With Apologies to @OldGoat for pinching his thread title, one year on our war with the neighbours is about to escalate. Last year, next door neighbours , purveyors of copious amounts of bird feed, seemingly surprised at the sudden influx of rats and mice, decided to administer rat poison everywhere, un-contained.Seemingly they were more than happy to be responsible for the slow agonising death of the rats they attracted. End result, our cat had to be kept indoors for 3+ weeks so as not to come into contact with dying rats/ mice. Very unpleasant situation, and neighbour relations broken. Fast forward 12 months. Neighbour once again feeding birds. Doves, pigeons, sparrows, robins, blackbirds, the lot. Sparrowhawks also hanging about. Throwing seed onto lawn, bird feeders everywhere. Last few nights a scratching sound in our loft. So we now have mice or rats in our loft. If we approach our neighbours - they will put poison down. So, through no fault of our own, we now have to pay for a humane/ possibly impossible removal of the pests that our neighbours attracted. Or they put poison down and threaten other wildlife and also our cat. Earlier this week a hedgehog was rescued in the village - but died as a result of rat poison. If only our neighbour could buy the bird food to attract the goldfinches, robins and "pretty birds" she craves, and not the other birds and rodents she doesn't want that she will happily lead to a slow agonising death. Naturewatch, eh?
Since the works of the new Hermes site commenced at Hoyland common the residents of Tankersley Lane have all experienced rats in the garden. We like others have used rat bait boxes with poison. No problem, not seen a rat for a fortnight and no ill effect on pets or wildlife. Rat bait boxes only allow access to rats and mice.
We had to dig little graves for lots of dead shrews ,we gave them a good send off ,my wife said why you in that blue and yellow top,said it’s my Shrewsbury top
No, but they have openly admitted that’s what happens. “I think I’d better stop putting food on the ground.” No s#it Sherlock.
If you’ve got rats inside you need to sort out how they are getting in. Getting rid of the current residents humanely or not just leaves vacant property and others will move in. this bit of your post “Sparrowhawks also hangingabout.” had me chuckling.
Sorry but that’s just not true. Slugs, voles, hedgehogs etc get in. It takes up to 5 days for a mouse or rat to die an agonising death (basically bleeding to death). In that time they can be intercepted by domestic animals - cats, dogs. Birds of prey have been found dead having eaten poisoned mice. Hedgehogs can eat slugs that have ingested the poison. It’s happening more often. RSPCA are advising not to use poison, and have also issued advice on not feeding birds in the Summer. Basically it’s not necessary.
Rats can be tamed but might die of loneliness as they like to be sociable. It wouldn't be fair to tame it so better off putting a trap down or bang some Celine Dion on.
I'm still continuing to feed the birds in our garden. We won't put poison out at all. We've never seen a single rat and we moved into our house March 1984. Sir David Attenborough doesn't like rats and makes no secret about it. Calls himself an animal lover(!) https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainme...d-why-he-hates-rats-and-life-on-other-planets https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/david-attenborough-im-petrified-rats-1820290 https://www.entertainmentdaily.co.u...net-host-reveals-his-least-favourite-critter/
We used to regularly throw out bread onto the top of our garage to feed the birds (garden is sloped down from the house). That was until 18 months or so ago when the biggest dead rat I've ever seen appeared at the bottom of our garden (assume it had been poisoned as no apparent injuries). Gross job to shovel and bag it into our bin, the stench was horrendous. Stopped throwing out the bread and not seen a rat since. Awful animals full of disease. Sorry but I don't have a lot of compassion for how they might perish in all honesty......
We had to stop feeding the birds at our previous house because we ended up with rats, one or more of which got up into our loft. We had the pest control people out who told us that a combination of bird feeders and decking had provided the perfect venue for rats in the first place, and that they then had gone further afield looking for food and warmth during the winter months. Hence we now have no decking and are very careful about how we put food out for birds.
On the bright side during that 3+ weeks that you kept your cat in the house, your neighbours had a bit less cat sh*t to scrape out of their gardens.... Edit; don't take this the wrong way, I'm not having a go at you.