Squirrel in a bin – Clitheroe Castle
We had quite a lot of interesting bird and animal behaviour in the garden in the last few weeks – the regular appearance of greenfinches and goldfinches in the garden after a winter absence, the long-tailed tit that stared in at me, the squirrel eating samphire and, most notably, a rat chasing a squirrel. It was a small rat and the squirrel was quite a bit bigger, but it sill ran off. The rat tried to follow it into a shrub but the squirrel was up and away well before the rat could make a start.
I don’t like rats. I particularly don’t like rats when they come into our garden under the fence from other garden. We keep our garden as clear as we can from excess bird food and it annoys me that other people clearly don’t. Unfortunately we can’t keep it clean 100% of the time, even though we only feed modest amounts on the ground. If rats come out in daylight, they will find food before the birds have finished it. I say rats, there are two of them as far as we can see. We aren’t exactly overrun with them, , but we don’t want more so we have to act.
Squirrel at Rufford
The trap I bought, and baited with delicious peanut butter has failed to tempt them. Spreading chopped chillies on the ground failed to stop them, mainly because the pigeons ate the chillies before they could do any good.
Today, I have netting arriving and we will be attempting to block the route under the fence.
Other choices include ultrasonic devices, and strongly scented oils. I’m trying to avoid poisons (including baking soda variations), and the obvious cure – stopping feeding the birds.
I could also learn to live with rats, but years of keeping poultry has conditioned me to get rid of them. Same goes for the years of being warned of rat-borne disease.
No pictures of rats, so I went with squirrels.
I haven’t seen any rats in our garden, aside from the occasional ones the cat has dispatched, but there are often suspicious tunnels in the compost heap.
If you keep your compost a bit wetter, that might help as they don’t like it. We are within 20 yards of woodland, quarter of a mile away from lakes where people hrow a lot of bread around, and in the middle of neighbours who overfeed.
Our compost is open to the weather, which is mostly pretty wet, so I guess it is damp. Maybe it’s not rats?
Mice often go in too. Not sure what else. We are having problems too and I’m not sure what to do. We will probably dig in the good stuff soon and restart it.
I’ve seen mice in or around the compost from time to time.
I’m so glad you didn’t put a rat photo up. 😂
🙂
We have a native rat in Australia – Native water rat Hydromys chysogaster. I have only seen one twice but they are not disease carriers like the introduced rats.
We have water voles, often called water rats, but brown rats have a tendency to kill them and take over their nests. I see they have had a name change to alter their image. 🙂
Their name – Rakali – is their aboriginal name.
A rat chasing a squirrel is quite something
It was very quick, and seemed smaller than the squirrel. I wish I had filmed it. But I also wish we didn’t have rats.
I wish you luck with you netting but I am not optimistic. My brother has been unable to stop badgers getting into hos garden and they are much bigger than rats.
Badgers are well known for their determination. I have seen them smashing garden fences on TV when they have been erected across badger tracks.
I was once standing in the middle of a field with a free range poultry farmer. There were a number of cone shaped distortions in the fence and a sliding hatch. I asked him about them. It seems he had putt the netting up across a badger path and each night they would charge the fence with their faces until the wire gave way. It was easier to put a sliding door in the fence rather than repair it each morning.
PS Having said that, rats can be persistent too, but I am allowed to take more drastic measures against them.
Pigeons eating chopped chilis? My, what a strong constitution they have! We have never seen rats in our yard, but there is a first time. It doesn’t pay to get too smug.
I don’t think they have the same taste buds that we do. You can supposedly douse bird food in powdered chilli or tabasco and it will deter squirrels but not birds. However, we have tried it and the effect is hor-lived.
I don’t think I have ever seen a rat on our farm (not yet), but here is another interesting article, this one on rats. I don’t know if you will be able to view it, but it is fascinating.
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/is-the-rat-war-over
Unfortunately I can’t access it. I will lok for sneaky alternative ways. You probably don’t have rats on the farm because the voles have eaten everything worth having. 🙂
Hopefully you can come across a copy you are able to look at. I think yoiu would really enjoy that article.
🙂
hate hate hate rats
I end to agree. This is the start of a long campaign. Every time we think we have got rid of them, they come back, but I am patient . . .