Rats nest in neighbours garden - entering my garden!

Hi, I am really concerned, my neighbours have a rat nest at the back of their garden, baby rats were born a few weeks ago and are entering our garden, not sure if they are entering the shed where rabbits are but I am really worried about the rats spreading diseases to our rabbits and children. How can I get rid of the rats?

TIA

MPAT said:

Hi, I am really concerned, my neighbours have a rat nest at the back of their garden, baby rats were born a few weeks ago and are entering our garden, not sure if they are entering the shed where rabbits are but I am really worried about the rats spreading diseases to our rabbits and children. How can I get rid of the rats?

TIA

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Inform your neighbours who will need to call out a Pest Control Company. If they refuse to do anything you’ll have to report the matter to the local Council’s Environmental Health department. In the meantime keep your Rabbit’s accommodation super clean. Check for any easy access routes for Rats. If you have any young Kits in the nest then you will have to be even more careful, Rats WILL eat kits still in the nest.

Some decent snap traps, under boxes with 2-3 rather small holes if not in a complete closed shed so that no other animals (birds!) can get to it. Baited with hazelnut waffels, peanut butter, whatever. A wildlife camera helps to see if there are any, and where, what they do etc.. I know many don't like the killing but imho if they are around the rabbits it's not the time to be squeamish.

The council most likely will put lots of poison boxes everywhere, so the rats are going to die anyway, in a not very humane way, and mice, and whatever eats the poisoned rodents. I prefer to kill any that get too close to my rabbits quickly, and I have a deep aversion against poisons.

Talking with the neighbour sure is a good idea, would be good to solve that issue at the root.

Talk to your neighbours. I don't think anyone wants rats in the garden. Ask them to keep disturbing the area they are nesting in and clear any other areas that provide cover, especially around sheds and buildings. Rats don't like to be disturbed. If they have an undisturbed nesting site, food (eg bird feeders or rabbit food) and water, they will stay put. They won't respect our garden boundaries, so could be getting food from another garden. They also do an amazing amount of damage.

I'm afraid I've had to resort to poison boxes in the past, but I really don't like using them. It's a case of act quickly before the problem escalates. Poison traps puts other pets & wild beasties at risk, so they have to be very carefully sited and look out for dead rats before anything else gets to them as the poison will affect whatever eats them.