Would you rather...

[LadyOnArooftop]

Would you rather have mice in the house or rats in the garden?
I've been pondering this question because I've always been concerned about mice in the home ever since I saw one a long time ago (Yes, a moose, loose, aboot this hoose ). But in the last couple of weeks I've seen 3 rats in the garden. I can no longer sunbathe or even hang the washing out. I'm blaming the neighbour who keeps chickens, but he's denying all responsibility. His advice was that I should find out where they're nesting and dig them out, yeah right!

Anything you'd rather?... feel free to share.

 

[Billyliar]

Worst thing, a mouse could do is lay droppings, on you, if you fell asleep.
A rat could gnaw your ear off,
tbh lady, i take the mice.

 

[hell2bwith76]

Would you rather have mice in the house or rats in the garden?
I've been pondering this question because I've always been concerned about mice in the home ever since I saw one a long time ago (Yes, a moose, loose, aboot this hoose ). But in the last couple of weeks I've seen 3 rats in the garden. I can no longer sunbathe or even hang the washing out. I'm blaming the neighbour who keeps chickens, but he's denying all responsibility. His advice was that I should find out where they're nesting and dig them out, yeah right!

Anything you'd rather?... feel free to share.

Speaking from a vast experience plus reading the Biology on Rats i can say that they are far worse than Mice !.
We have the same problem with rats which only appeared since our neighbour aquired 2 Chickens. Young couple and they wanted fresh eggs !. Eggs are very inexpensive anyway ,even free range . They get 2 eggs a day from the Hens ! big deal !,
Whilst it may be true that Rats can roam any garden and even nest in attics they prefer to be near to food and Chicken food is ideal for them.
My wife is petrified by Mice or Rats so when the first Rat showed itself by sauntering across our lawn in broad daylight she had a fit .Of course they decided to make a nest in one of my garden sheds ,after chewing their way through a solid fence and then under the shed flooring.That was it ...War was declared . Lucky for us another nearby neighbour is a retired Vermin Control expert for the Council so i had a word with him. he said exactly what the poster BI said " Where you have Chickens you have Rats ". He has a license to get the really strong poison and lay the traps /bait at the bottom of our garden near the sheds. A neighbour several doors away in the next street found a dead Rat on his drive one day and wasn`t very happy . Other neighbours were concerned that a pet Cat or Dog might pick up the poison from the dead Rat or the source but the Rat bloke knows his job.
One other thing though is that the Rats were finding other sources of food and storing it ,in my shed ! On peering into the shed i saw there a large heap of food ( some rotten ) . Apples ( from the same neighbours apple tree! )and grass ( from seed ) which may have come from our bird feeders . Much to our reluctance i had to remove 3 bird feeders from our garden for good. (anyone want 5 tubs of wild bird seed ?).We just have 1 now which is Squirrel proof and near to our house. We have a huge Cat too but not sure if he would tackle a full grown Rat .I`m now having to get the garden shed demolished as the floor is rotten where the Rats ate through it and also some items which were kept in the shed have been shredded to build their nest. I found 1 medium sized rat dead in there recently. They can eat through anything ,even concrete . They will climb walls of houses to get into an attic to nest ,believe me i have seen them in our previous house .

What i suggest you read OP is all about Rats and the diseases which they carry .They carry the most lethal diseases known to man ( they of course are immune to them ) and they have a weird but worrying way of spreading such disease. When they travel from nest to search for food they leave a continuous trail of Urine ,so they can find their way back home ! It`s true and that Urine holds disease which can be transfered to any food produce which they walk over. good enough reason to wash anything which you may grow in your garden.

Sorry to ramble on but Rats have created a warzone in our garden and guess what ? The dam Council Envirenment Dept. just laughed when wifey phoned to see if something can be done about the Chickens ! Apparently there is NO law about keeping Chickens unless they become a "noise " nuisance ,ffs. For a year now ( just ended i think ) there has been a law that owners of Chickens keep their stock in closed sheds /barns due to the Bird Flu epidemic. Where was our neighbours Chicks during that time ? in his bloody garden of course ! walking freely in the open. I was secretly hoping to find a dead wild bird in our garden so that i could phone the dam Environment Office !
.
Good luck with your efforts to remove the Rats but remember how intelligent they actually are

 

[hell2bwith76]

What breed, age and colour?

Regular moggie ,all white 13 years old and a brute !.
p.s. we think his black Nose came when he poked under neighbours car once ! lol.

