I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had come up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I saw it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding the birds?
Not keen on that idea.

Sue (who doesn't really mind seeing them from the house but is a bit of a
girlie when it comes to getting involved!)

'Sue',

Best to leave everything as it is and contact your 'Pest Control' at
your local Council as soon as possible and they will deal with the
matter.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.






"Sue" wrote in message
...
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had come
up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I saw
it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding the
birds?
Not keen on that idea.

Sue (who doesn't really mind seeing them from the house but is a bit
of a
girlie when it comes to getting involved!)

Sue wrote:
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon. One of my neighbours said that they've had them before.
They had come up from the river and were nesting under a shed
further
down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I
saw it / them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop
feeding the birds? Not keen on that idea.
[...]

They will keep coming, even if you poison a lot of them: stream banks
are a route they use a lot. You're right in wanting to clear away as
many hiding-places as you can, of course. As to feeding the birds,
you may perhaps have to stop giving them the things they scatter
about; but I wonder if you could hang some sort of tray under the
feeder? A dustbin lid, for example. This would get full of water when
it rained, of course, and need to be emptied carefully to avoid
dropping food; I wonder if it's practicable to make something out of
wire mesh, or at least put a big mesh-covered drainage hole in the
tray.

Tough cats and Jack Russels can be a help. But I suppose we sometimes
just have to learn to live with rats: they don't usually do a lot of
harm as long as they stay outdoors. I had some in the roof once, and
that was a different matter.

Mike.

On 30/10/04 20:29, in article ,
"Sue" wrote:

I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had come up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I saw it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding the birds?
Not keen on that idea.

Sue (who doesn't really mind seeing them from the house but is a bit of a
girlie when it comes to getting involved!)


Whatever you do, wear gloves. A friend of ours has just very recently
contracted Weil's disease from the stream in their garden and has been
deathly ill.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Sue" wrote in message
...
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had
come up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I
saw it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding
the birds?
Not keen on that idea.

Sue (who doesn't really mind seeing them from the house but is a bit
of a
girlie when it comes to getting involved!)

Google on
BBC - Science & Nature - Wildfacts - Water vole, water rat

Inter alia, they say
......... Water vole, water rat Arvicola terrestris Water voles are the
largest British
vole and are often mistaken for a rat.......

So first make sure you are talking about rats and not water rats

Franz

Thanks for all the advice. I'll try to ring the council tomorrow. The birds
are fed from hanging RSPB containers filled with sunflower hearts and
although they do drop some that's usually quickly cleared by larger birds.
Haven't seen any sign of him / them today so perhaps it was just one having
a weekend away and he's gone home now?!?

Sue

snip
Whatever you do, wear gloves. A friend of ours has just very recently
contracted Weil's disease from the stream in their garden and has been
deathly ill.
I am sorry to hear that, what a dreadful thing to happen. I have been
working in the barn all afternoon and I know that we do have rats around
the place - we are rural - I dont usually worry about Weils disease but
I am off to bath and change right now.
kate

On 31/10/04 16:25, in article ,
"Kate Morgan" wrote:

snip
Whatever you do, wear gloves. A friend of ours has just very recently
contracted Weil's disease from the stream in their garden and has been
deathly ill.
I am sorry to hear that, what a dreadful thing to happen. I have been
working in the barn all afternoon and I know that we do have rats around
the place - we are rural - I dont usually worry about Weils disease but
I am off to bath and change right now.
kate

They have a stream running through their garden and I think he'd probably
been working on the edge of it, or something of that sort.
Two years ago, another friend living upstream, tried to get out some giant
hogweed and ended up in a real old mess, too! I'm beginning to think this
is a piece of water to avoid!
We get rats and mice here, inevitably, but a man comes every six weeks to
put down poison and we think/hope two Jack Russells account for some. If
they don't kill them, all the huffing and puffing in likely places probably
gives them a nervous breakdown. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Sue wrote:
:: I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
:: afternoon. One of my neighbours said that they've had them before.
:: They had come up from the river and were nesting under a shed
:: further down the road.
::
:: Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
:: with bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's
:: where I saw it / them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have
:: to stop feeding the birds? Not keen on that idea.

