Jan 17 - Blue Tit and Unwanted Friend and a request for advice?
I love to sit and watch the birds so today I got the camera out to see what results I got through the window. Lovely to see the birds but we have unwanted guests. Been feeding the birds for months but now we have rats. We had them last year in the house at the moment thankfully just in the garden. Pest control on the way this week. Any one got any good advice on not getting rats if you feed your birds? All my feeders are high up. Only bits that fall on ground from the feeders in the trees. The chaffinch and robins were eating them up. Sooooooooooo disappointed this morning to see the rats again.
Damn - we have rats at the end of the garden in the sheds near the hen house and I keep on top of them with various poisons (Norexa Gold seems to be the only one that actually works). They don't seem to come up to our bird feeders - I don't know what you can do except perhaps just put small amounts out at a time that the birds will eat up during the day?
There's a good thread on an RSPB site that suggests using a pole feeder, greased with a seed tray that stops any bits falling to the ground. They also suggest not using husked food. I'm guessing pest control will tell you to stop feeding altogether though. I daren't have them out to our sheds - there are stacked logs and all sorts - it's a veritable idyll for rats but I'm too scared of them to tidy it up. At some point though when the shed falls down we will have to bite the bullet - miles from our house but not the poor neighbours...
@judithg Thanks. Pest control coming tomorrow. I don't like rats... Third time in 10 years had them visibly in garden. Had them in house last year well in the roof not inside inside.... Had mice before inside..... I waged war on them. Sneaky so and sos would eat the food off the bait somehow and survive another day....that was until I started to bait them with calpol.... that soon caught them! Not actually eating of the feeders but around the ground underneath the trees about a metre away from the house.....
Oh no. I hate rats. We had a couple of rats in our loft last year. We discovered that our neighbour used to leave dog food out every day for his animals and of course, the rats found it too. We bought a trap from the agricultural college and caught them both and touch wood haven't had any problems since. How they got in the loft I have no idea because we have gutterguard all around
Oh no I hate rats!! We saw one in the garden just before Christmas and I blamed myself as I had put some fruit and nuts out in the bird house which is on the garden wall. I cannot put poison down there as Finlay uses the garden. We stopped putting cake crumbs etc in the bird house and have not seen it since. I have bird feeders hanging in the garden and only use sunflower seeds. Not seen them eating them. I haven't seen them eating the meal worms I put out for the robins either. Mind you they do say you are never far from a rat these days!! Not a nice thought!!
Oh no! This is my biggest fear living in the city. Depending on construction, there can be sudden appearances when a building is torn down! It's alway why we don't have cats and don't feed birds. I can't help, but share sympathy/empathy in hoping you can get this under control quickly.
@taffy My son based his accommodation hunt in London around the rat situation - his student accommodation was extremely strict and their flats were inspected every month mostly I think because UCL had to pay out a lot of compensation after one of their residences was infested due to neighbouring building work. Our drive has a dip in it which I suspect is rats nesting in the sewers - aargh!
Oh no! I've seen them in gardens near birdfeeders and we don't put food out for the birds because of it. Hadn't heard of calpol, lol!!! Will have to pass that tip on ;-)
When we were farming we had lots of cow feed etc so inevitably we had some rats. When we went round the cows last thing at night checking we used to see an odd rat in the tirch light. We had the rat man as we called him come every month & put poison down in little safe boxes. Really kept them inder control. Since then of course there is only the food from the bird table & the hen house. I personally haven't seen any rats for a long time but I'm sure there are some around. I hate rats & would be horrified if they came neat the house. Any agriculture supplies place will sell rat poison but the pest man will put it in a safe place. I think if I had rats I would have to stop feeding the birds.
Yikes, I hate rats, dirty darned rodents. Being near a river they're around here in the shed or ceiling sometimes but Talon deals with them pretty quickly and at no danger to Maggie.
Great capture. I hate mice and rats. I have had an infestation this winter. I think it may be time to call the exterminator (after trying other methods to get rid of them).
We had an infestation in the garden after getting rid of the hens. They were already up there around the hen house, but came out in force once that food supply had been used up. They were so bold... right up to us while eating out on the patio. Careful observation of their habits and routes and finding the nesting site led to us placing traps along the routes and in the nesting area. We also saw them on the bird feeders so placed them so the rats couldn't jump from tree branches etc. Also greased the poles. Took a long time... caught dozens .. eventually got rid of them. Embargo on eating any herbs in the vicinity or handling any vegetation without gloves. Good luck.
