Rats!

[andyb]

We have rats! 

Next door has started keeping chickens in his back gardens and i've seen at least four different rats feeding form the feed container in the hen coop - one of them is a huge bugger, about the size of a rabbit but with a tail that's longer than it is 

Neighbours on the other side of us have put traps out and cught two already (but not the big one - that would be the main prize!)

I've tried putting a trap out but despite it being sprung a couple of times, I have caught anything yet.

I was in the local hardware store buying a bigger trap and joked with the storekeeper that I could do with an elephant gun. I was quite surprised when he said he had a range of rifles available for sale   would I like to see them?

They turned out to be .22 air rifles but they are beautifully made - nothing like the 'plinkers' used at fairgrounds. One I looked at had telescopic sights and a silencer and was beautifully balanced with a wonderfully finished wood stock. All for £265.

I haven't really held a 'proper' rifle since my Territorial Army days back in the 70s but this came close.

tempting, tempting...

[totalfolly]

Oh, ick!  We had an infestation in our townhouse community of what we thought were rats many years ago.  Turns out they were big mice, but it does sound like yours really are rats, Andy.  Ick, ick, ick.

Problem with rats is that they're smart.  You may catch one or two in a trap, but the others will learn not to go there.    One thing that worked with our problem was putting poison out, but putting it in places other animals and children couldn't get to, like a length of PVC pipe.  I'm not sure that'd work on your big beastie since a cat could easily get into any place he could have access to. 

Is it legal to keep livestock in your community, Andy?

totalfolly

[Celery Peach]

  ARGH !!! Wild rats are not the best things to have around. How about informing the enviromental health Andy ? I had dealings with them years ago because of noise pollution from my neighbours, and they were very good with us.

Surely, like TF said, there must be something illegal about keeping livestock like chucks so close to housing ? Well, even if there isnt, they have brought the rats so it is their responsibility to solve that problem.

I fear I will be joining you in buying traps soon, my neighbours have been decorating their house and have been just throwing all their rubbish in the back garden. Everything from carpets to cots, even bags of extra garbage from over the xmas period. Doesnt look like they have any intention of shifting any of it anytime soon. Its ridicolous. We are council tenants and if we did that the council would be on our backs to clear it up...but cos they bought their house, they have the rights to make the whole row of houses look like a slum 

I will just have to let the python out 

...and the cats will all be innoculated, microchipped and ready to go out soon...hopefully they will be as good as mousing as Tom and Gabe were 

[andyb]

I will just have to let the python out 

I know hunting with dogs is illegal in the UK now but hunting with pythons??

Oh, ick!  We had an infestation in our townhouse community of what we thought were rats many years ago.  Turns out they were big mice, but it does sound like yours really are rats, Andy.  Ick, ick, ick.

Oh yes - we're talking about the rattiest rat whoever ratted here! I couldn't believe the size and when I described it to the guy in our hardware store he showed me a mink trap and I thought that looked about the right size. The thing I noticed about the trap he showed me was that it was intended for 'live capture' - the implication was that you would either have to release the animal somewhere else (illegal with vermin) or find some other way to 'snuff it' (  ) or maybe keep it as a pet.... or give it to Barefoot's python...

One thing that worked with our problem was putting poison out, but putting it in places other animals and children couldn't get to, like a length of PVC pipe.  I'm not sure that'd work on your big beastie since a cat could easily get into any place he could have access to. 

I'm unsure about poison TF - you worry about other animals finding it....

Is it legal to keep livestock in your community, Andy?

Apparently local byelaws say you can keep a small number of fowls but they must be hens and not cockerels/roosters - but they must not cause a nuisance.

Talking to the Council, apparently this time of year is a particular problem as rats and other rodents come in off the fields looking for food and shelter. They can arrange to put traps down but unless you're elderly, or on some kind of benefit, there's a charge £££

Discovered that a neighbour has an air rifle so that may be a cheaper option - or invite the local rifle club around for a beer...

[totalfolly]

One thing that worked with our problem was putting poison out, but putting it in places other animals and children couldn't get to, like a length of PVC pipe.  I'm not sure that'd work on your big beastie since a cat could easily get into any place he could have access to. 

I'm unsure about poison TF - you worry about other animals finding it....

Yes, and that actually happened with a neighborhood dog.    The poison was chucked under the deck, and the dog dug it out.  He survived, but it took a lot of time and money to save his life.  That was actually the reason it was suggested we put the stuff into a piece of PVC pipe, maybe 2 feet long, but I really do fear your Monster Rat is too big for that solution.

IMO, if the hens are attracting rats, that'd be nuisance enough to have them removed!

totalfolly

[CalamityJane]

Squirrels are our problem -- but rat-like and smart they are. Was reading in the M/cr. Evening News that UK, has found a very interesting way to cull these beggers! NObody like the stalwart UK for finding good solutions to their problems.

Meanwhile Andy..........

Discovered that a neighbour has an air rifle so that me a cheaper option - or invite the local rifle club around for a beer...

