Topic: RATS

[Mr Smith]

I share my compost bins with the odd rat from time to time-they do all the work,as previously mentioned.

Poison to me is a total NO NO again for reasons previously stated.

                  I'm happy for you that Rats share your compost bin when they piss and defecate all over the shop, I'm glad I'm not eating your veg

[davyw1]

We have been discusing rats on A4A for longer than Betula,s cat has been tapping its Paw.
Why does a rat track close to fencing because it only has to look one way.
It will get wise to live traps and burrow under it and come up below the food so it drops into the hole.
It will go from swede to swede  nibble from each so it is constantly moving.
It studies the ground and will note any changes or anything unfamiliar and wont go near it.
Its only a little rodent put into a corner it will turn on you.

Some will not use poison because it may poison wild life, if you use it properly by putting it into small polythene bags in propper baiting traps the rat takes it to the nest and wildlife can not get at it.
Then there,s the dead poisoned rat that died in the open, so then there is concerns about your dog and again wild life eating it, no animal other than a crow will touch a dead rat and that will only be its eyes.

Spring traps not always efficient as they don't always kill the rat( but not very often) so its down to you how you solve that problem because if it not dead it will try to bite you.
 The will clear your crop of sweetcorn in hours they clime up your sprouts and nibble the leaf stem while urinating on the sprout, go along a row of beetroot take a bite out of each and every one, the damage they do and the disease they spread is endless (well not quite)

everone to there own way of dealing with them

[Alex133]

They say you're never more than 6 foot away from a rat!

[elvis2003]

I share my compost bins with the odd rat from time to time-they do all the work,as previously mentioned.

Poison to me is a total NO NO again for reasons previously stated.

                  I'm happy for you that Rats share your compost bin when they piss and defecate all over the shop, I'm glad I'm not eating your veg

How many of us eat produce straight from the plot without washing? I know we do...oops

[Unwashed]

Then there,s the dead poisoned rat that died in the open, so then there is concerns about your dog and again wild life eating it, no animal other than a crow will touch a dead rat and that will only be its eyes.

And yet the evidence from carcass toxicilogy analysis is that many predators scavenge on dead or dying rats and suffer as a result.

Red kites are the most threatened because dead rats are a speciality for them, and half of the red kites tested had LD50 body loads of bromadiolone - that's typically enough to kill them, and those with sub-lethal bodyloads were more than likely dieing as a result of their weakened state.

And if you want to tell my terriers that they don't eat dead animals, be my guest, but I wouldn't try to take the carcass off them if I were you.

This was my Emily with Bella on the right.


In 1988 when she was one year old she developed thrombocytopenia and began to bleed to death spontaneously.  With a big does of vitamin K and some heavy duty steroids I nursed her through.  Emily lived to be 13 was very special.  Rat poisoning was the most likely cause of her thrombocytopenia, and rats bleed to death just as she was.