Oh Rats!!

You could have a DIY enthusiasts 'Come and buy' day
for your shed.

Oh poor you. Hubby did shoot one in workshop when we 1st moved in and luckly not seen any since but I do feel for you. Can totaly understand your dilemma over what to put down. I've got the same thing with voles. I have a real glut of them this year and now have about 20 tunnels going into my front lawn killing the grass along them and all my borders and plants in them have tunnels going around them. I have put out a live catch trap and so far caught 5 but still getting new damage everyday. They have even got into my greenhouse and eating my tomatoes and now found the courgettes and eaten all of them :-(. Finally got fed up and phoned up a pest control man but he said voles are really hard to do anything about. He did offer to get me some snap traps at cost price. The ones he showed me are contained in a box so I don't have to worry about birds getting caught. Didn't want to kill them but considering the damage I might have to go that route. People find it funny that we are gunsmiths but we don't really like killing things.

wow, what great photos of the weasle. I've never seen one but would love to.

I remember as a child my father running after a rat with a spade. We lived near a river and he was worried we might be bitten. Not a nice task.

Nice idea Dianne but the items that are in the barn are just bits that need sorting, either to be stored as 'useful', donated or binned. Living in the country people tend to store more stuff to mend sheds, fences, chicken runs etc., and if you do shuck something out it will be the next thing that you need!

Its true Jen that there seems to be more of them about this year, perhaps because the winter was mild more survived. We have holes everywhere and I usually don't bother too much, they are food for the Owls and the weasel after all.
As for live traps, I have used them for mice before, then have to get out the car and take them a mile or so away so that they don't come back. Sadly snap traps get rid of the problem, but I do put the bodies up on the barn roof for the scavengers - gruesome huh?
We knew there was a weasel about here when we moved in as we saw it on odd occasions, but haven't seen it for years. Then this year it's been about a lot and even saw one cross the road to my neighbours when I disturbed it while cutting the front hedge. Don't think it was the same one as it looked a different colour, more dull brown than the lovely tan of this one - but definitely a weasel, not the rat!

All the country people are less squeamish Linda and your Father probably knew all about Weil's disease which the rats can carry and spread through urine etc., so he was being very protective of his children.
My Mother had Dachshunds and they were great ratters, OH doesn't want a dog but perhaps I could have a ferret!
Just spent another £12 on poison which she told me was excellent stuff, so I'll live in hope.

One of our customers is a local game keeper. I was picking his brain the other day and he said that with rats, as well as putting down poison, they put cloths soaked in creosote down the holes of rats to move them on. He also buries deep buckets with bait like wheat at bottom. Depending what gets caught, he decides if to despatch it or not. Im a great believer in you don't just kill for killing sake. Think it's a good idea putting them on the roof and recyling them so to speak.

Horrors Honeysuckle, how unpleasant. Would the weasel eat the rat poison? They are great pics of him on the lawn- what a pretty little face it has! Its not often you are lucky enough to see one.

If OH doesn't want a dog of his own do you know anybody who would lend yo a terrier for an hour or two?

They do say one is only 6 feet away from the nearest rat. Do hope that isn't true! Our two previous (BIG) moggies were always killing them. Sage, our rescue cat's biggest prey so far is a baby rabbit. (sad)

Weasels are pretty creatures and I must confess to a secret yearning to own a ferret. (My family think that's a mad idea!). My uncle used to have ferrets as pets and they were very clean, sleek creatures with very shiny coats. Because they had been handled from birth they didn't bite. Well I never was!

Steragram's comment regarding a terrier is spot on. Great disposers of rats!

You have a like for the lovely weasel Honey, I would have a ducks fit if I saw a rat here, I would be on red alert in case one of the pets decided to bring me one as a gift.
Its not only country folk that store wood, wire and suchlike just in case, I keep saying we must hire a skip as we have lots of odd bits-n-bobs that just might be useful one day, only trouble is that day never arrives, haven't seen the corners of hubby's shed in years, goodness knows what treasures we'll find....

I really enjoy your blogs, Honeysuckle but this one gives me the heebee jeebees... I hope little ferret is not interested in the hens, geese or peacocks! Is it a ferret or weasel? We have one here too and it makes the most hair raising noise you ever heard and has, in the past, depopulated a neighbour's hen house.
It is sad to have to use poison on the rats..here again,I have a similar problem with field mice and voles coming into our cellar every fall. In the past poison was kept in the basement and I'd routinely find corpses around. That made me paranoid about letting our cat get into the basement for fear he might eat a poisoned mouse... but during this summer I've had a surprise or two when cutting grass. We have two large (3 ft long) garter snakes living among the stones near the river bank, and they have a family as I've seen numerous small snakes 1-2 ft. long around the place.
I had a bag of dry catfood to take to our sons in the city..and left it in the van overnight. Next day we went grocery shopping in Renfrew, (60 kms) and when we returned to the van in the parking lot my hub opened the drivers door to find a small garter snake on the dash! He must have been in the air vents over the 45 minute drive...perhaps I should have brought it home to it's family but hub was not having it! I let it go in one of the larger shrubbery borders around the parking lot! I mentioned the cat food because I think that may have enticed the snake into the van.. other than that, I'm not sure why a snake would go into a vehicle unless it was following a mouse. Their haunt is very near the frog pond too.. so we have some very large and healthy snakes about this year...I just hope they concentrate on the mice.

