Rats!

(The rodent, not the exclamation.)

What's the recommended way to get rid of them?

Preferably without killing the dog, but our neighbours' cats can take
their chances...

 

Buy poison from Scats or whatever your local country store is called. We
stick it under a ridge tile generally to stop the cats and dogs getting
to it.

You can't stop the cat eating a dead rat and getting a dose that way,
though.

If you can try and find out where they're living and what they're eating
it helps: if you take away their habitat and their source of food they
will bugger off on their own. Generally IME it's poorly defended compost
and rubbish bins.

 

I don't know about effective, but most fun is an air rifle.

 

Rubbish is in wheelie bins, and the compost is in one of those big black
bins, so they /should/ be okay.

The most likely thing they're after in our garden is spillage from the
bird feeders, I'd guess.

 

Yeah, that's how I thought most of them worked these days. Mrs Eddie
didn't like the thought of finding a croaked rat in the middle of the
garden.

If they're living in our garden, rather than just passing through in
search of food, that's where they'll be; but I don't think the way it's
positioned would suit. I suppose I should have a look.

 

And this is the single biggest reason why we've rejected many
properties that we've looked at over the last year or so.

And in general, decking sucks anyway.

 

Having had a bit of a google on the subject, it looks like Bear is quite
right. And it seems that a cat would have to eat a lot of dead rats to
kill itself with the anti-coagulant poisons anyway.

So we can probably chalk that one up to ancient history (warfarin etc)
and cat-owner paranoia. Like the one about cat collars and getting
caught on branches: have you ever seen a cat corpse in a tree?

 

I'm sure the rats could find somewhere else to live if the deck weren't
there.

Why?

 

Aw, nuts.

Only if you're really careful when you aim the car at it.

 

*shrug*

I guess it's mainly irrational, but both I and SWMBO have a personal
dislike of it. It may be because what we've seen hasn't been of a good
enough quality or not looked after, or more likely a bit of both.

Given a choice, I'd rather have a proper patio.

 

There is a tendency for decking to get greasy and slippy when there's a
lot of rain and it hasn't had the chance to dry out. I think it's
something we've imported from dryer climates, really - proper paving
will withstand the weather, look better, last a lot longer in the UK.

 

IMO an air rifle comes second to a good terrier for fun value.

 

Oh, that's certainly likely.

Would have cost a lot more for us to do that, though.

 

That's true, but the same can be said of paving, depending on the situation.

"Look better" is subjective, and I'm not convinced that "last a lot
longer" is necessarily true.

 

Unfortunately, our dog's a bit big for chasing rats into small places.

 

That was my initial suggestion, but I don't think the dog would ever
catch one.

 

Get a professional in.

Rats build up tolerance for poisons really quickly, so it's very easy to
end up helping them increase in numbers as you've just boosted their
immune system against another rat poison.

We had a fairly bad infestation in the stables about two year ago. The
professional came along and explained all about bodged amateur attempts
that, every time, make the rat just that little bit harder to kill.

--
Veggie Dave
http://www.iq18films.co.uk

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim
that Jesus was not born of a virgin." Cardinal Bellarmine

 

Ah, that's a good idea.

Seems our district council offer a free pest control service.

 

Plus it doesn't leave hairs all over the house.

 

What he said. Council does charge, but it's worth it.

And FWIW, every pro rat catcher actually, yes really, does seem to look
vaguely rodent-like. And get them onto their favourite subject, and
they're very, very entertaining.

Our one related how the owners of the building he was attending to
refused to believe they had rats in the drains, so he lobbed a
camera-onna-stick down it, and they recoiled in horror as a rat leaped
at the camera and light, jaws gaping.

That and the time when he was called to sort out (again) rats in the
drains, after some workmen had dug a hole in the road, and a rat shot
out of the pipe they were mending. They all went at it with their
shovels, missed the rat completely, hit each other, and one wound up in
hospital with concussion.