Sounds like good social and extermination options all in one go, got to have a BBQ as well for your neighbours, and a weigh scale.....to weigh the largest prize!

Jane

[Uncle Matt]

Well, the only living rat I've ever seen was outside work. I came out of a door further up the building and saw it scurrying along the side of the building. It got to the door at the other end to be greeting by one of my co-workers shrieking her head off. The rat scurried under the nearby greenery, and was never seen again.

I looked at it and thought it was quite small as rats go, but my co-worker said it was huge.

Of course, I've seen plenty of dead ones. Mostly thanks to Shadow, our cat at home. He's passed on now, but he was the size of a small dog, and for the most part, the rats didn't stand chance. He'd just line them up outside the back door, along with the mice and birds and anything else he'd caught.

Squirrels are our problem

We have that here. It's the greys. They've chewed a hole in next door's soffits, to get in the roofspace. They're crafty buggers. They can crawl vertically straight up the wall. Me and the lovely lady from next door spend about 20 minutes one summer morning chucking stones at it. It ran off, and I've never seen it since, although rumours say it's moved down the other end of the crescent and is chewing there too.

[andyb]

I haven't seen the big one for a few days now - I'm sure if the neighbours had trapped it I would've heard about it.

In fact the most recent sighting I had of any rodent was yesterday but that was about the size of a large mouse.

I have noticed more of the neighbourhood's cats wandering through the garden - in fact one, a ginger tom, now quite regularly strolls through looking as if he owns the place.

Previously I would've shoo-ed them on as they like to leave their 'deposits' on the gravel I have my garden model railway on in the summer but it's good to have them around at the mo.

.. Was reading in the M/cr. Evening News that UK, has found a very interesting way to cull these beggers! NObody like the stalwart UK for finding good solutions to their problems.
..
Jane

what was the 'good solution', Jane?

[Bamawing]

I don't really have any viable suggestions, but I'm having tons of fun reading y'all's!

[CalamityJane]

Ooops, sorry, Andy!

According to the Manchester Evening News, they are being eaten -- butchers now sell squirrel. Quite popular according to the article, Squirrel Pie!

Good on the UK!

Jane

[andyb]

Found out just now that the son of the neighbour a few doors up is a 'Pest Control Operative' (would've been called a 'Rat Catcher' in former times) so have arranged for him to call.

Dear daughter won't walk down the garden to the gate unaccompanied anymore...

[totalfolly]

Dear daughter won't walk down the garden to the gate unaccompanied anymore...

I don't blame her!  Maybe she can do a lot of scary stomping if she has to walk to the gate.

I hope the pest person can help with your rat issue.

totalfolly

[CalamityJane]

That's good to hear. Hopefully no squirrel pie in your locale! Some neighbours can be wonderful!

Wish I hadn't deleted that article, or perhaps you are glad I did.

We are over-run with grey sqirrels, - so tame, that they will come in through a door, and surprise you, standing up on their hind legs. arms at chest level. They do look "sweet", but they are not that eating their way through your house.

Jane

[itchychick]

Oh andy, how gross!

I had a "rat scare" about two years ago...

We have an "unfinished basement"... with concrete floor and cinder block walls, exposed piping etc.  There is also a door down there that leads to the back yard.  One morning, while getting the boys ready for school, my older son makes a horrendous scream from the basement, and I come running down.  He was certain he had seen a rat.  He described it, and it sounded like it was one of those enormous sewer rats.  I've seen one on the street at night, so I know they do exist, and they are about the size of a small cat!

My solution?  I left the house immediately and then called my dad!  He came over with a trap and we baited it with cheese.  We didn't catch anything, but a while later I found a hole in one of the windows where the thing must have gotten in the house... luckily, he seemed to have left the same way he got in...

Good luck!!

[charlie2]

Oh rats !!!!!
Don't know whether you live in a residential area, but the law down here where I live, is that if you keep chooks (there is a restriction on the number), the chook cage must be rat proof i.e concrete floor and steel sheeting from the ground to a height of at least 75cm. No gaps anywhere for rats to squeeze there way in to scavenge the chook food.

Might pay to check this out with the rat catcher.

Oh rats !!!! I'm waffling again

[Celery Peach]

  that reminds me...

...I knew we had some little rodent sneaking around because we live in the country and there was rodent chewed telltale signs under the sink and in the bottom of the pantry - both are on the outside facing wall. Anyway, my eldest son was in the kitchen one night on the PC in the corner and shouted me in....not quite hysterical but not far off 

...well it was the cutest little thing I ever saw !  Must of been an inch and a half, if that, perfectly formed little mousey thing with a long pointy nose, running around in circles under the table.



I think it must of been a common shrew, I just scooped it into an empty ice cream pot and transported him outside..havnt seen him since...he was lucky the cats didnt find him first tho

[totalfolly]

What a cute little guy!  I think you're right on the ID, Barefoot.

totalfolly