Garden Wildlife UK

Hi all,

Newbie here. I am at a loss to identify the critter shown. Our next door neighbour has the odd rat in their garden, we think from some minor excavations behind their property. This was caught in the trap, please identify. The last thing we want to do is to trap cute field mice.

Many thanks.

Hi trooper and welcome. Too small for a rat, but a quick look around leads me to believe that it is a wood mouse. I have them where I live, the night camera pick them up now and again.

I agree with Willpar a mouse. A proper rat trap may not snare a mouse as they are too light to trigger them usually.

Welcome

Yeah I agree it's a mouse. Rats have a longer face and smaller ears.

Hi all, thanks for your input. The trap is now in storage & very happy the rats prefer next doors garden to mine.

Hi trooper, as a train of thought, if you do get a rat in your garden, you may want to think of investing in a non lethal trap. I say this because I am sure you don't want to kill animals that are garden friendly, especially hedgehogs. If you use a non lethal trap can take them a couple of miles away and release. Or despatch them in the cage.

Willpar, will you pop along and deal with my rat, please ??

Good thinking batman, but the dispatched rats, mice, as it turned out, were put to good use. Their carcasses were left on the lawn & soon snapped up by, I presume, birds, during the day. When I had big problems with grey squirrels, I'd trap & dispatch them & did likewise, overnight. Our urban fox did the rest!

I simply couldn't do this: it's the "dispatch" thing I have trouble with.
S'pose it's mainly a Man thing . But I just lurve mice .

I read somewhere a while back that someone had taken an injured grey squirrel to a "rescue" centre, who nursed it back to health & released it. As they are vermin, I thought that that was illegal?