Unwanted visitors - Rats

Wendy Woo

Has anyone in Charlesland Wood has any recent problems with these unwanted visitors - if yes have you taken any action to get rid of them

Son of Jack

The freezing temperatures has them seeking warm places.

Rat poison can be bought in the DIY shops locally.

There are clever little grey plastic boxes with a small entrance, into which you put this, which means dogs/cats cannot access it. Keep topping it up. We find this pretty effective.

But the most effective way of dealing with rats is to keep a dog

Good luck with this.

mikedragon32

Odd with the amount of cats around. Usually they crop up when there's been a disturbance of the ground. Anyone doing building or putting up a garden shed nearby?

As for how to get rid of them, rentokil or the like might be the way to go.

Wendy Woo

Thanks guys, all suggestions greatly received:)

MyPerfectCousin

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Odd with the amount of cats around. Usually they crop up when there's been a disturbance of the ground. Anyone doing building or putting up a garden shed nearby?

I think a week and a half of sub-0 temps counts as a disturbance to the ground. It's not normal and has probably affected other living things differently than normal temps do.

pixbyjohn

In the past week I have been driving to Brittas and along the roads there are lots of rats running about on the snow looking for food. The co op in Ashford is the cheapest place to buy poison and the best way to lay poison is in 3 foot long plastic piping of about 2inch diameter. By leaving several blocks of Storm poison as bait in the pipes, rats will take it. Then leave a week or two and lay more bait, but try and get your neighbours to do the same. Never lay poison inside your house. Charlesland has lots of rats in the area as this topic was discussed last year also. Statistics say that we are never too far away from rats anyway.

FirstIn

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Odd with the amount of cats around. Usually they crop up when there's been a disturbance of the ground. Anyone doing building or putting up a garden shed nearby?

As for how to get rid of them, rentokil or the like might be the way to go.

Cats are useless. Very seldomly will they tackle a rat. Mice and song bids, yes. Rats no. A small terrier dog is the best bet.

ciaran67

Wendy Woo wrote: »

Has anyone in Charlesland Wood has any recent problems with these unwanted visitors - if yes have you taken any action to get rid of them

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael campaigning again?

Huntthe

Disagree about cats, they are definitely a deterrent but yes some kind of Jack Russell is best.

If your laying poison don't lay too much, If you lay it and it's gone don't lay more straight away or they'll hoard it. All the animals are out and about these days looking for food. Even saw a badger in Greystones during the cold spell in January.

audreyp

FirstIn wrote: »

Cats are useless. Very seldomly will they tackle a rat. Mice and song bids, yes. Rats no. A small terrier dog is the best bet.

Not entirely sure about that judging from the "presents" my cats bring home...

coolhandd

You should use the box type traps as if you lay posioin you could kill other things like cats, dogs, birds and children.

Son of Jack

You might also like to consider the foliage/cover they have in your garden.

Also food sources; We used find feeding the birds brought in rats and mice. We now use a tray for bird seed; bring it in each evening and keep nuts and grain droppings swept up.

Sorting the problem included reducing the 'cover' they had to come up the garden i.e. cutting back the hedges and climbers.

Blandpebbles

Charlesland is rotten with rats, in particular the apartments in Fairways, Seabourne etc..

Had several come up through the loos and mentioned it to Fred one day, just as a huge rat ran by. He said when the drains were being put in hundreds of rats got into them over the course of building.

Not the most pleasant thing to find as you go to sit down

MyPerfectCousin

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Charlesland is rotten with rats

News to me. I've been living in Charlesland nearly five years and haven't seen one yet. The only rats I've seen in Greystones was when I lived in the villlage and saw one running down Eden Road and another running down Mill Road.

cotton

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Charlesland is rotten with rats, in particular the apartments in Fairways, Seabourne etc..

Had several come up through the loos and mentioned it to Fred one day, just as a huge rat ran by. He said when the drains were being put in hundreds of rats got into them over the course of building.

Not the most pleasant thing to find as you go to sit down

Sorry, but I think I would die if that happened to me. I'm never going to sit down without looking again.

Jimjay

Had a problem at beginning of summer in wood. Looked in the shed one day and there was a hole chewed through the base and there was foam all over the place from our garden furniture cushions. We also had a hole under our decking. A few poison blocks under the decking and shed appeared to do the job. Hope they don't come back, there is. Lot of bird seed an nuts thrown about at the moment but to much ice to cleanup.

pixbyjohn

Rats love timber because they need to chew regularly to keep their teeth from growing too long. Since decking became popular rats have multiplied in the close proximity of houses because of the cover that decking allows them.
It is important to have a small "trapdoor" in the decking to lay poison on a regular basis, even when you don't see the signs of rats about. Also if you use plastic piping for poison there won't be a risk to dogs or cats or children as long as you secure the piping by putting a brick or something heavy to stop dogs moving the pipe. On the radio today on the Mooney show there was a discussion on rats in the gardens eating the bird food that people leave out. They recommend that all bird food should be taken in at night.