We did have rats come in off the farmland in Autumn for years then a cat took up residence and haven't seen any since. Problem with her is even with a bell on her collar she manages to kill birds, voles and other more welcome critters. It is a relief though not to have the rats, you have my sympathy. I'm not sure about tidiness as a solution, they are very innovative and will find places to nest and once when I made it difficult for them to survive in the garden, they climbed the ivy and got in the attic.

Having watched the young rats jump up onto the raised flat tin tray for the peacock food, I think it would have to be a deep bucket to keep them contained until I got to inspect the bucket Jen. The tray usually lies on the floor of the barn and there are long trails in the sandy floor where the tails drag - Yuk! sounds horrible, must be an ingrained heredity thing from when we all lived in hovels with the rats! The tray got raised onto a box, it overlapped the box so they couldn't climb up on to it, but with a sprightly spring, there they were anyway.

My sister has a Jack Russel cross Stera, but daren't let him off the lead here as he is much more interested in chasing the peacocks than something down a hole. He has been known to almost have his foot on a rat and stand staring round in puzzlement! Obviously didn't get much of the terrier genes in his JR/cross makeup!

Some cats are great at ratting Eirlys, others not interested. I have seen a farm cat dragging a rabbit much bigger than herself back for her kittens and other lying in the sun while young rabbits frolic not far away - all a matter of temperament and hunger I expect. I think the weasels concentrate on small prey, mice and voles, baby rabbits and of course eggs, making them a nuisance for nesting birds and possibly the hen house, but they are cute and you could never keep them out of most places, being so lithe and thin.

Well Lincslass, hubby is obviously a country boy at heart, saving things 'just in case' and how satisfying is it when just the thing you need is found in the shed? However in my case it's a matter of finding it when needed!
My daughters cat tends to bring things in, alive and sadly struggling, it's a cruel world of the cat. When it's a bird, she's like Hywel and can't stand it and has to wait for someone else to sort it out, luckily it's only the porch that gets the offerings.

Hi Lori, Lovely to hear from you, I always enjoy hearing how you are getting on with your acreage and all the wildlife. I really envy your stream, it's the one thing I would really love here. The snakes sound interesting, the one in the van perhaps went for the warmth of the engine, or as you say following a mouse which was attracted by the smell of the cat food. It is difficult when you have to put poison down, the resulting bodies (if found) have to be disposed of safely and they usually get cremated on the numerous bonfires we have of all the cuttings and weeds that can't go on the compost heap.
We never see a snake, but there is a grass snake about here as I found the slough skin near the compost heap and did a bit of searching under the corrugated iron lying on the ground, but only found a toad - disgruntled and quickly covered again.
The weasel is cute and last year we had a family of Stoats on the field, lovely to watch gambolling young ones on the wood pile, but not so keen when they ate my five young Guinea Fowl out of their pen, they were sadly just like captive food for them, another sleek predator that can get in anywhere.
The hens, the few we have left after the fox had called, have stopped laying, or perhaps they are just providing food for the Stoats or weasel, even the Rooks, Crows and Magpies will steal their eggs, let alone a rat. Seems it's a war between us and the wildlife that thinks we just provide food for them!

I agree with you Taurman, even a cat with a bell can reek havoc on the bird population. When we moved in the previous owner had cats and the bird population was pretty slim. Eventually they discovered that we had no cats and now we have hundreds, all sorts that breed in the garden and it's a joy to watch and hear the young shrieking for food in the trees while the parents dash back and forth.
As for rats and mice in the attic, we have them as well! Living in a bungalow has it's benefits, no stairs to sweep - one of my pet hates, but it's also lower to the ground for critters to get in the loft. We have permanent traps set there as the electric deterrents don't work and only give them a bit of light to see where they are going. Sometimes you can hear them scampering up there and only (thank goodness) the heavier tread of a rat! Then I have to redouble my efforts with traps and bait.
Though I have climbing plants which help them climb, I have seen them shinny straight up a bare brick wall, so won't bother to denude my walls.

Poisonous baits do worry me as practically all my neighbours have a cat, as have I. So we use traps in the garden shed. Rats are very bright. I have a video of one climbing the iron stand of our bird feeder to get to the seeds. Very quick!

Honeysuckle, I shouldn't make light of your account but I do have visions of a Takeaway sign hanging on your garden gate! Are your (caged) birds safe? I'd love to see images of your parakeets.

Yes Eirlys they are VERY bright, we see one which has climbed the greengage tree and is hanging from the bird feeder, not something that amuses OH.
Sadly we no longer have the Parakeets. Barney, who we miss a lot, died while my husband was visiting his family in Canada, I was distraught, came through and he laid there dead. On looking at the ring on his leg he was 19 years old, so I suppose he had a good innings. Holly, the one we bought to keep him company and who frightened him to death (not literally) flew out the door one day when company left it open. Barney didn't mind her being gone, but we just feel that she was a very expensive meal for the Sparrowhawk. Or perhaps she flew off and found a new home.

I'm sorry you've got rats on your property. I hope you can get rid of them. It sounds a big job, there seem to be so many there.

The weasel is pretty :o)

Sorry to read all this. Tends to spoil gardening lives. I
am so lucky. Hope solutions are soon found.