I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken

I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?


Rats are happy to eat most seeds. To solve the problem you need to get a
professional pest control service to advise you on how best to control them.
Many local authorities provide such a service or will offer advice. Phone
you local Environmental Health Department.


Peter Crosland

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I regret that rats will always be attracted whatever the type of food.
Two weeks ago I was invited to an elderly neighbour's to watch the squirrels
climbing up to her bird feeders. I wish that I had not told her that they
were actually rats!! She hasn't been the same since and has stopped all
feeding.
Best Wishes Brian.

ken wrote:
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken

There is no seeds or nuts that will not attract rats, they will eat almost
anything including (but not restricted to) candles, soap, any kind of meat -
raw or cooked, any other animal living (smaller than the rat obviously!) or
dead (regardless of size) any kind of vegetation, basically anything that is
edible they will eat, seeds and nuts are their preferred diet though and I
don't think there's anything that birds will eat that rats won't, I had this
trouble about a fortnight ago, first from the squirrels and then the rats,
the only solution was to suspend the feeder at the end of a very thin
branch...even now the blackbirds and other large-ish birds can't feed but
the bluetits etc can, for some reason robins won't cling onto a mesh feeder
though, they will only eat while stood upright.

"Brian" --- 'flayb' to respond wrote in message
...

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I regret that rats will always be attracted whatever the type of food.
Two weeks ago I was invited to an elderly neighbour's to watch the
squirrels
climbing up to her bird feeders. I wish that I had not told her that they
were actually rats!! She hasn't been the same since and has stopped all
feeding.

Good, hopefully that'll kill off some of the tree rats as well, unless that
is what you were describing!

Alan

Best Wishes Brian.

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?


Rats are omnivorous, and any animal or vegetable substance they can fit in
their mouths or take a bite from is likely to be vulnerable to their
attentions. I have not heard of a type of seed they will not eat. Basically,
the only seeds I can think of which might give them too much trouble to
bother with are large (whole) nuts, like coconuts (and even they would
probably be vulnerable if the rats were really hungry), but then the birds
wouldn't be able to get into them, either. So, sorry, I think the answer's
got to be 'No'.

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken

Rats will eat anything. Feed your birds ojn a bird table so that the rats
cannot get up and eat it. Hang peanut nets from a washing line . Then put
down bait boxes with rat poison to feed the rats.

"PammyT" wrote in message
...

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken

Rats will eat anything. Feed your birds ojn a bird table so that the rats
cannot get up and eat it. Hang peanut nets from a washing line . Then put
down bait boxes with rat poison to feed the rats.

Unfortunately that will not deter the tree rats!

Alan

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken


Been watching a wood mouse eating peanuts through the wires of a mesh feeder
suspended from a fence this morning.
Very pretty in the deep snow but what damage to the garden can a wood mouse
do apart from eating the occasional seeds?
Regards,
Eddie

"BAC" wrote in message
...

"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?


Rats are omnivorous, and any animal or vegetable substance they can fit in
their mouths or take a bite from is likely to be vulnerable to their
attentions. I have not heard of a type of seed they will not eat.
Basically,
the only seeds I can think of which might give them too much trouble to
bother with are large (whole) nuts, like coconuts (and even they would
probably be vulnerable if the rats were really hungry), but then the birds
wouldn't be able to get into them, either. So, sorry, I think the answer's
got to be 'No'.


I was told when I was in the army that back in "the old days" when explosive
propellants were black powder in Hessian bags, they would eat the
propellants.

Steve

Eddie G0EHV wrote:
"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken


Been watching a wood mouse eating peanuts through the wires of a mesh
feeder suspended from a fence this morning.
Very pretty in the deep snow but what damage to the garden can a wood
mouse do apart from eating the occasional seeds?
Regards,
Eddie

Eat the occasional beetroot!...they like insects too though not snails or
slugs, but caterpillars are a delicacy to them!....be thankful if you see
mice, it means there aren't many rats about (rats hunt mice).

Phil L wrote:

Eat the occasional beetroot!...they like insects too though not snails or
slugs, but caterpillars are a delicacy to them!....be thankful if you see
mice, it means there aren't many rats about (rats hunt mice).

Heard today that if you have badgers you won't have any hedgehogs and
vice versa. This is because they don't like sharing their territories.

As for the rats and the mice, I cannot see the problems unless they
keep eating all your food stuff in your grain store, unless you live in
the city or suburb and unless they come inside your house. They are
afterall food for other animals like big birds, foxes and cats. I do
not feed birds because I think I have enough natural food stuff in my
garden and I also have cats, foxes and hedgehogs. I only shake my table
cloth outside for the crumbs and that's been enough to teach the black
bird, his missus and a flock of bluetits to wait for it )

Hi
Had a bird feeder bought me for christmas off my daughter its mad of some
type of resin material being about 6 foot tall and made by "guardsman" I
think, she bought this model since it was alleged to be too slippery for
rats to climb up.
regards
Cineman
"ken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I stopped feeding squirrels and birds last year becasue rats came and
ate the sunflower seeds - i have 2 questions - do rats bother with
peanuts? and Is there some kind of see i can put out that will not
attract rats?

thanks

ken

"La Puce" wrote in message
ups.com...

Phil L wrote:

snip

Heard today that if you have badgers you won't have any hedgehogs and
vice versa. This is because they don't like sharing their territories.


You won't get many hedgehogs in badger territory because badgers are very
successful hedgehog predators, and kill and eat any hedgehogs encountered.
AFAIK, hedgehogs have no effective means either of deterring badgers from
occupying any particular territory, or of defending themselves from a
badger's attack. So I don't think it's really a case of the two species
choosing to avoid each other, the badgers are just too good at snaffling up
hedgehogs.

snip
What is the problem with having a few rats around? (4 legged ones)
People seem to have this morbid dread of rats which is possibly a hangover
from the plague days and even then it was the fleas which the rats carried
that spread the plague, not the rats themselves.
There seems to me to be a whole lot of discrimination in the way we regard
our wildlife.
Encourage the small birds but not the magpies or jackdaws etc.
Feed the badgers but not the foxes or squirrels.
We tend to apply human attrbutes to birds and animals which is plain
ignorance. They act in the ways that nature endowed them and with few
exceptions their actions are designed for survival and not just to annoy
humans.
Better stop now in case I dig out my soap box and really go into one.
ps I am not immune from damage to my garden from the local wildlife but I
would rather have that than no visits from them.
Jim