Rats at the feeders

E39MSport

I'm very rural and the garden is big enough which means that the feeders are a good 30m from the house.

But I have an increaing problem with rats. The feeders are placed beside a ditch which gives the birds good cover and I don't really want to move them from there.

However, its also good cover for Rats. While I have seen them in the past run from cover to collect seeds, they've now managed to burrow a fairly large hole right under the feeders.

I blocked off the hole the other night and they dug around the brick.

I have been using poison to keep them down and stopped putting seeds out for a while at the end of the Summer to try to deal with them.

I no longer want to use poison - better late than never but now I'm stuck for solutions and I suspect that there's a healthy number of them out there.

I have a large bated humane trap out but they avoid it and more often than not a Finch will set it off.

Any suggestions?

Ta,

V_Moth

I would suggest taking in the feeders for a week or two. Once the remaining spilled bird-food is used up, the Rats should be fairly easy to trap.

E39MSport

Merci.

Don't particularly want to take them in but better now I guess than when it's even colder.

Sid_Justice

can you not simply raise the seeders off the ground?

E39MSport

They're well off the ground but some of the birds are throwing it everywhere to get at their preferred fare

They're getting though over 1Kg of mixed seed laced with black sunflower per day. When the weather is very bad it at least doubles. Thay make quite some mess.

I'm thinking about laying some paving slabs down - maybe 9, and surrounding with fencing. I don't want to put the Pheasants off though. Plus, it's a bit over the top ...

doctor evil

You could try those covered rat traps. Do you know any one who has a terrier that likes to do ratting.

You can get these guards that go underneath the feeder, you could fashion an old bin lid.

My own feeder is about 4/5foot away from the wall and hedge, it is a cjbirdfood one defender I think.

Don't bother feeding mixes, these often contain fillers that pigeons/rats love. Stick with straights.

Scrappychimow

doctor evil wrote: »

You could try those covered rat traps. Do you know any one who has a terrier that likes to do ratting.

You can get these guards that go underneath the feeder, you could fashion an old bin lid.

My own feeder is about 4/5foot away from the wall and hedge, it is a cjbirdfood one defender I think.

Don't bother feeding mixes, these often contain fillers that pigeons/rats love. Stick with straights.

Pigeons aren't the problem?

swifts need our help!

E39 mixed seed is never a good idea. What seeds are in it?

If anyone wants to feed mixed seeds buy the seeds seperately and use seed feeder per seed

coolhandspan

get a high powered pellet gun, great fun..... :rolleyes:

kildare.17hmr

id second the terrier idea, even a fiesty jack russel not used for hunting will will tare through them given the chance

E39MSport

Too late on the seed front - I have full stock for the Winter in the garage.

Some odd looking stuff in it. It all gets eaten though be it Pheasants or even Blackbirds and Robins (and Rats)

I'll stop feeding for a while and try to trap them. There'll be more though... no more mixed seeds after this lot