Mouse/Rat ?

[Hybrid21]

Bought some bits and pieces from local garden centre, may not be strong enough to do the job.

Thinking about the situation, we've had the decking for about 10 years and never had rat problems. But we always had night lights on, and since the energy cost hike have turned them off, maybe encouraging the rats ?

May think about getting rid of the decking and creating a patio type thing instead 🙂

[Rhymes with Paris]

I have been out of the construction trade for a while now, retired.

But if you do decide to go the patio type slabs, I understand from my still working bricklayer pal that there is huge range of very attractive slabs now, including exterior grade porcelain.

But I assume that your priority is to get rid of the rat or rats before anything else.

What have you bought from the garden centre? Something to help temporarily?

[Bper]

IMO I would convert the decking, then I would buy a cat and train it to lick the area to ward rats off .
Or you could combine all three by buying a cat-o-lick- converter.😅
 

[Hybrid21]

52 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

I have been out of the construction trade for a while now, retired.

But if you do decide to go the patio type slabs, I understand from my still working bricklayer pal that there is huge range of very attractive slabs now, including exterior grade porcelain.

But I assume that your priority is to get rid of the rat or rats before anything else.

What have you bought from the garden centre? Something to help temporarily?

Hi Paul, I bought a couple of rat traps, and a few bags of poison feed, seed type, pasta type and block type.

I'm going to try the traps first and see if they work, peanut butter apparently attracts them to the trap. My plan is to catch them first then put out the poison feed later 😕

 

 

[Stivino]

The worst thing about poisoning them, is that they crawl into a corner and die, probably away at the back of your decking.

There is nothing that smells worse than a dead rat.

 The expression “I can smell a rat” isn’t without foundation.

[Rhymes with Paris]

Sounds like a plan Iain,if they are the spring type traps though,as I said please remember, bait first, then pull back the spring and catch on.

I learned a very painful lesson with thankfully much less powerful mouse traps, and baited after springing, ouch 😳

A multi coloured thumb and much self criticism ensued.

As regards dog and cat deterrents though,my pal who lives in one of a pair of houses in the sticks, basically in the middle of farmland,has 4 dogs,3 cats and still a big rat problem.

Do you have a pest control service from the council as Frosty suggested?

[Rhymes with Paris]

7 minutes ago, Stivino said:

The worst thing about poisoning them, is that they crawl into a corner and die, probably away at the back of your decking.

There is nothing that smells worse than a dead rat.

 The expression “I can smell a rat” isn’t without foundation.

The late, great James Cagney may have been onto something.

[Bper]

8 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

The late, great James Cagney may have been onto something.

"Top of the world ma"😅

[Hybrid21]

30 minutes ago, Stivino said:

The worst thing about poisoning them, is that they crawl into a corner and die, probably away at the back of your decking.

There is nothing that smells worse than a dead rat.

 The expression “I can smell a rat” isn’t without foundation.

Yes Stephen, I was reading that traps are more humane than poisoning, that's why I'm going for traps first 👍

[Hybrid21]

37 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Sounds like a plan Iain,if they are the spring type traps though,as I said please remember, bait first, then pull back the spring and catch on.

I learned a very painful lesson with thankfully much less powerful mouse traps, and baited after springing, ouch 😳

A multi coloured thumb and much self criticism ensued.

As regards dog and cat deterrents though,my pal who lives in one of a pair of houses in the sticks, basically in the middle of farmland,has 4 dogs,3 cats and still a big rat problem.

Do you have a pest control service from the council as Frosty suggested?

I will investigate the council pest control if I don't have any success, thanks Paul  👍 I've bought the stuff now, so may as well try it 🙂

[Cyker]

You never know, it might be really cute and you might want to adopt it as a house pet!  

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

5 minutes ago, Cyker said:

You never know, it might be really cute and you might want to adopt it as a house pet!  

 

Cyker,real rats are not like the lovable anthropomorphized character in ratatouille.😃 (I know you know)

My bricky pal rents out a couple of houses here, and has to do a refurb after every letting.

