Feeding birds - rat problem
 

I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden now
that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters and
drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

Hello All

In article ,
Baz wrote:
I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden now
that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters and
drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

May be you need to attract a pheasant. I have a beautiful male that spends a
good part of the day sat on the ground under our bird feeders waiting for the
small birds to drop something. At present I am enjoying watching him. I shall
not be so happy if he turns his attention to my vegetable patch.

John

--
John Rye
Hadleigh IPSWICH England
http://www.ryepad.plus.com
--- Using RISC OS Six on an Acorn StrongArm RiscPC and under VARPC ---

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

John Rye wrote in
:

Hello All

In article ,
Baz wrote:
I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden
now that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters
and drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

May be you need to attract a pheasant. I have a beautiful male that
spends a good part of the day sat on the ground under our bird feeders
waiting for the small birds to drop something. At present I am
enjoying watching him. I shall not be so happy if he turns his
attention to my vegetable patch.

John


You know what, John, I can't remember the last time I saw, or even heard a
phesant in the last year or two. They were once very common here in
Lincolnshire. I have heard it said that foxes can be just one culprit
because they like to eat pheasant eggs. Foxes are very common now here and
used to be very rare indeed. I suppose that is a result of the hunt ban and
no predators.

Baz

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:09:54 GMT, Baz wrote:

I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden now
that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters and
drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

I have large 15" plant pot saucers mounted on the top of poles under
the hanging feeders so that any waste drops into those .Other birds
such as Pigeons,Blackbirds,Thrushes who are normally ground feeders
like to feed in them and eat what would be wasted.
The occasional rat does learn to climb the pole and walk upside down
to gain access to the saucer. While it does so it is quite vulnerable
to being shot with an air rifle so that is one method if the position
of the feeder and your personal morals allow such an action to be
done safely.
Choosing the right feed mix is important as well,some of the multi
mixes while cheaper often contain things that a lot of birds will just
throw out and you end up supplying food for rats.
Might pay to get something more expensive but better targeted at the
species you want to feed.
Dealing with the rats themselves again come down to how you feel about
killing things which is what you have to do.
First you have to find the Nests, I use a security camera with night
IR lighting to see what comes in the garden and it's ideal for seeing
where the rats go.

Poison, various types some of which cannot be used outside buildings
and even those that are allowed should be used in a proper bait box to
ensure other animals cannot get to it. There is always the risk that
a poisoned rat will be eating by an owl etc so that is something to
consider as is the type of poison. Some rats get immunities. One here
actually burrowed into a shed and then chewed into the tub of poison
sachets because it liked the taste so much. A change of type seems to
have finally stopped it.
Traps ,old fashioned neck breaker very effective if placed on run and
the rat takes the bait,ignore the myth of cheese . Peanut Butter or
Chocolate is more attractive. Result is messy so how squeamish are
you?
Cage traps which catch them live. Will you be able to deal with them?
technically it is illegal to release them. The RSPCA has brought cases
against people drowning them so that leaves shooting from close range.
Not all cages make this easy and watch out for ricochets,a lower power
air pistol is easier than an air rifle doing this I have found, but I
haven't used this method for a while.
Best places to find the real poisons and traps are agricultural
suppliers rather than elsewhere.

Ferrets and Terriers can also be effective but not practical for most
people.

Get a professional in . Can work out expensive ,If you are feeding
birds and get rid of a batch of rats then some more will come along
later,best learn how to deal with them yourself.
Same really applies if you have a compost heap.

To be honest it's a problem that you manage rather than eliminate.
I'm fortunate in that all the rats here are from fields and have never
fed on Human waste or been in a sewer so as Rats go they are probably
fairly clean so I'm not too paronoid about seeing them being down the
garden providing they arn't near the house or in the main sheds. I
have found that killing them when small by sticking a hose down the
burrows for a day ,letting the local cats run free who deal with a few
which only leaves a couple who reach the large stage to be dealt with
every so often. Just getting over the Autumn batch now which came in
from the harvested fields.

G.Harman

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

"Baz" wrote in message
...
John Rye wrote in
:

Hello All

In article ,
Baz wrote:
I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden
now that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters
and drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

May be you need to attract a pheasant. I have a beautiful male that
spends a good part of the day sat on the ground under our bird feeders
waiting for the small birds to drop something. At present I am
enjoying watching him. I shall not be so happy if he turns his
attention to my vegetable patch.

John


You know what, John, I can't remember the last time I saw, or even heard a
phesant in the last year or two. They were once very common here in
Lincolnshire. I have heard it said that foxes can be just one culprit
because they like to eat pheasant eggs. Foxes are very common now here and
used to be very rare indeed. I suppose that is a result of the hunt ban
and
no predators.

Baz

I was talking to a farmer last week who said pheasant and partridge numbers
are way down lately because of the spread of buzzards in recent years.
R.

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

"Ragnar" wrote in
:


"Baz" wrote in message
...
John Rye wrote in
:

Hello All

In article ,
Baz wrote:
I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden
now that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters
and drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

May be you need to attract a pheasant. I have a beautiful male that
spends a good part of the day sat on the ground under our bird
feeders waiting for the small birds to drop something. At present I
am enjoying watching him. I shall not be so happy if he turns his
attention to my vegetable patch.

