I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

ring the rat catcher, usually at the local council.
Or offer is some soap, and smash it with a coal shovel.

In article , Derek White
writes
I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

I'll leave it to others for cures, but don't feel bad about it - rats
are everywhere, even in 'clean areas', but nocturnal so you are not
aware of them. There's a saying that, wherever you are in Britain,
you're never more the x feet from a rat - and estimate of 'x' vary from
60 ft down to about 20 ft.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

The message
from "Derek White" contains these words:

I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

Get a length of plastic drainpipe.

Saw it into lengths, say 18" like this:

__________________________________________________
|____________\/_______________\/_________________\/
__
You should end up with as many \/ shaped rings as you have lengths of pipe.
__
Cut your \/ shaped rings across the narrowest part.

Cut, bore or otherwise make a hole in the middle of each length of pipe.

Slip one ring on to each length.
___________ ____________ __
/________________________\ -- \/

Buy a packet/tin of Neosorexa and slide each ring to expose the hole,
then bait the trap in the middle, and replace the ring.

Place traps (preferably) on the ground along walls, fences, etc - rats
tend to follow such routes.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:21:42 +0100, "Derek White"
wrote:

I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

Remove all food sources. That includes some contents of the compost
heap, sweeping up under bird feeders, making pet food secure

Secure the compost heap so rats can not get into it.

Remove hiding places. That includes piles of timber, rock, crocks etc
- all those bits that we all keep aside because they could be useful.
Still keep them but get them into tidy stacks that don't offer any
hiding places.

Move stuff around - rats don't like disturbance! As opposed to mice
which will cheerfully investigate new stuff

Poisons are available but as you have pets make sure you get a secure
bait trap (essentially a secure closed box with a rat size entrance
and exit).

Traps are available but take the same care as with poisons

Repellants are available but don't seem to be as effective.

If you have the time, space and eye for it you can always shoot them.
(Actually for just a few pests this is quite a good approach!)

Rats roam for 50m or more so if there has been any disturbance
recently near to you (neighbours doing any building work?) you may see
rats but it may be transient.

And as someone else said - don't worry. Rats are attracted by
environment and food, if you have a garden it will be visited by rats
and in most cases you won't notice them and can ignore them. Deal with
them by all means as you don't want them near the house. My general
rule is I will deal with mice if they get into the house and rats if
they get into the garden.

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:21:42 +0100, "Derek White"
wrote:

I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

Remove all food sources. That includes some contents of the compost
heap, sweeping up under bird feeders, making pet food secure

Secure the compost heap so rats can not get into it.

Remove hiding places. That includes piles of timber, rock, crocks etc
- all those bits that we all keep aside because they could be useful.
Still keep them but get them into tidy stacks that don't offer any
hiding places.

Move stuff around - rats don't like disturbance! As opposed to mice
which will cheerfully investigate new stuff

Poisons are available but as you have pets make sure you get a secure
bait trap (essentially a secure closed box with a rat size entrance
and exit).

Traps are available but take the same care as with poisons

Repellants are available but don't seem to be as effective.

If you have the time, space and eye for it you can always shoot them.
(Actually for just a few pests this is quite a good approach!)

Rats roam for 50m or more so if there has been any disturbance
recently near to you (neighbours doing any building work?) you may see
rats but it may be transient.

And as someone else said - don't worry. Rats are attracted by
environment and food, if you have a garden it will be visited by rats
and in most cases you won't notice them and can ignore them. Deal with
them by all means as you don't want them near the house. My general
rule is I will deal with mice if they get into the house and rats if
they get into the garden.

Derek White wrote:
I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean
area and our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some
large wooden oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have
some very pretty flowers in them that help to decorate the garden.
And today, disaster! I have seen a rat in the garden, which, on
closer inspection, appears to have burrowed down beneath one of these
containers. I now feel as though I am an extra in the film "Night of
the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to think it is lurking in my
garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I would prefer not to
use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or rat repellents on
the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.

The easiest solution is to call out the council rat man. It may even be a
free service to you. Raise the wooden planters on brocks or similar so that
it doesn't have anywhere to hide.
Be warned that your pets are at risk from the rat both from disease
(leptospirosis ) and the toprtoise from rat bites as the rat may well attack
it causing horrendous wounds and even death.
As a poultry keeper I have to keep on top of the rat problem and I do this
by having a score of bait boxes filled with bait blocks situated all over my
land all year round.
p.s. I have just aqquired a tortoise too :0)
Took him to a specialist vet last week to get checked out and found him to
be underweight, full of worms and having abnormal shell growth cos previous
owners had fed him cat food and never had him wormed :0(

--�
purebred poultry
www.geocities.com/fenlandfowl

The message
from "pammyT" fenlandfowl @talktalk.net contains these words:

/snip/

Took him to a specialist vet last week to get checked out and found him to
be underweight, full of worms and having abnormal shell growth cos previous
owners had fed him cat food and never had him wormed :0(

Evidently they didn't know the difference between a tortoise and a
hedgehog - or could that have been accounted for by the abnormal shell
growth?

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Derek White" wrote in message
...
I can't quite get my head around this, because we live in a clean area and
our garden is small but well looked after. We bought some large wooden
oblong plant containers about a year ago, and we have some very pretty
flowers in them that help to decorate the garden. And today, disaster! I
have seen a rat in the garden, which, on closer inspection, appears to
have
burrowed down beneath one of these containers. I now feel as though I am
an
extra in the film "Night of the Living Dead"! It is quite horrendous to
think it is lurking in my garden. What is the best way to get rid of it. I
would prefer not to use a trap, but I believe there might be poisons or
rat
repellents on the market. Any ideas would be gratefully received!
P.S. I have a tortoise and a dog as pets.



Sack the dog. It's not pulling its weight.

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...



Sack the dog. It's not pulling its weight.



I would, but she is 16 years old and has hardly any teeth:-)

Derek White wrote:
"shazzbat" wrote in message
...



Sack the dog. It's not pulling its weight.



I would, but she is 16 years old and has hardly any teeth:-)

In that case, I blame the tortoise.

--
Mike.

"Derek White" wrote in message
...

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...



Sack the dog. It's not pulling its weight.



I would, but she is 16 years old and has hardly any teeth:-)


I bet she could give it a nasty suck ;o)

--
Regards,
Alan

Preserve wildlife - pickle a SQUIRREL to reply.

"Alan Gabriel" wrote in message
...

"Derek White" wrote in message
...

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...
Sack the dog. It's not pulling its weight.

I would, but she is 16 years old and has hardly any teeth:-)

I bet she could give it a nasty suck ;o)




I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I have taken
on board the advice, suggestions and recommendations. Meanwhile, today the
Council pest controller has come out and put some stuff down, which
hopefully ratty will consume and meet its maker. Thanks again for your help.