In one of them, the last tenants had a very strange habit of storing eggshells on top of the kitchen cupboards, apparently these are like catnip to rats.

When he pulled down the water damaged kitchen ceiling,three or four dead half mummified rats dropped on his head.

Not a nice experience, I'm sure, I went to see him at the house on the same day it happened, to quote a Victorian policeman in some film or other "it was 'orrible sarge,too 'orrible to relate".

And besides fleas that carry all kinds of diseases like bubonic plague,if you are a car owner, there is also the risk of wheels disease.

[Cyker]

No worries, I was mostly joking as feral rats do not good pets make, but I've had friends who had domesticated rats and they made good pets apparently (As long as you don't mind them chewing on everything they can get their teeth on  , but that seems to be a potential problem with all pets as far as I can tell, aside from maybe goldfish...)

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

12 minutes ago, Cyker said:

No worries, I was mostly joking as feral rats do not good pets make, but I've had friends who had domesticated rats and they made good pets apparently (As long as you don't mind them chewing on everything they can get their teeth on  , but that seems to be a potential problem with all pets as far as I can tell, aside from maybe goldfish...)

 

Oh of course I know you were joking Cyker, I think I completely get your soh.😁

I know that domesticated rats and mice can make good pets, but things with teeth do tend to chew anything within reach, including electric cables, do they taste good I wonder?

Aswell as goldfish, another toothless option were tortoises, I had a couple of them until 2013 and had to re-home them.

This was mainly due to me not being able to keep up with them anymore while walking them in the local park.

They don't bite, but can give a nasty suck if you leave your fingers in one place too long.

 

[Bper]

My auntie was killed by a stampede of tortoises.  It was a very slow death.😅

[Rhymes with Paris]

6 minutes ago, Bper said:

My auntie was killed by a stampede of tortoises.  It was a very slow death.😅

Sorry to hear of your loss Bob, were they spooked by some teenagers?

Perhaps mutants?

It's amazing how many confuse shelled animals,at my old house,a  well intentioned neighbor presented me with some kind of turtle 🐢 that had got loose.

As they knew I kept tortoises , they assumed that I was an expert on the care of all animals with a Shell.

I had to direct them to somewhere else.

[Bper]

I think if anyone is unable to take care of tortoises they should take them to a

animal shell-ter. I really must get a life .😅

 

[Hybrid21]

Just an update, decided to lift  decking boards running parallel with the back of the house to see if anything obvious underneath.

Found a nest which looks like it was in the process of being built, leaves, grass, etc and also evidence of rat droppings in this area. It was in the middle of the board run and right against the house, probably getting heat through the wall under the floor.

I removed the nest and sprayed the whole area liberally with bleach, I read that they don't like the smell of bleach. I'm leaving these boards unscrewed so that I can have a look under easily. Also filled in the hole again and sprayed the area with bleach.

Thinking that maybe this rat is pregnant and looking for a suitable nest ? Anyway nothing caught in traps and haven't seen anything on camera, but will monitor the situation 🙂

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

Thanks for the update, always good to get information on problems and how they are solved.

[Hybrid21]

Another update, ratty is still in the vicinity as I found the hole back this morning. But I've found that I have a new ally seen snooping about around 3.00am. 🐱

Tomorrow I may lift the unscrewed boards and give he or she access to under the decking.

[Rhymes with Paris]

This has enlightened me about neighbors cats in the garden now.

As you say they might be a good help keeping the rodent population under control.🐀

At least we are not plagued with racoons and skunks like some of our American cousins.

[Hybrid21]

Caught a couple of rats/mice? last night. Not sure if these mice or young rats?  What do you guys think?

[Bper]

As basil fawlty said to manuel it isn't a siberian hamster it's a rat😅

[Stivino]

They are mice.

[Rhymes with Paris]

Yes, they certainly look like Mickey and Minnie.

Of course there could be both mice and rats around, I hope not, and that you manage to get rid of them all.

That cat should discourage them though, with a bit of luck.