 

[hell2bwith76]

So you still have the white cat !
As for the cat being a brute .. no offence ..... but pets take after their owners

Actually he`s very timid normally but he enjoys taking out anything which runs along thk ground /floor . Being a typical cat though i believe they realise the problem of a bite from a full size rat so avoid confrontation with them. The best deterrent for Rats are a Dog( JR?) or maybe a Fox.
Rats can also swim very well and will use a kiddies paddling pool if filled during the night .Again they leave their Urine trail in the water .I need to state that Rats are very very Intelligent too so it`s really difficult to get rid of them once they arrive .
the Old Wives Tale about a Rat going for your Throat if you trap one accidently in the toilet has been misunderstood i believe . From personal experience ,they actually do fly "towards" a persons neck if trapped .It`s their way to escape ,they are not attacking ,they just escape over your shoulder .

 

[hell2bwith76]

He looks scary with his mouth open like that, but then again, so does mine when she shows her top and bottom teeth - almost like a vampire

he does look scary with his Mouth open in a yawn !lol!.

 

[hell2bwith76]

The Cat weighs at least a stone ,i stopped him chasing baby birds other night by picking him up ! Whew ! he is heavy.

 

[hell2bwith76]

If he weighs at least stone he is definitely a big cat.

Yes .he is ! i told you he`s a brute . but he`s my brute and love him to bits .

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Speaking from a vast experience plus reading the Biology on Rats i can say that they are far worse than Mice !.
We have the same problem with rats which only appeared since our neighbour aquired 2 Chickens. Young couple and they wanted fresh eggs !. Eggs are very inexpensive anyway ,even free range . They get 2 eggs a day from the Hens ! big deal !,
Whilst it may be true that Rats can roam any garden and even nest in attics they prefer to be near to food and Chicken food is ideal for them.
My wife is petrified by Mice or Rats so when the first Rat showed itself by sauntering across our lawn in broad daylight she had a fit .Of course they decided to make a nest in one of my garden sheds ,after chewing their way through a solid fence and then under the shed flooring.That was it ...War was declared . Lucky for us another nearby neighbour is a retired Vermin Control expert for the Council so i had a word with him. he said exactly what the poster BI said " Where you have Chickens you have Rats ". He has a license to get the really strong poison and lay the traps /bait at the bottom of our garden near the sheds. A neighbour several doors away in the next street found a dead Rat on his drive one day and wasn`t very happy . Other neighbours were concerned that a pet Cat or Dog might pick up the poison from the dead Rat or the source but the Rat bloke knows his job.
One other thing though is that the Rats were finding other sources of food and storing it ,in my shed ! On peering into the shed i saw there a large heap of food ( some rotten ) . Apples ( from the same neighbours apple tree! )and grass ( from seed ) which may have come from our bird feeders . Much to our reluctance i had to remove 3 bird feeders from our garden for good. (anyone want 5 tubs of wild bird seed ?).We just have 1 now which is Squirrel proof and near to our house. We have a huge Cat too but not sure if he would tackle a full grown Rat .I`m now having to get the garden shed demolished as the floor is rotten where the Rats ate through it and also some items which were kept in the shed have been shredded to build their nest. I found 1 medium sized rat dead in there recently. They can eat through anything ,even concrete . They will climb walls of houses to get into an attic to nest ,believe me i have seen them in our previous house .

What i suggest you read OP is all about Rats and the diseases which they carry .They carry the most lethal diseases known to man ( they of course are immune to them ) and they have a weird but worrying way of spreading such disease. When they travel from nest to search for food they leave a continuous trail of Urine ,so they can find their way back home ! It`s true and that Urine holds disease which can be transfered to any food produce which they walk over. good enough reason to wash anything which you may grow in your garden.

Sorry to ramble on but Rats have created a warzone in our garden and guess what ? The dam Council Envirenment Dept. just laughed when wifey phoned to see if something can be done about the Chickens ! Apparently there is NO law about keeping Chickens unless they become a "noise " nuisance ,ffs. For a year now ( just ended i think ) there has been a law that owners of Chickens keep their stock in closed sheds /barns due to the Bird Flu epidemic. Where was our neighbours Chicks during that time ? in his bloody garden of course ! walking freely in the open. I was secretly hoping to find a dead wild bird in our garden so that i could phone the dam Environment Office !
.
Good luck with your efforts to remove the Rats but remember how intelligent they actually are

A great contribution to the thread, thanks for the information and advice, it's appreciated. I know my fear of entering the garden is irrational, because given the chance, a rat will always run away from you and not towards you, it's just the thought of them lurking. And I take your point about the cat. There are lot of cats around here all wearing collars, so they're all house cats. They won't tangle with our rodent friends. I think only feral cats or farm bred ones will kill rats.

 

[hell2bwith76]

A great contribution to the thread, thanks for the information and advice, it's appreciated. I know my fear of entering the garden is irrational, because given the chance, a rat will always run away from you and not towards you, it's just the thought of them lurking. And I take your point about the cat. There are lot of cats around here all wearing collars, so they're all house cats. They won't tangle with our rodent friends. I think only feral cats or farm bred ones will kill rats.

