Rats

[Kevin]

I got a rat that raids my compost bin, one of those conical plastic things. If the rat is in the bin when I put compost in it goes out of a tunnel and shoots up the garden. I have been given some poison and lent a dispenser, sort of tubular thing that the rat is supposed to go in and take the poison. I have also been lent a trap. I was hoping to catch the rat in the trap then I would know for sure that it was dead well after I put the trap including rat in he gold fish pond to drown it it would be but not a sniff of anything in the trap yet. I gather that meat is the best bait in a trap. Am I doing the right thing and hopethat I either catch it or poison it or is there anything else that I can do.

Kevin

[phil]

I had a Rat - huge bugger - not a conical plastic one like yours....

But just phoned the Rat man at the council - they sorted it all out for nothing. Laid bait - looked for rat-runs - came back to check three times etc. All free. Dead rat.

[soup]

No personal experience with rats, but watching a prog. on the telly. (a life of grime) the council rat man baited a trap with a well cooked (almost carbonised) sausage.

[Mary Fisher]

1) Whatever you do you won't rid your vicinity of rats. They are everywhere, if you catch or kill one more will fill the space -whether you see it or not. One rat is only a small part of a larger colony. 2) If rats are going to your compost bin you're putting stuff in it which you shouldn't.

Mary

[Steve Walker]

But don't let that discourage you - it's still worth the effort to kill it, if only as an example to it's furry little siblings...

[Peter Crosland]

Sorry Mary but you are wrong. Rats are very partial to apple and potato peelings. This from my local rat man who recently cured a rats in a plastic compost bin problem for me.

Peter Crosland

[Mary Fisher]

That proves my point. Why should you put those in a compost bin? It's a waste of food :-)

Mary

[Ian Stirling]

Ok, just what delicious recipies do you have for rat?

[Mary Fisher]

LOL! I've never caught one to eat, I suspect they'd be fiddly. Squirrel is delicious, roasted, but it's the devil to skin.

People have eaten rats in this country, there's no reason why we shouldn't - except that we're fortunate to have a vast range of other protein sources. In other parts of the world people aren't as squeamish.

We used to eat horse until the shop closed :-(

Mary

[Nigel Molesworth]

So make sure you put down plenty of poison.

[Jay]

Buy a cat.

[Andy Dingley]

Rat on a stick, my lord ?

[nightjar]

As the SAS ban their men from eating rat (the only thing they ban) because of the disease risk, I suspect there is.

Colin Bignell

[Kev]

I was told that a sausage was good bait bit I have been putting uncooked sausages in the trap.I will burn them to a crisp now.

Kevin

[Douglas de Lacey]

One point to be aware of is that rats are very conservative creatures and hate change. If you are going to use a trap put it down unbated for a week or so, then bate it without moving its position.

HDRA suggest that to discourage rats you change the ambience of your compost bin from time to time; even (they say) little things like leaving garden furniture next to the bin and moving it after a day or so and replacing it with something else. If you can see the run, put various different things on it and move them around.

Sadly, I don't have rats visiting my bins (despite the fact that I put things into them which would make Mary's hair curl, though certainly not peelings which I never create) so cannot test the HDRA method. Perhaps you'd report back in due time?

Douglas de Lacey.

[Kev]

I can't speak for the what the wife is putting in the bin although I do repeatidly tell he not to put waste meat in the bin so it should only be vegetable waste. Stangley I only noticed the rat for the first time after putting some waste in after a 3 week holiday so there had been no waste gone in for a month. Maybe it had set up home in there. There was a very overgrown and derelict house cleared at the rear of mine a few months ago which is where I assume the rat has come from.

Kevin

[Mary Fisher]

:-)

[Mary Fisher]

A compos tbin is a good place for lots of animals to nest in, it's warm (or should be), sheltered from rain and wind (or should be) and often undisturbed for quite long periods.

I don't know about that. Can't see why rats should live where there isn't food.

But I repeat, there won't only be one rat. They're not loners and breed like ... well, rats. You might have seen only one, that's a different matter.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Ooh, do tell - although I don't want any more curls, thank you :-)

I put in some citrus peel (can't candy all of it) and banana skins after the hens have finished with them.

Disturbance will discourage most rats.

Well, I suppose disturbance will discourage most animals ...

I'm a member of HDRA but haven't seen that advice - all that means is that I haven't seen it, not that they don't advocate it.

Mary

[Tony Williams]

If the compost bin is sitting on soil then it can turn into a wormery (as the leaflet suggests). But a wormery is a luxury hotel for a rat, damp but warm for shelter, (and to breed), with live meat just a snout's reach away.

The leaflet that comes with these bins seems to totally ignore any potential problem with rats. Site the bin on rubble or concrete slabs, anything to stop a rat from digging under. If required, seed it with soil and worms.