Rats or mice?

[stinkwheel]

Yes rats. Yes, they make a mess. Yes they are a risk to your property.

They can be very destructive. They wiull break into anything and will chew anything that looks vaguely chewable. Including many of the parts of your motorcycle including the tyre vwelves, handgrips, airbox rubbers, battery tray, brake lines, saddle foam and wiring.

Council environmental health department may be able to help.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Andy_Pagin]

Get onto the council, if she's providing them with limitless food they'll breed like crazy. I can almost guarantee the council will pounce on her.
____________________
They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[King29]

Thank you all. It's a real problem now as she has a favourite rat she has called Brian (I'm being serious). She puts a water dish down for them as well. I've informed my ill tempered wife of the facts. She has promised to burn the washing machine down and all the rats along with it "If one of those hairy little bastards come into our garden".

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. "If you were a real man Darren you'd go around there and tell her wouldn't you, BUT NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT BECAUSE...… etc etc". Time of the month.

[Riejufixing]

Does she know they're rats? You said she thought they are mice. She might feel a little different about them.

[King29]

[Ste]

The rat army led by Brian will soon be taking up residence in her house.

They're already living in lots of places other than the washing machine so if your other half destroys / disposes of the washing machine, it won't make any difference. Expect they'll have already been exploring your garden and sizing it up for where to dig burrows.

This thread is going to be fun for everyone apart from King29.

[hedgehugger]

Rats are a fecking pain.
I have a chicken, last one of 3. I bring the food in at night, but the 'hamsters' (said in the voice of Manuel, Fawlty Towers), have moved in.

They ate a hole in the pond liner, then another one. They have holes and tunnels everywhere along the fence, and under the shed.
I buy pink pasta stuff from Amazon regularly. It kills the babies, not so much the adults. I have several bait boxes around the garden.
I kill one lot, then a few weeks later those cute little furballs are looking at me with their beady eyes, and twitchy noses from under the shed.
It isn't nice when they are dying, I wish they would go away and hide, but they drag themselves around the garden, and I don't have it in me to bop them on the head.

I have a humane trap, live catch. I've caught a few silly babies in there, but then once caught you have to take them somewhere and release. Or kill them.

I rigged up a trap. Smeared a swing bin lid with peanut butter and had a plank leading up to it. It worked, but again live ones, that I don't have the heart to kill. Then I had to cart a bin to the woods and hope the owls get it .

Once the chicken is no more, It will be easier to whittle them down, but there is free food for them currently. Chicken is old now, but still healthy as f*ck, and still laying!


TLDR.... Babies are more susceptible to poisoning in my experience.


Why isn't rat contraceptive a thing?

[Riejufixing]

[Sister Sledge]

Here's another reason to get rid NOW.

The weather is pleasant and rats will be fine in it. But- come cooler weather the rats will be looking for a warmer place to live but still close to that magical food supply that replenishes itself.
They will move to a location where it's warm and dry - houses. They'll be under floor boards, inside cavity walls, you name it.
Rats are awesome climbers and will scale a house wall easily. Once at the top they'll chew a hole through soffit boards and into your loft. Warm, dry and packed with ready-made bedding. Imagine killing off rats in your loft and then having to replace the old stinking once-rat infested insulation..

Rats will chew through a house brick if they have to. Their teeth are hard and self replenishing..

OK how about this: Try working with the old neighbour. Buy her a pet rat for indoors and provide a cage? How about a huge cage and some birds indoors? (cruel I know but far better than Brians gang outside)

For poison I would use a product called D-Rat. A red thick liquid that's mixed with grain and you bag it and place into places. It was the best out there for killing them and worked out incredibly cheap. It became unavailable though.
____________________
CCM 404 DS

[Ste]

That's a very good point about how Brian will be looking for a warmer place to live when the weather starts getting cooler!!

I've a horrible feeling that getting her some pet rats would just encourage her and make her think that her army of garden rats aren't so bad despite what everyone says about them.

I'd opt for speaking to pest control or environmental health at the local council rather than picking a rat poison off the shelf. It'll be fun for them to try and get little old lady to agree to having all her rats poisoned.

Presume there are other nearby gardens, how many have got kiddywinks?

[A100man]

[Sister Sledge]

Do not, whatever you do, do what workmen did in a shipyard at Blyth Harbour years ago:
Rats everywhere and they caught a live one. They decided it would be funny to pour petrol on it, set fire to it and watch it burn.
The rat burst into flames and ran into a tunnel beneath the shipyard offices.
It burnt the offices down.
____________________
CCM 404 DS

[Ste]

He's already overrun, as she's seen 17 in her garden at one time there are fuck loads more!! A cat isn't going to kill that many . Start shooting them and little old lady will get most unhappy.

Baits and traps are all well and good but you'll need to use them effectively, rats will be cautious of anything new to start with.

Environmental health and pest control at the local council are the way to go. Could or possibly should mention to your other neighbours that they need to be careful not to leave anything in their garden or easily accessible sheds which rats would like because little old lady is creating an army of rats to take over the neighbourhood. Parents with small children will be unhappy about the rats, they'll do all the complaining and you don't have to be the guy without testicles.

But it's all a waste of time until she stops feeding them.

[King29]

My wife has blown neighbour into environmental health. Her house is via a housing association so she's phoned them too. I'm not looking forward to the fallout.

[A100man]

[Easy-X]

[Ste]

[Riejufixing]

[King29]

She sleeps in the front room as she cant get up the stairs anymore and refuses to buy a stanner stair-lift. She stores the food next to her bed.

I come around to vacuum her house once a week as she is unable.

https://i.imgur.com/gCa5SjN.jpg

[Ste]

How long until the rats move in with her?

[bhinso]

Get a (nob)cat.

[Ste]

Get a cat you say?

[Sister Sledge]

This neighbour is going to fall out with you anyway so why not profit from the story and sell it to The Metro?
____________________
CCM 404 DS

[Sister Sledge]

[Ste]

There's no reason why the little old lady will know OP is the person who stopped her from infesting the area with fuck loads of rats. Until he tells her that is.

Rat contraception is available from all good poison stores.

Wait for things to kick off properly before letting the local press know about Brian.