Thank you for the compliment . Much appreciated .
Our Merlin is an indoors /outdoors Cat .In all day ,mostly asleep .Out once it starts to get dark . We lost him for several days when he was first allowed out ( after injections etc) and ever since we like him in when we go to bed . Hence we have to stay up later than normal to allow him his fun outside when it`s dark . He rarely hesitates to come in then ,he likes to be with us as much as we like him to be with us . i think his "kill" count for Mice is quite high ( it does include young rats ) but his Bird kill is one bird in every two years so not too bad .

 

[Moriarty]

Rats have a really bad reputation.

They are actually very clean, social animals who get blamed for lots of sh** they didnt do.

The plague, the black death, not borne by rats but by humans.

Rats clean themselves regularly, they even comb themselves to remove ticks and fleas (Which do spread disease)

Having had a pet rat I learnt about them at an early age.
My ex had two who would curl up in her hair at night and go to sleep.

Did you know rats actually sing to each other and have complex social structures.
They also take very easily to human contact.

It's just ashame they only live 2-3 years.
Lost mine due to cancer, which they are prone to getting, especially albino's which mine was.

I love rats, even though mine bit through my motorbike gloves eventually because I couldnt handle him.
Not his fault, he was very aggresive due to the place I got him from.

I am seriously thinking of getting another rat soon.
Much cheaper to keep than a dog, much more loving than "Most" cats.

If your really interested in rats, you should look at John Calhoun's experiment "Rat Utopia".
Its one of the foremost experiments in social engineering and actually shows us a lot about human behaviour.

Heres a good example of Calhouns findings.

 

[hell2bwith76]

Rats have a really bad reputation.

They are actually very clean, social animals who get blamed for lots of sh** they didnt do.

The plague, the black death, not borne by rats but by humans.

Rats clean themselves regularly, they even comb themselves to remove ticks and fleas (Which do spread disease)

Having had a pet rat I learnt about them at an early age.
My ex had two who would curl up in her hair at night and go to sleep.

Did you know rats actually sing to each other and have complex social structures.
They also take very easily to human contact.

It's just ashame they only live 2-3 years.
Lost mine due to cancer, which they are prone to getting, especially albino's which mine was.

I love rats, even though mine bit through my motorbike gloves eventually because I couldnt handle him.
Not his fault, he was very aggresive due to the place I got him from.

I am seriously thinking of getting another rat soon.
Much cheaper to keep than a dog, much more loving than "Most" cats.

If your really interested in rats, you should look at John Calhoun's experiment "Rat Utopia".
Its one of the foremost experiments in social engineering and actually shows us a lot about human behaviour.

Heres a good example of Calhouns findings.

I think you may be confusing Pet rats with Wild rats ?.Pet rats are very clean yes and can make loving pets but wild rats do carry and spread diseases due to their nature of searching for food. They will rummage in dustbins which carry a vast array of waste poisons(put there by us Humans ! )none of which will harm a rat as they have natural immunity but are likely to be toxic to Humans .
Most animals can be kept as pets ,e.g. sheep ,turkeys ,goats ,pigs etc etc but you keep them in clean conditions with ready food and water so they don`t need to wallow in muck like farm pigs do eh ?.

 

[Moriarty]

I think you may be confusing Pet rats with Wild rats ?.Pet rats are very clean yes and can make loving pets but wild rats do carry and spread diseases due to their nature of searching for food. They will rummage in dustbins which carry a vast array of waste poisons(put there by us Humans ! )none of which will harm a rat as they have natural immunity but are likely to be toxic to Humans .
Most animals can be kept as pets ,e.g. sheep ,turkeys ,goats ,pigs etc etc but you keep them in clean conditions with ready food and water so they don`t need to wallow in muck like farm pigs do eh ?.

Even in the wild rats are very clean creatures, yes they get infestations which take time to dislodge like nits in humans.

As for Pigs, they are very clean creatures.

Pigs wallow generally in hot weather as it cools them, they dont sweat like we do, so finding water helps them regulate body temperature, much like elephants.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Rats have a really bad reputation.

They are actually very clean, social animals who get blamed for lots of sh** they didnt do.

The plague, the black death, not borne by rats but by humans.

Rats clean themselves regularly, they even comb themselves to remove ticks and fleas (Which do spread disease)

Having had a pet rat I learnt about them at an early age.
My ex had two who would curl up in her hair at night and go to sleep.

Did you know rats actually sing to each other and have complex social structures.
They also take very easily to human contact.

It's just ashame they only live 2-3 years.
Lost mine due to cancer, which they are prone to getting, especially albino's which mine was.

