certainly wouldn’t Come close to the cost of the large pest control companies if they did. maybe ask around your local community or explore on social media a bit if you use it?? I’m not saying it will irradiate your problem entirely (especially with unhelpful neighbours) but a few nights “sport” for someone semi regularly will certainly make a substantial dent.
 
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. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I am certain that once ingested then secondary poisoning does not occur ie dog eats rat, dog dies.
That is unfortunately wrong for all traditional poisons. All SGARs (second generation anticoagulant rodenticides) are bioaccumulative (they do cause secondary poisoning), hence why they are now banned for open air use.

At one point 94% of Barn Owls & 100% of kestrels had consumed poisoned prey.


Cholecalciferol is a newer rodenticide that isn't bioaccumulative & is legal for outside use. It's sold as Harmonix or Selontra (professional licence required)
 

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