Massive Rat

[boxst]

I live in the middle of nowhere and do have rats around. I generally don’t mind but they have started to climb fences and eat the bird food.

I bought a box to put poison in, and last night caught the below on camera — it’s huge! The rat can’t even get its head inside the box. I’m guessing that isn’t the only one.

How do I get rid of them? I don’t really fancy putting down a cage!

[Equus]

If you're living in the countryside, you don't.

Buy an air rifle if you like, but there will be an endless supply of them. They will be brown rats, and they do no real harm in that environment.

[Badda]

Stop putting out bird food.

[GT03ROB]

As equus says if you are in the country they come with the location, you'll never get rid of them.

If they get in the house, best solution is a cat.

[anonymous-user]

Get someone like this bloke, there are loads uk based.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk77qAvRsDY

[TR4man]

Badda said:

Stop putting out bird food.

This.

You are giving them an incentive to come into your garden. However, I think you just have to accept that they are everywhere and you’ll never completely get rid of them. A cat would undoubtedly help.

[rxe]

If you live in the middle of nowhere, get a .22 rimfire with a cheap infra red sight. Hours of fun to be had shooting rats from a distance. In the dark , their eyes are like car headlights, shoot between them.

[boxst]

Thank you for the replies. I just don't want the rats under the decking by the side of the house. So, wanted to remove them before trying to secure it. In the woods and garden is fine.

As the weather gets warmer then the .22 might be an idea, but I will probably go down the cage route. Not too sure how I feel about a few miles in the car in order to release them, but we will see.

[ARHarh]

I've got farm land on 3 sides of my house and see rats all the time. The farm across the road has 3 cats which keep the population under control, but they are not really a problem. We just accept it.

[RizzoTheRat]

GT03ROB said:

If they get in the house, best solution is a cat.

Not necessarily. We used to catch loads of mice in the house when I was a kid, then the cat died and the mouse problem stopped. The bloody cat must have been catching them outside and releasing them in the house!

[anonymous-user]

RizzoTheRat said:

Not necessarily. We used to catch loads of mice in the house when I was a kid, then the cat died and the mouse problem stopped. The bloody cat must have been catching them outside and releasing them in the house!

Yes my cat did that.

Best rat catchers are dogs.

[SlimJim16v]

If you don't want to shoot them yourself, I'm sure you can find someone only too happy to help. Try airgunbbs.

[Stephanie Plum]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Absolutely this.

[boxst]

Stephanie Plum said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Absolutely this.

Yes, we don't like it anyway (we only moved here a little while ago), BUT it has a lot of the drainage pipes and the oil supply a few cm underneath. From what I can tell, they couldn't be bothered to dig, so put the piping in at ground (not house) level and put the decking on top. So not trivial to remove.

[nute]

The Spruce Goose said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Not necessarily. We used to catch loads of mice in the house when I was a kid, then the cat died and the mouse problem stopped. The bloody cat must have been catching them outside and releasing them in the house!

Yes my cat did that.

Best rat catchers are dogs.

...as did ours. We only realised we were sharing the house with rats when little teeth marks appeared in an apple in the fruit bowl. Cats were good at bringing them in and letting them go but utterly useless at catching them in the house. That was before we had a dog.

[Chocolate Sausage]

Im in the middle of farmland and they a a bloody pest.

Had one in the kitchen wall, what a noise it would make eating on the king span. I got it eventually but had to knock a hole where the noise was coming from and put in various bait and Nutella / peanut butter mix.

Bait boxes all round the outside of the house and keep them topped up. I use the poison from amazon. Crushed up and mixes with something sweet.

This will definitely reduce the numbers if not stop it completely. Just have to keep the boxes topped up. The more boxes u put down the more you will kill.

This might not be the correct / ethical / pistonheads way but it works for me

[Toilet Duck]

I'm no expert, but from what I understand if you poison mice/rats, then other wildlife that prey on them (owls etc) can get poisoned if they eat the dead/dying rats/mice. I live in a rural area and occasionally get mice in the roof. I put mouse traps down and then stick the dead mice out on a fence post in the evening, they are always gone by first light (eaten by something, they aren't rising from the dead ). Quite satisfying knowing that I've provided an easy meal for something!