I love rats, even though mine bit through my motorbike gloves eventually because I couldnt handle him.
Not his fault, he was very aggresive due to the place I got him from.

I am seriously thinking of getting another rat soon.
Much cheaper to keep than a dog, much more loving than "Most" cats.

If your really interested in rats, you should look at John Calhoun's experiment "Rat Utopia".
Its one of the foremost experiments in social engineering and actually shows us a lot about human behaviour.

Heres a good example of Calhouns findings.

I had rats as pets too Very intelligent creatures and they're very loving and loyal too. 2 Albinos and1 hooded. My hooded was the one who was the best trained and very rarely locked up in his cage, because you could get him to come to order. Only trouble we had was with cables, especially the telephone cable and we went through a number of phones with him.
Had mice later on too and they were not as nice to keep. Very anxious creatures and bloody noisy if they detected a possible threat around.

Also occasionally picked up the odd injured wild rat from down the river and nursed a couple back to health, but they grow much bigger, quicker than bred rats. From babies, they can be trained just like a domestic rat; however, like Hells pointed out, they do carry diseases and one, I recall, when I took him to the vets, he was riddled with mites and worms and died within days. The two I did manage to save from injury, I had to release due to not being able to get rid of the mites they carried.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Would you rather have mice in the house or rats in the garden?
I've been pondering this question because I've always been concerned about mice in the home ever since I saw one a long time ago (Yes, a moose, loose, aboot this hoose ). But in the last couple of weeks I've seen 3 rats in the garden. I can no longer sunbathe or even hang the washing out. I'm blaming the neighbour who keeps chickens, but he's denying all responsibility. His advice was that I should find out where they're nesting and dig them out, yeah right!

Anything you'd rather?... feel free to share.

Your neighbours advice is correct. You either have to kill rats or relocate them and get rid of what's been attracting them. Although, you don't necessarily have to be scared of them- rats will very rarely attack a human unless they feel under threat or cornered. If you're sunbathing, chances are they will run right past you, unless you have food on the ground and they are quite likely to chance pinching it!

 

[Billyliar]

Chicken, is the dirty animal.
A lot of country folk say.
Also, rats dont do no harm, ive seen them fished out of cider vats in a net.
Still tastes ok.

 

[hell2bwith76]

Even in the wild rats are very clean creatures, yes they get infestations which take time to dislodge like nits in humans.

As for Pigs, they are very clean creatures.

Pigs wallow generally in hot weather as it cools them, they dont sweat like we do, so finding water helps them regulate body temperature, much like elephants.

Missing the point . Even Fleas are very clean in their own world i suspect but the diseases they carry are /can be lethal to Man eh ?.

Chicken, is the dirty animal.
A lot of country folk say.
Also, rats dont do no harm, ive seen them fished out of cider vats in a net.
Still tastes ok.

I think i might be dirty if i was kept in a 10x6 ft shed with 100 other Chickens !

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Your neighbours advice is correct. You either have to kill rats or relocate them and get rid of what's been attracting them. Although, you don't necessarily have to be scared of them- rats will very rarely attack a human unless they feel under threat or cornered. If you're sunbathing, chances are they will run right past you, unless you have food on the ground and they are quite likely to chance pinching it!

Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated.
I had a man in (lucky me) and he said the rats weren't coming in my garden for anything, there are no bird feeders, fruit dropping off trees etc,
they're just passing through (like most men). He blocked off all entry points, gaps in the fencing etc. Looking through the bedroom window down
into the garden I've not seen anything since... I may start hanging the washing out, the tumble dryer has been on overtime for the last few weeks,
so much for saving energy! I'm not sure how this phobia of mine developed. I think it may have come from watching the room 101 scene in the
movie 1984 at an impressionable age.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated.
I had a man in (lucky me) and he said the rats weren't coming in my garden for anything, there are no bird feeders, fruit dropping off trees etc,
they're just passing through (like most men). He blocked off all entry points, gaps in the fencing etc. Looking through the bedroom window down
into the garden I've not seen anything since... I may start hanging the washing out, the tumble dryer has been on overtime for the last few weeks,
so much for saving energy! I'm not sure how this phobia of mine developed. I think it may have come from watching the room 101 scene in the
movie 1984 at an impressionable age.

I'm still trying to get over Watership Down, so I feel ya! Still can't listen to Bright Eyes without coming over all cold.
Honestly though, don't let the rats win. Hang your washing out and give your tumble dryer a well deserved break. Once they see you out and about, if there are any around, they're likely to try to avoid you. If still nervous, bring something that hisses loudly or alternatively, put something in your garden that looks like a snake . Natural predator of rats is snakes and if they see or hear something in the vicinity that they think is a snake, they'll scarper.