Rats

[Alewfin]

We have rats in our garden.

Without having to get a cat and concerned about the possible effects of poison on wildlife in our garden does anyone have any good ideas to rid us of these rats.

Thanks in advance.

[Devil]

Get about 35 or 40 cm of plastic pipe (40-50 mm diameter) and carefully place poison in the middle, fixing it horizontally and firmly on the ground. The rats will find it but dogs, cats, foxes, birds etc. won't.

[WHL]

As Devil says, we live next to a field and have a problem with rats, now and then, I've got a plastic pipe fixed to the bottom of the garden wall, and get cubes of rat poison, placed inside the pipe, the rats nibble on it , works every time.

[cyprusmax47]

There are small nylon bags with rat poison available (normally corn mixed with oleander seeds) Dogs, cats, foxes won't touch it. You can place them in ca 40cm long plastic pipes with ca 100 mm diameter as above already mentioned.

Max

[trevnhil]

Ours that we had a few years ago must have been 'poison resistant ' rats.. I used to leave poison bait in various spots, and it got taken away.. However I later found dozens of the sachets under a chipboard sheet in the garden. it seemed like they were hoarding them.....
It was at this time that i got a rat catching cage and that caught quite a few...
We had them in the car engine, and inside the gas boiler which is in an outside cupboard.

[LouiseCastricum]

But make sure you do not touch the poison with your hands as the rats won't eat any of the poison once touched.

[Dominic]

That's not true. I nail the poison to the rafters in the verandah. Only a rat can get to them, and they gradually get smaller and smaller, so they are getting eaten, despite being fondled by my pinkies.

In my experience, the poison takes a couple of weeks before it has an effect.

I've also got some good old fashioned rat traps. Like mouse traps only bigger. These deliver an immediate end to the rat. I ordered them off Amazon.

[Dominic]

If I put chocolate in my rat traps I would wake up to a wife covered in rat traps.

She likes her Cadbury's.