Ratcam

A terrier would be better than a cat, but not everybody would want one! Do you have a friend with one? With cats its pot luck as some are super ratters and others don't seem to care much.

Hi Siris, how many rats have you snared so far? What do you do with them? We’ve had rats in the past, but, fingers crossed we haven’t seen one quite a long time. We are close to the river/estuary, pretty much right on it, so I guess we are going to see them. They are pretty horrible aren’t they! The bund/hill at the back is an adventure playground for them. We see lots of field mice which the local cats tend to catch. I must admit I don’t really respect them, sorry. Horrible. I know some people will have no issue with them, but, I really don’t like them, for all the usual reasons. I do, hope you don’t have the same problems with them and the damage they do to your plants, this year!

Haven't seen ours for a while, but they are bound to return. If you have bird feeders they always come. But I love my garden birds so.....At least ours are just little country rats!

Darn things, our cat has caught young ones in the past. I have one in my compost bin, it digs underneath. Our neighbour had the council out to kill theirs, they put poison down which I believe is a cruel death. No one wants them but they’ve evolved so well.

We have them around here and although I can hear them squealing I've never seen any.

Oh Hywel! Sounds awful, squealing! Ew! I agree with Karen, I won’t stop feeding the birds despite the blasted rats!

KATE, the rat traps are the snap type, which kills them instantly. The traps are along the paths(that they have made) but they become very wary of them. Between the two tubs in the last two pics there was a trap. I, in the past, put food bait on mine but my neighbour doesn't. He has great success. He actually put a door bell in the garden, and when he saw a rat under his bird feeder, while he was sitting in his conservatory he sounded the bell, and the rats panicked and scarpered.
I don't feed my birds as there are loads of seeds and berries in the garden. I do have a covered feeding station but stopped using it as only the pigeons went on it.
I put on plastic gloves to remove the body and reset the trap, wrapping the body in newspaper, then into a tied plastic bag and it goes to the incinerator.

We have rats, we live in the country and will always have rats as we have chickens etc. We also have several types of traps, expensive cage traps to keep them alive, but then what do you do with them? You can shoot them or take them several (lots and lots) of miles away and let them go, but that does mean travelling in the car with a rat! I have found that they pay no attention to cage traps, the only thing I have caught in them is Hedgehogs and Blackbirds, both indignant, but at least you can let them out.
Snap traps are great, providing you get the right ones that are heavy duty and kill immediately. But you have to place them carefully, make sure that nothing else can get to them and soon there will be baby Hedgehogs which can get in small spaces.
Next is poison. I have just found one that works a treat, only to discover that we have an Owl which sits on a ledge in the barn , makes a mess, leaves owl pellets and goes who-knows-where in daylight. Now I don't want this to eat any dopey rat that has taken poison, so the poison is suspended for now!
Mind you I haven't seen any rats lately, but I would be really surprised if there weren't some about. Amazing creatures really, we had pet rats for a while years ago, not very long lived - or the pet ones aren't anyway.
A ratting terrier would be best, but the peacocks don't like dogs! Perhaps a Ferret!

Meant to say - lovely pics, only thing we ever caught on ours was the local cat!

Thanks Honeysuckle, for your thoughts on rat capture. We unfortunately don't get hedgehogs in the garden anymore, since having concrete gravel boards put under the base of the fences in the back garden. I would tolerate the rats if they didn't do so much damage to my garden, which I'm sure a ratting dog would do too. The garden is too small for a dog.
I've tried all sorts of rat deterrents, putting wire wool down the holes created, they just make another hole next to it.
Lavender plants, which they apparently don't like. Chicken wire around plants, which then get tangled around their stems.
Fox urine(smells appallingly apparently) is said to be a good deterrent, but I don't know anyone with an obliging Fox!
Maybe I could ask my friend for the contents of her cat's litter tray!

I would be alarmed to see them so close. I would be off to get some rat poison - before they get into the house.

Siris, good traps then! We used discreet traps in the past, hidden from view. They had some sort of blue coloured bait, which was like heroin to the rats I think! Seemed to work. Thankfully. We have quite a lot of cats around our way, I think they may keep the population low. Haven’t seen a rat for such a long time...hopefully I haven’t tempted fate now!

Kate I am with you there ......I detest them......despite being a Farmers daughter I just cannot abide them...I don’t like having mice in the house either......they have to go...Siris I don’t know what the answer is, as you say a ratting dog would make more of a mess than the rats......you could try shooting them........lol

I think the blue bait is cyanide - that's what used in Decon that I used. What I don't like is the slow drawn out death and then you have to pick up a dead rat or half dead rat.

I would love to have a camera set up like that, must be brilliant to see what is out and about whilst we're indoors, however if I saw any rats on the footage then I'd have a blue fit, haven't seen any for years thankfully but don't think any would dare frequent my garden now with two very fast terriers on the loose....

LINCSL, it only has a small lateral range of view and is triggered by motion, so has to be positioned carefully. OH was thinking also of watching the birds around their nests, haven't got around to doing that.

I got a rat 2 days ago, 29 March. I took a photo but I'm sure you don't want to see the body!

That's OK Siris. I'll take your word for it. I buried my dead rats in the tomato patch, lol. At least they're all gone now. What a nightmare.

We use other methods now as I would hate to think of harm coming to my cat or the neighbouring cats and wildlife..