Rats, I've got a rat

[Charles B]

Rats are a problem when you feed birds. We have an ongoing battle with keeping a rat out of the garden dammed thing is clever...

I thought the squirrels were bad but this may very well be the start of an on going problem. The rat sat there dreamy eyed in my plastic tray of sunflower seeds eating most of them but courtiously leaving the shells there not making a mess. He or she was indeed not affraid of me until I showed anger.

Yesterday I had washed my balcony deck with high pressure hot 60° C. water but I also washed the shells, un-eaten sunflower seeds and moldy specks of suet (beef) over the edge.

The balcony sits 1.5 metres above my garden and in the corner is my neighbor's 13 metre long row of cherry laurel bushes where all the tits roost and nest. In the following photo you can see this 'tunnel' in the bush which is where all the tits come and go.



The squirrels had always jumpped from there to my railing until I set a rectangle planter on edge there weighted down by bricks and cut back the bush somewhat aggrevating the tits.

Now how this little fellow got up onto the railing and over is a mystery; his departure didn't go well on the way down.

So I washed down the balcony with cold water today and went out back there with my heavy field hoe looking for rat holes. What I did find is indeed washing my balcony left a pile of feed for the rats down there. So I got rid of it and covered the area with hard, lime-clay soil.

In doing so I was dive-bombed by an upset Great Tit who called out a loud and long: "Piiiiieeeps!"
Now was he or she only freightened or telling me off?

[Jacksparrow]

I have been known to complain about cats in my garden down to their habit of trying to catch my wild birds. However, the upside from their presence is that I haven't seen a rat for years. I have found the occasional dead rat on the lawn but no live ones for this I credit my visiting moggies. For the benefit of Charles B a moggy is a slang word for a cat.

[Charles B]

However, the upside from their presence is that I haven't seen a rat for years. I have found the occasional dead rat on the lawn but no live ones for this I credit my visiting moggies.

We used to have three cats which had claimed my garden as their own:
1.) A big black and white one which after +20 years died of old age.

2.) A nervous female Calico which belonged to my neighbor lady to the left who took her cat back to Italy with her.

3.) A mixed dark grey tiger cat belonging to my neighbor to the right with her cherry laurel bushes.
He was a really effective hunter but quite neurotic due to the maggpies swooping at him constantly.
He caught a poisoned rat somewhere and died.

But I never had Great Tits or Blue Tits during the days of these cats. Now my neighbor with the bushes just bought a rather timid Calico mix.
I have indeed, sorry to say, heard two dreafull raids on the Tits, but maybe now she keeps the cat indoors.

I can't have a moggy myself as our bathroom (for it's litter box) has only a passive vent but no window. Plus a moggy would indeed destroy my model railway layout and my wooden model ships straight away and no birds would visity balcony.

[Charles B]

I have two open, plastic feeding trays hung within my raspberry pergola structure on the balcony and the rat was feeding in the one on the south (open side) of the balcony. So I started removing these trays after dusk (when the tits have grabbed their late snack) and set them back out around 7:00 to 8:00. Hopefully this isn't too late for the tits but I need more sleep lately. I also don't know if this rat only eats until dawn or not.

Plus I installed a tray under my suet-ball cage on a plant container to collect the fatty crumbs; now I can keep the balcony floor area cleaner.

[Charles B]

We've almost solved our rat probem by ridding the balcony of garden supplies and junk plus now we bring our new hanging bird feeder (on chains) plus the 9-ball suet-cage in at dusk (and sweep up good) and then hang them both out again 15 minutes before sunrise.

Of course I sweep the balcony deck serveral times a day deck plus hose it down with either high pressure hot or cold water maybe twice a week.

Alas, we still hear a rat or two at night scouting out our balcony and going away peeping out of frustration. Hopefully it is indeed only one!

We have a ground level balcony which is 1.5 meters above our garden out back. I'm sure they must be climbing the outside edge of the brick wall next to my balcony and then hopping down from our flat balcony railing as we always hear a bump, a thud or a plop.

To make matters worse, our neighbors above have been known to keep garbage sacks on their balcony (maybe this is acceptable where they come from) and the rats could also no doubt scale the corner of this brick wall to get up there too.

So should I just accept the nightly visit of a rat who finds nothing or should I set traps or poision?

Setting traps out at dusk and retrieving them at dawn could mean broken fingers or a neighborhood moggy loosing a paw. So that's out.

Poision, by law, has to be set in expensive plastic trap boxes (20€) plus 4 little packs of poision another (35€). The birds may also be poisioned so that's out.

Spraying some scent which rats hate is another option. We tried it with some awfull, cheap perfume which only made the balcony smell like Hamburg - St. Pauli. That didn't stop the rats either so that's out.

Hoping an Owl or Sparrow Hawk settles here: No, then no more Tits to feed at all.

Buy the 'Air Arms 520 Tactical' with night vision scope: No that's illegal!

What do you suggest I do from here on???
Thanks for your replies in advance.

[PimperneBloke]

For a garden setting, most advice is remove all food sources for several weeks, Charles, but with your balcony setting and upstairs neighbours with their refuse sacks I'm at a bit of a loss what to suggest

[Charles B]

Charles, but with your balcony setting and upstairs neighbours with their refuse sacks I'm at a bit of a loss what to suggest

Where is a good stray Moggy when you need one? The neighbor's Moggy 'Leo' ate a posioned rat and died horribly. We use to have 3 cats in the yard and no rats at all but not one Tit either.

Doing garden work down below is my next tactic while my wife still has vaction time.

[Jacksparrow]

It is possible to buy small animal traps or maybe borrow one. They do not kill the trapped animal but do allow you to take them far enough away from your home that they won't come back. Alternatively you could try "Bait Boxes" which professional pest companies use, only small mammals would go in and birds will ignore them. The "bait" will kill the animal that eats it but not immediately so you may not need to get rid of the corpse.

[PimperneBloke]

It is possible to buy small animal traps or maybe borrow one. They do not kill the trapped animal but do allow you to take them far enough away from your home that they won't come back. Alternatively you could try "Bait Boxes" which professional pest companies use, only small mammals would go in and birds will ignore them. The "bait" will kill the animal that eats it but not immediately so you may not need to get rid of the corpse.

But if something eats the dead rat, would it then not be poisoned too?

[Charles B]

But if something eats the dead rat, would it then not be poisoned too?

That's precisely what happend to the Moggy 'Leo' .
Professional exterminators set poisioned traps out by the garbage dumpters and he ate one of these poisoned rats.

And we also have hedgehogs and wild bunnies to think about in the garden.