I went up to the plot today and every single compost bin - all 5 of them - had a rat hole in the earth beside it >:(
Would it be a viable option just to dig a hold in the ground, once a bed is cleared, and just bury the stuff I would usually put in a composter and then cover up once it was deemed full, or would the little furries just dig down anyway?
Ninnyscrops
I doubt whether a compost bin offers a rat much apart from a nice warm nest site, unless you're putting food scraps in it. You'd probably have the rats anyway, so put down poison or get some fen traps.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on December 01, 2008, 08:26:15
I doubt whether a compost bin offers a rat much apart from a nice warm nest site
Precisely :o Who
wouldn't want to billet themselves in a nice dark warm Des Res? That's my conclusion, anyway since I've found the same prob. in my Dalek, which is due to be emptied and cleared out tomorrow morning - if I'm brave enough and kitted out appropriately >:(...dunno how many squatters I've got in there, but this time tomorrow I'll tell ya! I'll then securely wire-net it before repositioning.
Before I had the recently acquired Dalek I used to trench my cuttings, etc. into the beds or, indeed, use the same method of burying it on the piece of ground which now houses my Dalek - an area approx 8' x 6'. Undoubtedly there were and are always rats around but in the 15+yrs I used the trench method I never found a rats nest. Coincidence perhaps cos it may well be that we've got a rat population explosion here? Dunno.
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do :)
I put cat pepper down the hole's seems to work.
What's cat pepper please? I was looking at boxes of rat pellets in Wyvale yesterday & they seem quite expensive.
Pepper dust you up down to keep cats off ya garden,you can get it from Wilko's.
Cat pepper! ;D What made you try that? Brilliant if its working.
When I had a dalek compost bin in my back garden it too became a very attractive rat Des Res. I stuck a hosepipe in it and flooded the thing. Next year, same problem so I decided to not have a compost bin in the garden and to take all compostibles up to the lotty.
The compost bins at the lotty are in the middle of the allotment in the open and I couldn't give a tinkers cuss if rodents nest in those but they remain untouched as far as I can see. The dalek is lying on it's side unused at the lotty. Fed up with it.
My hen shed on the other hand has become home to the hugest rats (judging by the size of the poo) and today my foot disappeared down a hole in the hen's pen.
Have possibly a great ratter in my young Scottish terrier dog but I dare not train him to rat because of all the poison put around. (Seemingly not working on the rats anymore?) Dog doesn't go for the hens but he is very interested in the rat holes. Shame, it would be so hassle free to get him to kill them,proper working dog like.
I have heard rumours that there is a big explosion in the rat population on our allotment site. I've never seen any signs of rats on my patch before,not that I am stupid enough not to realise that they were there, but like I say, I have never had any signs inside the shed or around the shed like there is now. I mean,it looks infested. Can live with them in the background but not like this. >:(
Bare in mind that not only the chance of disease but also the amount of hen food the rats will be eating
Well, Dalek emptied and....no rats, no sign of rats, no smell of rats ??? Dug deeply all round the area as a precaution and no rat runs either. BUT a neighbouring cat is perched up in an apple tree staring fixedly at the plot and has been there for half an hour or so. :-\ Dunno, just dunno, but everso relieved..
I'll buy some cat pepper tho, and also wire mesh the underside of the Dalek. I'm really impressed by the composted stuff that came out of it.
Rotten shame you can't use Frodo, H, because of the poison risk :'(
Hi, If you think the rats are eating your hen food put chilli powder on it to stop them as for the chucks they Will be fine as for some strange reason hens cannot taste chilli?
When I lived on my parents farm in NZ I often got the job of feeding the hens, the feed was in a darkish shed in 44 galleon drums with a fairly heavy wooden lid. On two occasions (and i was about 7/8 years old!) I got a nasty surprise as I reached in...the first time there was a possum (australian pest introduced by some idiot for fur!) which had got in and couldn't get out which made a jump for my arm but i saw it just in time...my brother dispatched that one. Next time and long enough for me to forget the first incident there were 5 rats in there which leapt at me fortunately i'd learned to check first. I don't know what happened to them...i assume they were dispatched in similar manner to the possum.
Anyway I too have a rat in my dalek bin and I was really puzzled by it as I couldn't see a hole then I discovered I had for gotten to put netting underneath...the netting is sitting nearby waiting to go under...before I started to fill it.....OOPS :-[
Having said that it didn't work last year as the rat was too smart, after burrowing under the netting it came back up and used the hole underneath to push the netting down into the hole then just squeezed thru the gap it made.
