Keeping Rats out of bins?

[Quattr04.]

I’m having a frustrating time with the bins and a rat

We have those hessien type recycling bags for our plastics metals paper etc, I clean all the recycling before it goes in them, and then those bags are kept inside a plastic garden storage box

The problem is a rat chewed though the bottom of the box and then it’s replacement and then into the bags, chewing though the bottom of the sacks.

How are people keeping them away? I have a very small garden so the plastic box is kept in the back alley wide that is only a meter wide so I’m very limited with options, I think the rat was digging up though the stones from the field behind and then into the box

I’ve thought about removing the stones and replacing with concrete, I’ve also looked at metal anti rodent boxes but they’re all so wide that they would block the alleyway.

[Arrivalist]

Air rifle.

[Jamescrs]

If a metal container is not an option then the only other I can come up with would be to kill the problem either with poison or some form of traps. I used the latter some years ago when I had rats getting into an outbuilding and eating dry animal food, but in my ase it was easy to see where they got in as the chewed a hole in a wooden door so I put the trap directly inside the entrance where the hole was.

[trickywoo]

Probably worth getting the council pest controller round. If there is 1 rat there are probably 10+.

[MC Bodge]

A combination of strong rat traps and shooting.

Failing that, poisoning.

[AndyAudi]

Unlike mice - Rats need both a food & water source, remove one & they will move.

[Arrivalist]

nuyorican said:

Lay on a splendid spread for them adjacent to the bin.

Ooh I like this idea- very Machiavellian.

[balham123]

Normally rats are pretty careful with new food sources, but if they have been munching through your bins, pretty vulnerable to poison grain in the bin with some food leftovers drizzled over the top (something they may be used to). If they eat it, likely problem solved

[abzmike]

If a metal box isn’t an option, wrap the plastic one with chicken wire? And poison.

[shtu]

Find space for a proper bin? https://www.toolstation.com/galvanised-metal-dustb...

Rats is why metal bins used to be everywhere.

There's more "boxy" storage about, at a price, eg, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181950263584 your local farm shop will likely have stuff.

[Quattr04.]

shtu said:

Find space for a proper bin? https://www.toolstation.com/galvanised-metal-dustb...

Rats is why metal bins used to be everywhere.

There's more "boxy" storage about, at a price, eg, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181950263584 your local farm shop will likely have stuff.

I did actually look at the one you linked but it’s too big for the space.

[shtu]

Oh, and the bits about pest control too.

[defblade]

Stand your bin on staddle stones (which is apparently the proper name for "anti-rat mushroom building supports" which is wot I Googled)