Rat problem

Hi all - I am new here. I have been feeding garden birds for a year now and so many different species have visited us during this time. One however, is particularly unwelcome. We have realised we are feeding vast amounts of food to a rat which can get at anything including hanging upside down from the feeders. How can we get rid of this pest without causing any unintentional harm to the birds. We live very close to the Kennet & Avon Canal so this is probably not the only one

Hi Francesca, welcome to the forum.

There is always the possibility of attracting the wrong type of interest when feeding birds, ground feeding is probably the main culprit.

What are you putting out?

Peanuts, bird seed and fat balls in hanging feeders. Ground seed, apple and mealworms on ground for ground feeders. The rat can get at absolutely anything it likes. It runs off with huge chunks of fat ball and has no trouble jumping 6' to the ground. Birds are so used to rat they completely ignore it.

Air pistol? :thumbsup:

Unfortunately, aside from severely curtailing your ground feeding, covering the hanging feeders with squirrel and rat proof domes, making sure that they are not accessible by jumping from side areas, there is very little you can do. Rat bait or cage traps may not work in the presence of so much other food.

Thanks, I have just seen the rat run off with yet another broken off section of a fatball. I will probably have to resort to some sort of rat poison or just stop feeding birds which I don't really want to do.

Welcome from me too, Francesca!

You don't have a friend who has a Jack Russell (or other 'ratter') Terrier? These little dogs would make short work of any Rats in your garden. Our neighbours have two, and they killed 2 which visited our gardens a couple of years ago! If you know someone with one, ask him/her round for afternoon tea in the garden!;)

I worry about the use of poison bait as other wildlife (like Hedgehogs) could take it only too easily.... Cage traps are fine, but cost about £30 to buy - worthwhile if the nuisance repeats itself. I wouldn't try springed Rat traps. Even when set in their 'runs' and where you might think only a Rat would go, birds' legs can be easily trapped in these - and innocent Wood Mice could be killed, creatures essential to the food chain in your garden.

Ross' idea of an air gun/rifle is fine if you know someone who is an experienced shooter. It would be all too easy to wound an animal and leave it to suffer a lingering death.

Apart from the obvious hygiene issue, I would also want to rid my garden with Rats if they were seen around. Carriers of Weils Disease, they are not what you want to encourage near you home, or on a lawn on which children like to play.

Thanks for replies.

Put rat poison out after not putting any bird food out for a couple of days but rat ignored it.

Like the idea of a jack russell though.

New problem. A magpie is visiting several times a day which we have not had in the garden before and spends ages right beside the nesting box where blue tits are nesting. I guess it's waiting for the fledglings

six cats in the street the street I lived in were Poisoned including one of mine due to people using rat poising. I held my cat whilst she died it was horrific. I'll never forget.
There were allotments near by and a lot of the residents used rat poisoning. So please don't use it

There are rat baits which are non-toxic, like Eradi-rat, no poisonous ingredients, but rats won't take it if there is any other food around.

I did put out some rat poison one day last week but brought it in at night so no hedgehogs got at it. I don't think it was touched. However, I won't be doing that again because to my horror, I have just realised it is a water vole and not a rat (featured on The One Show this evening). I honestly though water voles were tiny like field mice.

Well that's really good news if it's the case Francesca, they're wonderful little animals and great that you have one visiting, although I didn't think they were agile climbers. See if you can get a picture of it and upload it.

Some one here has a rat problem on his alotment

Oh, my goodness! How did it get up there?

I often look through the fence as lots of birds are in there (usually to far for my lens ) and saw him wondered what it was, captured the movement and then realized

He now has a couple of extra little problems

Hhm - it looks like the skill is being passed onto the younger generation ;)