They eat the worms.....and the very small squash I put in has been nibbled all over so they must like that too.
Check my feed bin everyday and not found any evidence of ratty getting in there but I'll be lifting the lid more carefully in future!They did get into a bag of feed that was on the floor...normally the bags are not touched but obviously we can't do that anymore. I s'pose we've been lucky to have been free of rats in the shed for so long. Not sure if they are getting into the hen's feed hopper...would expect them to be but all the hens are mostly staying indoors because of the cold so they are eating more anyway so it's difficcult to tell if it's the hens or the rats eating more. I am defo going to try the chilli powder. What a fab tip...thanks.
My thinking with the dalek compost bin was to keep it very wet whilst there were any signs that there were rats getting into it...so it wasn't such a comfy pad. The signs were definite...nesting material which consisted of paper,dry vegetation and even nibbled up plastic bags, disturbed ground around the base of the bin and a hole through the compost at the door area.
The chilli powder tip....Colin Bellamy Woods kept a petshop for years and he first gave us this tip to keep squirrels away from bird food, he used to sell it ready prepared....so...for tree-rats, read 'rats' and for birds read 'chooks'? Well worth giving it a go, H.
(and d**n! Was in Wilkos today & forgot to look for cat pepper....)
Not much if any gardening stuff in Wilkinson's (here anyway) at the moment lots of Christmas stuff taking up the space.
Here, there are lawn rakes, sodium chlorate, lawn seed - and mouse traps. And still I forgot to look for cat pepper :-[
i remember trying this last year to deter foxes from digging in my flower beds, reading this thread jogged my memory.
all i did was sprinkle quite liberally on a dry day (the plants and the soil should be dry as well that way the pepper dust is disturbed easily when they are sniffing or digging) cayenne pepper and it really did work it reduced the disturbance of my plants and soil by Mr fox quite a bit.
i didn't think to add it to the bird food to deter the squirrel will definitely do so a little later and will give the compost bin a liberal coating to keep the rat away haven't seen any new signs that its still around so the poison might have done the trick but hopefully the pepper will help to deter any others from taking up residence.
Cayenne pepper and chilli powder is in my larder - will have a go with that! ;)
Got a sneaking suspicion that's it's the egg shells that's attracting them as there's no cooked waste only kitchen peelings and tea bags.
Quote from: thifasmom on December 05, 2008, 10:00:03
i didn't think to add it to the bird food to deter the squirrel will definitely do so a little later.
well i think my two resident squirrels enjoy chili pepper, yesterday i dusted the peanuts, and they still came back, so i mixed a runny paste of chili and cayenne pepper and painted it on the nut feeder and poured it on to the nuts. well not only did they come back but they removed the feeder off of it's hook again and continued to steal bits of nuts through the wire. I'm sure they were getting pepper all over their mouth, paws, nose, etc as i painted it on quite liberally. but they were back again this morning ::).
so that's: squirrels - 1, me - 0 >:(.
i'm told by my sister who spoke to a master composter in shrewsbury(don't ask!!) anyway he recommends that each time you go past your 'darlek' bang on the sides rats no like it !!
Quote from: downtoearth on December 05, 2008, 23:32:04
Got a sneaking suspicion that's it's the egg shells that's attracting them as there's no cooked waste only kitchen peelings and tea bags.
I've found egg shells invaluable - as a 1st line defence against slug invasion on newly-planted bedding plants 8) All year round I put the shells in a container on top of the combi-boiler to dry them out.....come the Spring I crumble to breadcrumb consistancy & use trowel-fulls of these in with the soil underground, sprinkling a good layer round them once the plants are well bedded in.
Agree that fresh eggshells will attract rats, however you use them :(
Quote from: lolabelle on December 07, 2008, 13:48:29
i'm told by my sister who spoke to a master composter in shrewsbury(don't ask!!) anyway he recommends that each time you go past your 'darlek' bang on the sides rats no like it !!
I always bang mine......and pause .....before removing the lid.....gives them time to shoot out the bottom....oh stand back a bit too after the banging on the side.
I agree that banging on the bin can make them move on but only works if you're there to do it frequently.
Mine must be full of rats as I haven't been down for a week now thanks to this horrendous cold i have. Can't do anything strenous without a 5 minute coughing fit. Have to take painkillers for the rib pain. :(