You need to remove their food souce and shelter and they will move on, you
could poison them of course but this will not solve the problem if there is
food and shelter there, another colony would simply take their place.
Considering they can breed at 40 days of age and have a gestation period of
21 days, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if left
undisturbed, they will soon run riot - they will continue breeding right
through winter if there is a food source.
You'll have to remove or rearrange the bricks/tiles/slabs, preferably so
that rainwater can pass right through - like us, they don't like being wet -
stack the bricks tight up to each other and try standing the slabs around
the sides as a wall - they will find any small niche which remains dry and
nest in it.
Move the birdfeeder to a more exposed spot [1] and utilise some of the ideas
mentioned elsewhere in this thread to minimise spillage...rats are
incredibly intelligent animals and will exploit any environment to survive,
the only thing you can do is make it as rat unfriendly as you can.

[1]
there will always be some spillage but if it's minimal and in an exposed
flat area, they will be loath to venture into it as they will feel
vulnerable....this may be a patio or other hard landscaped area, somewhere
where there are no hidey holes or easy escapes, they are wild animals after
all and do not like leaving themselves under threat, especially if the
rewards are negligible.


HTH

In article , Kate Morgan
writes
snip
Whatever you do, wear gloves. A friend of ours has just very recently
contracted Weil's disease from the stream in their garden and has been
deathly ill.
I am sorry to hear that, what a dreadful thing to happen. I have been
working in the barn all afternoon and I know that we do have rats around
the place - we are rural - I dont usually worry about Weils disease but
I am off to bath and change right now.

I suppose this is a good point to say that the Weils disease site that
has been quoted widely in urg has now moved (since the caving site that
hosted it has closed down) - you can now find food advice on Weil's
disease and the causative organism leptospirosis at

http://www.leptospirosis.org/
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 19:29:57 GMT, "Sue" wrote:

I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had come up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I saw it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding the birds?
Not keen on that idea.

Seed spilled from birdfeeders is just what rats like. I used to have
several feeders, but living in a ratty district finally decided to
stop: my cats were bringing too many rodents into the house and not
all of them were dead on arrival.

You can reduce seed spillage by putting only a single kind of seed in
each feeder. If you use mixed seed, each bird rummages through it
looking for his favorite, spilling a great deal onto the ground below.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net

mmmm... does anyone know what great tits and blue tits are partial to?

jay jay

"jay jay" wrote in message
...

Rodger Whitlock Wrote:
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 19:29:57 GMT, "Sue" wrote:
-
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had
come
up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the
road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I
saw
it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding
the
birds?
Not keen on that idea.-

Seed spilled from birdfeeders is just what rats like. I used to
have
several feeders, but living in a ratty district finally decided to
stop: my cats were bringing too many rodents into the house and
not
all of them were dead on arrival.

You can reduce seed spillage by putting only a single kind of seed
in
each feeder. If you use mixed seed, each bird rummages through it
looking for his favorite, spilling a great deal onto the ground
below.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net


mmmm... does anyone know what great tits and blue tits are partial
to?

Peanuts and sunflower seeds. Spiders.

Franz

Franz Heymann wrote in message
...

"jay jay" wrote in message
...

Rodger Whitlock Wrote:
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 19:29:57 GMT, "Sue" wrote:
-
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They had
come
up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the
road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I
saw
it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop feeding
the
birds?
Not keen on that idea.-

Seed spilled from birdfeeders is just what rats like. I used to
have
several feeders, but living in a ratty district finally decided to
stop: my cats were bringing too many rodents into the house and
not
all of them were dead on arrival.

You can reduce seed spillage by putting only a single kind of seed
in
each feeder. If you use mixed seed, each bird rummages through it
looking for his favorite, spilling a great deal onto the ground
below.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net


mmmm... does anyone know what great tits and blue tits are partial
to?

Peanuts and sunflower seeds. Spiders.

Franz



Boo hoo! :-{
Spider

"Spider" wrote in message
...

Franz Heymann wrote in message
...

"jay jay" wrote in
message
...

Rodger Whitlock Wrote:
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 19:29:57 GMT, "Sue"
wrote:
-
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones
this
afternoon.
One of my neighbours said that they've had them before. They
had
come
up
from the river and were nesting under a shed further down the
road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the
area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's
where I
saw
it /
them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop
feeding
the
birds?
Not keen on that idea.-

Seed spilled from birdfeeders is just what rats like. I used
to
have
several feeders, but living in a ratty district finally
decided to
stop: my cats were bringing too many rodents into the house
and
not
all of them were dead on arrival.

You can reduce seed spillage by putting only a single kind of
seed
in
each feeder. If you use mixed seed, each bird rummages through
it
looking for his favorite, spilling a great deal onto the
ground
below.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net


mmmm... does anyone know what great tits and blue tits are
partial
to?

Peanuts and sunflower seeds. Spiders.

Franz



Boo hoo! :-{
Spider

{:-))

Franz