Rats in the garden

Just The One

Just noticed both brown and grey rats in the garden? What is the difference between them?

niceirishfella

difference?

dont know, but they are vermin.........and can give you weils disease. Lay some bait pronto i'd say and keep your kids and dogs away from them if you have any.

Just The One

niceirishfella wrote: »

difference?

dont know, but they are vermin.........and can give you weils disease. Lay some bait pronto i'd say and keep your kids and dogs away from them if you have any.

living in the country, you are always going to have rats about but yes poison has already been laid.

Irish Gardener

Just The One wrote: »

Just noticed both brown and grey rats in the garden? What is the difference between them?

More than likely black/roof rats and Norway/brown rats.
The way in which sunlight bounces off their hair can often make them appear all shades from grey right up to black.
You will find a bit more on them here....... Types of rats you may find in your Irish garden.

Mellor

The black one is evil, the plague etc,
The brown/grey one is good, splinter from the turtles

10-10-20

Remember: A rat is just a big mouse in the wrong place!

sesswhat

Most likely both are the Brown rat species as the Black rat is seldom seen in this country now. They often do appear to be grey.

Remember: A rat is just a big mouse in the wrong place!

An Irish rat is a French mouse in the wrong place;)

Irish Wedding D

If you have any fruit bushes nearby, have them sprayed. Rats are normally drawn to raspberry or berry bushes this time of year for food source.

reilig

Just The One wrote: »

living in the country, you are always going to have rats about but yes poison has already been laid.

That's little naieve,

The vast majority of rats in Ireland lives in the cities. In fact, it is estimated that there are 8 rats in Dublin for every person and that at any time you are never more than 3 meters from a rat. They live in sewers, feed from rubbish bins, compost heaps and any other human waste etc, etc.

Who ever said that rats live on berries is very much mistaken. They are vermin, survive best on human waste, and multiply - have a couple of litters of young per year, I think they can have a new litter of young every 8 weeks (approx 6 per litter).

has anyone ever seen the documentary about the rat problem in New York?

Anyway, that's the truth about rats, they are a city pest, rare in the country.

Dan

kerash

reilig wrote: »

That's little naieve,

The vast majority of rats in Ireland lives in the cities. In fact, it is estimated that there are 8 rats in Dublin for every person and that at any time you are never more than 3 meters from a rat. They live in sewers, feed from rubbish bins, compost heaps and any other human waste etc, etc.

Who ever said that rats live on berries is very much mistaken. They are vermin, survive best on human waste, and multiply - have a couple of litters of young per year, I think they can have a new litter of young every 8 weeks (approx 6 per litter).

has anyone ever seen the documentary about the rat problem in New York?

Anyway, that's the truth about rats, they are a city pest, rare in the country.

Dan

I live in the country and their not too rare;)
Rats will be drawn to where ever there is food available simple as that!

Builderwoman!

Just The One wrote: »

living in the country, you are always going to have rats about but yes poison has already been laid.

Put the poison into a short length of wide wavin pipe...so that birds, cats and other animals don't go near it.

reilig

kerash wrote: »

I live in the country and their not too rare;)
Rats will be drawn to where ever there is food available simple as that!

I live in the country too, but the fact is that there is far more for rats to feed on in the city so Rats are more plentyful there

OPENROAD

We have had problems also and actually found a dead one in garage just inside door and found a nest in garage on floor not sure what was in it though, the garage is packed with old furniture and junk so have decided to clear it out and will get a skip, is it safe to clear out garage myself considering they have been in there,crawling all over the place urinating etc..

Mellor

reilig wrote: »

That's little naieve,

The vast majority of rats in Ireland lives in the cities. In fact, it is estimated that there are 8 rats in Dublin for every person and that at any time you are never more than 3 meters from a rat. They live in sewers, feed from rubbish bins, compost heaps and any other human waste etc, etc.

Who ever said that rats live on berries is very much mistaken. They are vermin, survive best on human waste, and multiply - have a couple of litters of young per year, I think they can have a new litter of young every 8 weeks (approx 6 per litter).

has anyone ever seen the documentary about the rat problem in New York?

Anyway, that's the truth about rats, they are a city pest, rare in the country.

Dan

Sorry, but thats not true..
The "fact" about rats numbers in cities is an urban myth. A well known one, that is varied depending on what city you are in, london and new york being very common. I'm not disagreeing that there are rats in cities, but the number is too high. The "common" myth is 2 rats per person.
This is completely false, there are 15 to 40 times as many people as rats in any city, Dublin, London, New York. There may be areas where rats out number people by a factor, but this are small areas like the docks, where there might be alot.
As for never being more than 3 metres from a rat. A bit of common sense would prove that wrong. For that to be true there would have to be 1 milllion rats for a every 3 km square.

There are rats everywhere (with the exception of polar regions), city and country. I don't know which is higher populated, due to the terain rats are easier spotted in the city.

As for rats being vermin, I fail to see how this has anything to do with feeding of human waste.
Foxes are vermin, they eat lambs and young birds, rabbit and moles are vermin they eat various planted veg, pigeon are vermon and they eat crops. Vermin has nothing to do with human waste.
Rats are omnivores, true omnivores, they will eat anything.

To the OP,
An uncle friend and a serious rat problem in a barn. it was infested with black rats (black rats are poor swimmers and good climbers, brown are other way).
So they entered the shed with a 20 gauge shotgun and let rip, cleared everyone out. Problem solved.

We seen a rat here last week and we can't do much, cant lay poisin or traps due to other animals here, can't shoot because it is built up area. Just had to leave it, my point is, the best way to get rid of them depends on the situation and the area.

ScottishDanny

KILL THEM ALL!!!!! :eek:
rats are incontinent, they p*ss everywhere and their urine can cause Weil's disease (as other poster said) which can be fatal. You can get traps from most hardware places - like big mouse traps, be very careful with your fingers. The traps have to be secured to the ground. Use chocolate or bacon sewn onto the trap (so they dont spring it and then get away with the bait). Or you can get live trap cages - then you have to dispatch the critter yourself (put the trap in a bucket or disinfected water and drown em) dont let them out - that just makes it someone else's problem. If you put poison down they may eat it and then go to their nest (possibly under your gaff) to die - stinky. There is another way using a special rodent glue on a piece of wood. again you have to then kill em yourself. Make sure you dont trap other animals like cats, hedgehogs or birdys.

Cmar-Ireland

The rodent glue boards can work, but rats will often chew their own leg off to escape...:eek:
Best to use a proper rat trap (metal), that way your sure to get them.

kerash

you should NEVER kill a rat, because all the rest of the rats will come to the funeral!!!:D

bauderline

Rats are very common in the country too, they are often found in and around farms and other large agricultural installations as these provide shelter, warmth and a source of food.

You really don't want them anywhere near your house as they do carry nasty diseases. The best method to dispatch them is using large rat traps, but watch the fingers though....

I would never ever use poison for rats or mice, they usually die inside where you can get at them.... and the smell.... enough said.

Good luck.