I think rats are digging under the rabbit wire round my plot to get at my "Dalek" type compost bin.
The Guy on the next plot thinks it could be after the egg shells.
Has any one else suffered from this.
I have found mice babies and ant nests in my compost areas but never rats. But rats are living creatures and not necessarily diseased, just trying to live.....I compost eggshells and have never seen any rats around.
I always make sure my eggshells are completely dry, then crush them before adding to compost & mix
them well in
Debs
Could it be everyone is putting out there leftovers for the birds, Rats are funny creatures and live in a family so if its a odd one they are after feeding there young so watch what you leave out ;D ;D
My compost bins live on paving slabs now after a visit or two in years gone by. You can also tape up the flap to deter visitors.
Egg shells are washed, microwaved for a minute or two or put in an oven after a baking session then crushed in a pestal and mortar then saved in an old cream pot or such for sprinkling around seedlings in the spring.
Ninny :)
Yes I have had them in my bins, you can get a rat trap and bait it with peanut butter, lay it on the top of the pealing and wait or use rat poison in a small pot.
Yes i get rats in my dalek compost bins every year. I don't put eggshells in the hope it was the eggshells that attacted the rats but they still come. I bought two darlek compost bin 'bottems' that cost £10 each, they are supposed to stop rodentsgetting in your compost bin....they bit a massive hole in one of them!
I find they come to my bins in the winter...maybe for warmth?...i now take the lids off in winter so the contents get wet...i still see holes where the rats have burrowed but they don't seem to want to nest in them.
Rats are everywhere; if you can't see them, don't assume their absence!
Found a mother rat and litter of babies in the compost heap the other day. She escaped, they did not. Cats admonished for not doing their job. Made moving the rest of the heap from Bin 1 to Bin 2 a bit scary though.
I have open compost heaps at home and a problem with rats developed couple of years ago. Copied an anti-squirrel idea I'd read about and laced some bread with very, very hot chilli powder. Next day there were signs it had been tried....... all rat activity on the heap ended and they haven't been back.
I like that idea - hadn't thought it'd work on rats, but then grey squirrels are rats with good PR so no reason for it not to I suppose.
Alison
If you've kept pet rats - and they're just the same species as the brown rat you get on allotments - you'll know they're intelligent, clean, affectionate, social pets. Someone did a right hatchet job on the rat's public image and it's quite unfair. Providing you don't give them access to your chicken feed and you store seed in tins there's little harm rats can do on an allotment. Sure, rats can carry Weil's disease, and it's not nice, but you have to keep it in persepctive - wash you mug before you make a brew in the shed and you're fine. Best thing is to keep your plot tide so there aren't too many places for them to hide and then their predators will keep them under control - and if they move into your compost heap what's the problem?
They'll have your veg if they can - I wouldn't try clamping spuds on the plot with a lot of rats about, for instance - and they've occasionally got into beehives in the winter and caused a lot of damage. I couldn't believe the mess the first time I had a rat in a hive. I find I need to keep them controlled, or the problems start.