It looks like a rat hole i had one,you want to get a rat box and rat poison put by the hole,i did and the bait was taken for a while then stopped.No trouble since.

As soon as I looked at the picture I said 'rats'.

Rat sorry to say , are you feeding the birds ?

You've all confirmed my suspicion. Thank you.
Yes, I do feed birds from hanging feeders. I love seeing the birds and would hate not to give them food.

There are three gardens abutting our garden none of which are cared for. The worst is a pest hole with dog poo (three dogs there) old rabbit hutches, a shopping trolley, empty boxes and heaven knows what else. The house is as bad so nothing is going to change there. And before anybody asks why we bought a house next to it, that garden is down the side and can't be seen from our house so we were unaware of the state of it.
The other two gardens aren't messy but just neglected, they only mow the lawn occasionally. Another of them also has three dogs and I think the rat might be coming from there, possibly from their shed which runs parallel to our fence where the hole is.

So I might be on a loser here.

I feed the birds and every now and again have rats.

I had a friend who said they had squirrels in the garden and how unusual as she hadn't seen any before feeding on the bird table until I popped round one day and told her rats her face !!! ...

I hate killing things but rats peeing all over the place you have little choice when it comes to your health ,I have a dalek compost bin with a lid on so I put bird food in for a week to get them feeding in there and then put the poison bait in there so nothing else can eat it ... but they go for about 6/8 weeks then back again .... blocking the hole doesn't do much as you have found out ...

Wish you luck in sorting them out
Gg

see if the local council have a rat catcher. ours does and they are very good. I cant remember what the charges are if any.

Drats, you got rats! I would get D-con or rat poison. Those things are horrid.

We've arranged for the local council to exterminate them. They don't do it themselves but contract out. The cost is £39.50 for a minimum of three visits which I think is quite reasonable. I like the idea of an expert doing the job rather than us playing around with poison - we don't have room for a compost bin, Gnarly, only on the allotment down the road.

I'm being very careful what bird food I put out now but hopefully, the little so and so's will be summarily dispatched very soon.

Thanks for all the advice and info which made for interesting reading.

How about a pet snake? A python would be happy living there.

Funny you should mention a python, Paul. A man was in the news yesterday because he nearly fell over one while walking his dog.

The difference is that mine isn't a pet rat but a lodger who doesn't pay rent. Thanks for the suggestion though. :))

Well, if he doesn't pay rent, you can turn him into a pair of boots! :)

Rats, why didn't I think of that? His days are numbered though after next week when the pest control man comes to do his stuff. If not, I shall have to turn into the Pied Piper of Hamelin and take them all down to the local park.

On a slightly different tack you can get environmental health involved with the really bad "garden" as this is probably where the rats are living.
We had similar problem -- next door but one had rats in the house and did nothing about them.
Extermination team removed most of the furniture and ... you really don't want to know the rest!

Thanks for the info Hazeyboo. I saw a couple of pieces of furniture being carted away from next door back last year and the dogs had literally chewed a sofa to pieces. There is now no letter box on the front door (dogs again), the curtains look partly shredded and I've been told by a neighbour who used to look after other animals that the inside is an absolute tip.

However, I already sent the RSPCA round because the three (there were five) small dogs were shut up all day and often most of the night. At least now a daughter comes and walks them.

I think I might also try to get the neighbour the other side involved with environmental health. So thanks again.