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rats in my garage

ivor Middleton

ivor Middleton

Young Bun
I went into the garage where our rabbit lives to find I have rats in there! what do I do now?
I have never had rats or even mice and we have lived in worse places than this. I saw 2 of them running behind the wall but they went to quickly to see where they went to !!!
Timba and Jabia are now living in our house!!
Has anyone had any experience of them and what can i do to make sure we don't get them again
Thanks guys
 
I am glad you removed the rabbits from the garage, I hope you have removed any food from there , I would give the council a ring and see what advice they can offer.
I am told by a friend who works for Sheffield council that this is problem as rats move inside for winter, sheffield do treat but if the rabbits were there I wouldn't recomend that they live there or run in there while treatment poisen is laid.
 
We had a rat attack both my rabbits at the bottom of our garden this week. We have since put rat poison out, [which they have eaten]. Both my hubby and myself saw the rat go for the rabbits. :evil:
 
I have had rats which have bitten my bunnies.Two of them had nasty bite wounds on their bums,My bunnies are all free range.you can call out pest controllers.I buy poison from the local farmer supplies shop.It comes in blocks.The last lot of rats we had were living in the compost heap.We put the blocks in the holes then put chicken wire over the heap so nothing else could get access to It
 
I would ensure that all your food is put into tins so that it is difficult for them to access. If you feed the correct food to your rabbits each day tthere should be very little left lying about for the rats to feed on.

I would get traps set where other animals cannot access and lay down some bait. If you do at least a twice daily round to remove any bodies that appear. Once you have cleared the problem ensure that all holes where they can gain access are filled to prevent any further problems.
 
Its horrid and rats will attack rabbits even big ones ivor! i know you think otherwise but your buns arn't able to fight rats!!! ( Yes Abigale has been telling me)!
Please keep them in for at least 2/3 weeks away from the horrid wild rats, domestic ones are lovely but the wild ones carry fleas and other germs!!!!
 
Thanks Tina for having our big guys at short notice as our problem became more apparent!!
Thanksfully he nice chaps from the council have ben and done their stuff.
 
In fairness to the rats, look at it from their point of view. There's a nice warm sheltered place with a ready food supply. They're not evil, they're just trying to survive. They are no more diseased and flea ridden than any other animal living in the wild, including wild rabbits ;) They are the exact same species (rattus norvegicus) as pet rats, they just happen to live outside.

Poisoning them is not only cruel and a danger to your rabbits and other wildlife but it won't solve the issue. All the while you have a warm, sheltered place and food available you will have rats. If you poison these ones, some more will be along before too long. The only way to solve the issue is to either make the area unattractive to them (which is pretty impossible if you're planning to keep your rabbits in there) or stop them getting in. That should be reasonably easy to achieve. We had a ratty visitor to our outside bunny pen earlier this year. He never did anything to harm the bunnies but it was quite simple to make some improvements to the pen to keep him out (I felt quite guilty, he'd made a lovely nest).

This website has more information about controlling rats humanely and effectively -http://www.helpwildlife.co.uk/Pest.html
 
Sproggie14 said:
In fairness to the rats, look at it from their point of view. There's a nice warm sheltered place with a ready food supply. They're not evil, they're just trying to survive. They are no more diseased and flea ridden than any other animal living in the wild, including wild rabbits ;) They are the exact same species (rattus norvegicus) as pet rats, they just happen to live outside.

Poisoning them is not only cruel and a danger to your rabbits and other wildlife but it won't solve the issue. All the while you have a warm, sheltered place and food available you will have rats. If you poison these ones, some more will be along before too long. The only way to solve the issue is to either make the area unattractive to them (which is pretty impossible if you're planning to keep your rabbits in there) or stop them getting in. That should be reasonably easy to achieve. We had a ratty visitor to our outside bunny pen earlier this year. He never did anything to harm the bunnies but it was quite simple to make some improvements to the pen to keep him out (I felt quite guilty, he'd made a lovely nest).

This website has more information about controlling rats humanely and effectively -http://www.helpwildlife.co.uk/Pest.html
Click to expand...

Yay to Sarah! I wholeheartedly agree - rats are just surviving, exactly the same as all other wildlife. It's up to us to ensure our homes and outbuildings are not an attractive option for them. We had a small brown rat visiting our bird table and he used to take a short cut through the rabbit run. I couldn't stop him because the run is made of 2 inch square security fencing. However, not once did he pay any attention to the bunsters. There is never any food lying around in there - just hay. I bought a humane rat trap and eventually caught him. I drove him about five miles away and let him go in the woods. Poor little thing was terrified and I felt bad but he had to be 'relocated'!!
 
