Rats, I've got a rat

[Charles B]

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.

20€ by my local home and garden center. But I don't have a car to haul rats away with. It would be quite the circus if I were to carry the cage to my bus stop or haul it away in my bike basket! So my wife said forget it.

[Charles B]

My main concern with the rats right now is the fact I just bought two bird houses from NABU (like RSPB) and want to install them on the balcony
(as NABU shows in their balcony video).
But I'm worried rats may climb the brick walls on each side of my balcony and get into the bird houses.

They have 32 mm holes for Great Tits plus I just ordered flat, metall protector plates for them in both 32 mm and in 28 mm for Blue Tits.

Of course the rat I photographed earlier was many times fatter than this.

[Charles B]

My wife and I were out back below the balcony doing fall garden chores and found the rat holes! They were well hidden between the roots of our Gooseberry bushes I planted in 2004. The Gooseberries were quite a jungle indeed reaching upwards to our balcony rail for security protection.

Gooseberry bushes behind my wife's new Magnolia


So we cut the bushes down to the roots as best as possible. Plus we also got rid of a rose with it's two metre high bamboo tripod which was between the balcony and the little plum tree.

Rat holes between Gooseberry bush roots.


West view across raspberry bush pergola structure


East View by plum tree


Then I flooded all four holes with maybe 1000 litres of water until it also came out of the other four holes as well. One fat rat was able to escape.

Then I closed them up with my big field-hoe. I'll wait a day and see where (or if) the rats create a new hole and then go after it with my field-hoe again and again.



My youngest daughter who was into pet rats said they will probably eventually wander off elsewhere to find better sources of food like snails or slugs now that I take my bird feed in at night. I sure hope so!

[Jacksparrow]

The answers I have provided are suggestions based on what i see being used. I don't know if the poison eaten by the rat can cause damage to anything that scavenges the body to be honest but it is widely used.
The only methods I have used are the "live trap" and bait in a closed container. The rat problem went away and has not returned.
Incidently, I caught more hedgehogs than rats in the live trap. They were very grumpy but completely unharmed.

[Charles B]

The only methods I have used are the "live trap" and bait in a closed container. The rat problem went away and has not returned.
Incidently, I caught more hedgehogs than rats in the live trap. They were very grumpy but completely unharmed.

Thanks JS! I'll start by digging those Gooseberry roots out. They are really tough so I'll sharpen my shovel like in war-time. Hopefully all the comotion scares the rats away. Plastic trap boxes with poison will be my last resort.

[Willpar]

Hope you can get rid of them Charles, they can be quite a nuisance.

[Charles B]

Hope you can get rid of them Charles, they can be quite a nuisance.

Thanks William! Without the Gooseberry thicket there they will really have to be 'on their toes' incase an Owl or Moggy should come to call!

[Charles B]

No rats last night! And as we were having breakfeast in the dining room this morning Anna heard a Moggy out there in the garden below the balcony meowing loudly!

And as my raspberry plants were suffering from tiny green caterpillars this spring, good fortune (or prayer) also brought me the fock of Tits which I never had here before!

[Jacksparrow]

No rats last night! And as we were having breakfeast in the dining room this morning Anna heard a Moggy out there in the garden below the balcony meowing loudly!

And as my raspberry plants were suffering from tiny green caterpillars this spring, good fortune (or prayer) also brought me the fock of Tits which I never had here before!

Good luck Charles but be proactive as one rat quickly becomes six or more if not controlled.

[Charles B]

Thanks JS!
I was at my local home and garden center today buying a good sturdy lopper, two pair of leather gloves and a new raspberry plant 'Autum Bliss' but I didn't get over to the poision counter. My wife had our baby grand daughter along in the pram and that would have looked rather unsafe indeed. I'll go back there later. They have a large plastic trap box with a spring trap and posion pack inside; it's expensive all together but maybe I will buy one for under my balcony at it's south, open edge. Then it would be rain proof and out of sight but near where the rat holes were. Two would be better.