John


You know what, John, I can't remember the last time I saw, or even
heard a phesant in the last year or two. They were once very common
here in Lincolnshire. I have heard it said that foxes can be just one
culprit because they like to eat pheasant eggs. Foxes are very common
now here and used to be very rare indeed. I suppose that is a result
of the hunt ban and
no predators.

Baz

I was talking to a farmer last week who said pheasant and partridge
numbers are way down lately because of the spread of buzzards in
recent years. R.




Buzzards! Never seen a buzzard in UK. Only in NZ, and I was only a kid.

Baz

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

Martin wrote in
:


You know what, John, I can't remember the last time I saw, or even
heard a phesant in the last year or two. They were once very common
here in Lincolnshire. I have heard it said that foxes can be just one
culprit because they like to eat pheasant eggs. Foxes are very common
now here and used to be very rare indeed. I suppose that is a result
of the hunt ban and no predators.

There's no shortage of pheasants in N Yorkshire.

Thats good. But in N.Lincs, we don't see them very often.

Baz

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On 18/12/2012 13:47, Baz wrote:
"Ragnar" wrote in
:

I was talking to a farmer last week who said pheasant and partridge
numbers are way down lately because of the spread of buzzards in
recent years. R.

Buzzards! Never seen a buzzard in UK. Only in NZ, and I was only a kid.

You're not looking very hard. It might be where you live but they are
becoming common.
--
Phil Cook

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:34:54 +0100, Martin wrote:

There's no shortage of pheasants in N Yorkshire.

Thats good. But in N.Lincs, we don't see them very often.

They breed them to be shot and run over by cars in N Yorks.

Same on the North Pennines. Loads of the things there is one particular
stretch of road about a mile long near here that if it hasn't got a
couple of dozen pheasants on the verges and another half dozen or so
fresh road kills there is something wrong.



--
Cheers
Dave.

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:12:27 +0000, Phil Cook wrote:

Buzzards! Never seen a buzzard in UK. Only in NZ, and I was only a
kid.

You're not looking very hard. It might be where you live but they are
becoming common.

A NZ Buzzard might not be the same as a UK Buzzard...

Plenty up here but then it's open high fells not intensively farmed land
or packed with people.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:58:28 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:12:27 +0000, Phil Cook wrote:

Buzzards! Never seen a buzzard in UK. Only in NZ, and I was only a
kid.

You're not looking very hard. It might be where you live but they are
becoming common.

A NZ Buzzard might not be the same as a UK Buzzard...

Plenty up here but then it's open high fells not intensively farmed land
or packed with people.

Plenty here too and the farms around are mainly arable.
Fortunately there are lots of mature trees both Deciduous and
Coniferous. around and we can see a nest location from one of our
windows. The mewing cry can be heard surprisingly clearly even when
they are soaring at some altitude.
G.Harman

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:06:17 -0000, Janet wrote:


up to 11 last year)..and we still get rats. I am willing to tolerate an
occasional, discreet lone rat but if they get uppity and bring large
raiding parties, then it's time for The Last Supper, which is ratbait
laid where nothing else can get to it.I use Neosorexa Gold.
That was the brand which the rat I mentioned upthread got into the
shed and then chewed into the closed tub and sachets.
So it certainly has good attraction properties. Unfortunately it kept
coming back for more so it must have built up an immunity so I changed
to something else containing Bromadiolone which seems to have worked.
Had reasonable results with Neosorexa Golg in the past though.

G.Harman

Feeding birds - rat problem
 

On 18/12/2012 13:27, Ragnar wrote:
"Baz" wrote in message
...
John Rye wrote in
:

Hello All

In article ,
Baz wrote:
I am very pleased that we have a nice bird population in the garden
now that we have managed to sort out some nice feed for them.
Snag is that I can see evidence of rats. The birds are messy eaters
and drop lots of suff the rat can scavenge.
Anyone else have this problem? What to do?

Thanks
Baz

May be you need to attract a pheasant. I have a beautiful male that
spends a good part of the day sat on the ground under our bird feeders
waiting for the small birds to drop something. At present I am
enjoying watching him. I shall not be so happy if he turns his
attention to my vegetable patch.

John


You know what, John, I can't remember the last time I saw, or even heard a
phesant in the last year or two. They were once very common here in
Lincolnshire. I have heard it said that foxes can be just one culprit
because they like to eat pheasant eggs. Foxes are very common now here and
used to be very rare indeed. I suppose that is a result of the hunt ban
and
no predators.

Baz

I was talking to a farmer last week who said pheasant and partridge numbers
are way down lately because of the spread of buzzards in recent years.
R.

More likely due to a shortage of bankers bonuses and so much less
incentive for shoots to restock heavily. I know a couple round here that
would normally have a couple of thousand birds a year have folded.

There are still plenty of wild ones though in North Yorkshire same for
grouse. Although the game stock included some weird looking melanistic
pheasants that are the right shape but almost black.

Regards,
Martin Brown