Ditto to Sarah! I'm sure all of us disagree with myxi being used to cull the rabbit population, not just because it can spread to our pets but also because of the pain it inflicts on rabbits.
Lethal poisoning isn't a quick death, even the supposed "quick kill" ones - they cause internal organ failure, which causes lots of pain and trauma before the rat bleeds to death internally.
Not only that, but if any animals (wild or domestic) come across the body and eat it, they'll be ingesting the poison too. I'm sure you'd hate to indirectly cause someone's pet cat (or dog, ferret etc if they're out on a walk and pick it up, or escape) harm or even death.

All any wild animal wants is a warm safe home, food and water - remove these and they'll move on.
 
Death from a difenacoum block (which is what BMBC will more than likely have used as I used to work for that department, aguy called Royston Smith used to cover the Darton area back then) is extortionately slow. I remember watching a film of a rat being fed one and then the death process when I went on a pest control traiing course. Simple answer is good hygiene, keep things raised off the floor, seal all holes, remove any hay. straw and food scraps etc. The council can use humane traps on request and will arrange for humane disposal, but it's not routine and has to be requested.
 
I couldn't poison a rat.....

Apparantly the area I'm living in had a problem with them about 8 months ago, as the come over here when the council cut the grass on the nearby fields. Next door keeps pigeons and their sheds are right next to my summerhouse....i'm worried that they'll be attracted here. I keep all of my food indoors and the summerhouse is cleaned out every day.

The farmer used to put poison down and shoot them on a night at the farm we kept our horses at. I always felt so sad when he shot them especially the ones that had babies. We had loads of mice in the house at uni, and the landlord put poison down. I found a little mouse in our utility room that was slowly dying. It was heartbreaking, I couldn't do anything for it and it took all night for it to die. Horrible!
 
Yes it is awlful. But if you have seen a rabbit under attack from one, there is no alternitive. We tried a humane trap, but all we caught was a baby hedge hog, :oops:
 
I think that the problem they have had has been solved by them as their rabbits went home yesterday evening after a long stay here.
 
I couldn't bring myself to kill any animal.
I'd suggest using a humane trap and letting some go near by, and then trying to rat proof the garage, (if that's possible :lol: ) We had a rat problem once (after my old cat died) and we put poison down and everything (much to my anger) the rat problem wasn't completely gone, but then we got two kittens and once they were allowed to go out we never saw a rat again!!
 
Unfortunately humane traps don't seem to work for rats...I think they must be too smart :(

When we had rats at the stables, it was traced to a broken drain, so we just put a slab over the drain and the rat problem went away.

Apart from that, I second what everybody has said about keeping food out of the garage
 
Where i work is near an old victorian cemetry, there is a big rat problem, They caught over 30 in a week in humane traps and my employer still catches the odd one now from time to time, !!
 
A friend who farms told me he once saw a rat drag a young (wild) bunny down its rat hole.:(

I've read in one of my angora books that rats often kill rabbits by plastering themselves across the rabbit's face and suffocating them, too.

You can get 'humane' traps from DIY shops (the old fashioned sort, not sure about the big chains?) which have have used before now. We live by a river - water rats are unavoidable and in everyones' gardens. We release them in the countryside, along the river bank where hopefully there's sources of food for them but not near where anyone lives. They work if you use a food rats love as bait - they seem to go for sweet things like bananas or chocolate.

If you can find the rat hole you can also put the garden hose on full blast and leave it a few hours - depending where the hole is. The rat will probably have more than one entrance, so is not likely to drown but will not be likely to come back to that area if you can collapse his home.

I store my hay and bunny food in plastic dustbins with tight fitting lids. There's no way any rat or mouse on earth is getting into one of them. Bought another last week - six quid in Wilkos.
 
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I don't like poisoning them, in our old house ther'e was at least one rat running around in the back areas of the terraced houses, and the pest control dude put down bait and poison in a box, explaining that once the rat got into the box and ate the poison, it would swell to a larger size and wouldn't be able to leave the box (EH???) and would die, but the next morning the box was empty, the bait had gone, and no rat was to be seen. I felt like cheering the ratty on xD


I'm all for humane traps, or if you HAVE to kill them those traps that break the mouse/rat's neck. My Dad had to use them to get rid of his field mouse problem (I felt sad though, fieldmice are losing their homes and have nowhere to go :()
 
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