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Rats living in garden!

FloLo

Alpha Buck
Hi all,

I have found that there are rats living in my compost bin! (Of which they have dug out half the compost :roll:)
There aren't any food sources in our garden, we don't feed birds and they can't get in the rabbit hutch or run to access rabbit food.
So are they a danger to rabbits in terms of disease?
Would it be sensible to move them e.g. catch them humanely and relocate, and get rid of compost bin so they can't live there?
We live in quite a rural area so there would be plenty of woodland/bushes etc they can live in.

Thanks!
 
Hi all,

I have found that there are rats living in my compost bin! (Of which they have dug out half the compost :roll:)
There aren't any food sources in our garden, we don't feed birds and they can't get in the rabbit hutch or run to access rabbit food.
So are they a danger to rabbits in terms of disease?
Would it be sensible to move them e.g. catch them humanely and relocate, and get rid of compost bin so they can't live there?
We live in quite a rural area so there would be plenty of woodland/bushes etc they can live in.

Thanks!

Personally I would remove the Rats. Rats are vectors of various diseases including EC :)
 
Hi all,

I have found that there are rats living in my compost bin! (Of which they have dug out half the compost :roll:)
There aren't any food sources in our garden, we don't feed birds and they can't get in the rabbit hutch or run to access rabbit food.
So are they a danger to rabbits in terms of disease?
Would it be sensible to move them e.g. catch them humanely and relocate, and get rid of compost bin so they can't live there?
We live in quite a rural area so there would be plenty of woodland/bushes etc they can live in.

Thanks!


Hi there :wave:

It's going to he hard persuading rats not to enter your compost bin, especially during the colder months. Your only option if you feel you can't tolerate them is to get rid of the compost bin.

How close to your house/rabbits is it sited?
 
We've recently been over run with rats. Never seen them before in the garden in over 30 years of rabbit keeping. They were feeding off the fatballs put out for birds. We tried a humane trap and were catching, usually one a day in the trap. We then took them 2 miles away and released them into fields. It didn't make any difference. We were still having them running around in the garden and sunning themselves in the sunshine. It was impossible to let my bunnies out in the garden. Sadly, we had to resort to poison. I was putting out three blocks a day (Rentakill mouse and rat bait. Looks like blocks of chocolate. Smells like chocolate too.) They say, if you see a rat, then you're overrun with them. I haven't seen any for 3 days now and the bait is still there. Hopefully they have gone now.
 
We had " rats in the compost bin" issue a couple of years ago [emoji33]

We got rid of the compost bin and the rats moved under the shed, we tried poison but it appears the poison we can buy doesn't actually work!

Eventually called out the rodent control people who used a better bait and got rid of the rats in two or three weeks. I'm not convinced that they have gone completely, but the numbers have been reduced enough so that we don't actually see them on a daily basis
 
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