rats

[chippy1970]

Can anyone advise on the best way to get rid of rats from under my workshop ? I have a couple of sheds/workshops at the back of my garden and keep seeing them running around as bold as brass. I bought a cage type trap which has caught 2 so far. I got this because I thought if I just poisoned them they would rot and stink under the shed. I'm now thinking I need poison. I've found tubs on eBay with 108 waxy blocks by a company called big cheese for around £15 anyone got any advice ?

Chris

 

[Tusses]

you can make drowning traps quite easily

I bug bucket/bin
and a see saw with food on the end over the bucket.

Rat goes for food, see saw tips rat into bucket
Rat gets tired of swimming and cant climb the sides

If you google rat trap, that idea comes up often.

 

[Harbo]

I occasionally get rats feeding on my bird tables - they seem to live under my neighbours shed which backs onto my fence.
I trap them or shoot them with my air rifle.
I did try poison but they seemed to thrive on it - I think only the strong stuff that professionals use work?

Rod

 

[t8hants]

Borrow a terrier, my Lakeland loves rats.

G

 

[Richard T]

Augustus - his record is five in a week. He brings them in of an evening on a sale or return basis.

 

[Mark A]

We've got rats in our garden which come from the woodland behind our house. We called our local council who have been putting poison down for the past 4-5 weeks but the rats are still present. I might make some bear grylls-inspired traps for them instead.

Mark

 

[chippy1970]

Just as I thought poison is not the best idea unless I can get some pro stuff. Not had an air rifle for years :lol: so I might try more traps , the one I have is the large cage type then I just drop it in a wheelbarrow full of water and drown the rat. I might try a few of those snap type traps

 

[Scouse]

Nine cats and 2 German Shepherds; no rats or mice... or birds for that matter, and the next door neighbours are about to move. Can't think why... :mrgreen:

 

[Harbo]

Be careful of the snap types outside you could a kill a few of the friendly animals!

Rod

 

[henton49er]

Chris,

We used the poison blocks similar to the Brig Cheese ones you refer to in the barns on our farm just after we moved in. We put down 12 blocks every night until they stopped being removed. We then topped up whatever was left to six blocks every night. It took 2 tubs of blocks to eradicate then completely and the stench from their underground burrows was pretty evil for a week or two after they had all succumbed to the bait. Our Jack Russell now keeps the worst of them at bay. It is said that for every rat you see, there are another 49 that you don't.

Mike.

 

[tomatwark]

I use the granuler poison when we get rats.

I have tried the bait boxes with little success, but what I ended up doing was getting a three foot length of drain pipe, drilling a hole with a hole saw half way along and then making a cover from another piece of pipe cut in half.

I pour a packet of poison in the hole and cover placing the pipe in the middle of the rat run, or at the edge of the shed.

I keep topping it up till no more is taken.

The length of pipe keeps the birds away.

Try different makes of poison as some rats are resistant to certain makes.

Tom

 

[RogerS]

The granular poison is preferable to the blocks because they take the blocks away and store them. Great news for the manufacturers..not so good for you trying to get rid of them. You want the rats to eat the poison...not put it by for a rainy day.

Personally I'm not a fan of poison as we have a large number of raptors and I would hate one of them to go for carrion aka dead rat and then get poisoned themselves. We've used rat traps with a modicum of success although you have to be careful that you don't kill ground feeding birds such as robins as they also get tempted by the bait.....snickers are very good.

You could try the electronic deterrent....there was a recommendation for one of these somewhere on the forum...we have two up in the loft and, touch wood, they work.

We also tried bait boxes up in the loft prior to using the electronic deterrent. I subsequently discovered that the holes had been stuffed up with loft insulation. From this I made two deductions...the first was that a rat was keeping this source of food to itself....the scarier one was that the rat realised that it was poison and so wanted to stop other rats from eating it. If the latter then be afraid....be very afraid.

 

[Jacob]

I put proper big rat-traps down in our under floor space but they disappeared. Presumably dragged away still attached to rat.
They stopped eventually when I had stopped all holes and found better storage place for dog food.

Dead rats don't half pong, for several weeks. Found one mouldering corpse and put it in the Rayburn. You could smell it all around the village.

 

[wobblycogs]

I find snap type traps work pretty well, I bait them with peanut butter and the little blighters can't resist. You've got to check your traps daily though as the smell of a decomposing rat is quite terrible. I've not tried poison, a neighbour did once and all he ended up with was well fed rats!

 

[henton49er]

The granular poison is preferable to the blocks because they take the blocks away and store them.

Precisely, the blocks are taken back to their underground nests and eaten by all rats; babies, nursing mothers, old rats, those that did not get anything better to eat etc etc. Granular bait is only eaten by the rat that finds it, not shared around as the blocks are.

Blocks evertime for me; baited traps and electronic traps only work a few times and then the rats work out what they are and avoid them. Baby rats will drown themselves in buckets of water left in barns for farm animals to drink as well.

Mike

 

[Mike.C]

With 60,000,000 people and an estimated 85,000,000 rats in the UK is it any wonder that they are popping up everywhere. The trouble is that over the years we have used so much poison that they immune to many of them.

Cheers

Mike

 

[wobblycogs]

Someone has to say it: what did the Romans ever do for us .

If ever there was a example of why we shouldn't go around introducing new species the rats introduction to the UK is it. Nearly 2000 years on we are still suffering problems due to it's introduction (fair enough, the Romans didn't know better) and just imagine how many people have died from the diseases it's spread over the years. Makes the cane toad and rabbit introductions in Australia look tame in comparison.

 

[RogerS]

The granular poison is preferable to the blocks because they take the blocks away and store them.

Precisely, the blocks are taken back to their underground nests and eaten by all rats; babies, nursing mothers, old rats, those that did not get anything better to eat etc etc. Granular bait is only eaten by the rat that finds it, not shared around as the blocks are.

Blocks evertime for me; baited traps and electronic traps only work a few times and then the rats work out what they are and avoid them. Baby rats will drown themselves in buckets of water left in barns for farm animals to drink as well.

Mike

Will have to beg to differ. We baited for weeks and weeks in the barn and the blocks kept disappearing but still rats. Then we switched to granular and the rats died. A few months later we were clearing stuff out and came across all the blocks...untouched....nary a nibble.

 

[chippy1970]

Cheers guys , I ordered a couple of snap traps the metal ones off ebay will see how well they work.

 

[Tusses]

I bought a 2.5Kg tub of rat poison once. Put it in the shed.

I came to use it, and fount the rim chewed through and all the bait gone !!!!

I didn't bother buying any more ...

We got some Ferrel cats from the cats protection (we do have a large garden, by the canal) . Seems to keep the numbers down.