Unwelcome guest?

No clue, but I heard a recipe forcrow, if you’d like.

Put a crow to boil in water. Throw a horseshoe in. When the horseshoe is soft, the crow’s ready.

Agreed. You can’t beat the good old traditional country food, especially a nice pigeon pie.

Whats the best way to prepare mole then, I bet the feet are a bit chewy.

You miss the crucial point – they taste great! Yummy. 😀

Moggy

Agreed. You can’t beat the good old traditional country food, especially a nice pigeon pie.

Do they not have rat sak in Britain??

No gas, no poison. But works for moles.

By digging to scare them, you usually damage your lawn more than the mole itself…

Well I’m sure that you’ve all been on the edge of your seats waiting for an update.
Mr Rat dissapeared months ago, baby rat appeared briefly but also vanished, I think the dogs harried them so much that they went off to someone elses garden or succombed to the various cats and foxes that lurk around here.

We have a new problem, Mr Mole!!

He’s come under the fence from the fields out the back and set to work.
Fortunately he’s not been too destructive, YET, but his mounds are uncomfortably close to the pond.
My missus, of course, thinks he’s cute, despite the fact that he will destroy her lovely wild flower garden and lawn.
After studying ways on the Internet of getting rid of them without having to resort to terminal violence, I dug up the holes, flushed them with water and filled the tunnels with dog crap, they’re supposed to dislike the smell of predators.
Great, that worked all week, no more mole, but a fresh mound appeared at the end of his tunnel system this morning, he must be a hard mole, despite the flooding, dog poo and the digging attentions of our springer, he’s still having a go. I’ve dug out the mound and found the tunnel, again it’s going to get the attention of the hose pipe and spaniel.
Anyone succesfully dealt with moles without resorting to gassing and poison.

Pete,

If you don’t want to kill him then why not try a Humane Rat Trap? Catch him/them and release somewhere else.

http://www.trapman.co.uk/rat-trap-multi-catch-humane-rat-trap.htm

There’s only one problem there. If the rat is anything like our local squirrels he’d be the first one home. Sleek looking little fellow thought.

Country rat vs City rat. Both the same. Rats keep themselves incredibly clean. We hate them because of the black death, which was a flea that lived on the rat.
But, to humans they are a pest. Once in the house they will be attacted to the oily smell of plastic wiring. And the damage is always in a place you cannot reach without a full strip down!
Your fella is 100% certainly using the shed as a launch pad for easy food. Stop feeding, or move the bird feeder.
He (She?) is probably not nesting under the shed, or you would have seen more than one.
Animal lover or not, if it’s a pest then get rid of it. Until last year I lived in deep countryside (Nearest house was 1 mile, then 4 miles to the next) and I was surrounded by farmland. The rabbits got out of hand in 2005, so one of the farmers “Upwind” organised the mixy release. All rabbits gone in a fortnight. Which left the buzzards with a few days feasting then they had to hunt for real.
I had squirrel problems, grey ones…which are only rats with a good PR. They got in the loftspace.
I caught them in a humane trap and released them over the river and 5 miles away. Had I known at the time that you were allowed to kill them I would have borrowed a 0.22 air rifle, no quarms about that.
There was also a mouse problem in the same loft….which I created myself by having the bird feeder too close to the house. I moved feeder, but the mice were established. I got about 6 in the snap traps, a few more by poison.
The damage done by them was significant.
Animals are great, until they are a pest. Then we must move them on or ensure that our health & safety is not compromised.

I cant stand them 😡 sorry about the post. thats a nice rat wont be long till the cat get it well unless its scared of it 😀 Why do you have an artillery shell in the garden you get it form the War and Peace show ?:confused:

James

The rat nearly got his come-uppance last night.
It would appear that he has a little trail along the back of the pond and gets into next door via a gap in the fence.
Scooby the Jack Russell was sniffing round the shed when the rat appeared at the back of the pond, all hell broke lose, Scooby went straight for it and the Spaniel joined in, mind you she’s not the brightest and was just following the action, Ratty managed to get behind my old railway mile post and dissapear, but whether he got chomped I don’t know, haven’t seen him since though, and Scooby sure had bad breath last night.

The artillery shell is hopefully a 155mm practice round and bloody heavy.
It was given to me by an ex client, a Terratorial Army captain, who used it as a door stop in his site hut. I’ve considered painting it green with yellow bands, but that might cause a bit of fear and loathing.

a ‘Countryside Alliance’ poster in their window

I cant stand them 😡 sorry about the post. thats a nice rat wont be long till the cat get it well unless its scared of it 😀

the artillery shell

Why do you have an artillery shell in the garden you get it form the War and Peace show ?:confused:

James

When I lived on the farm I used to do a lot of pigeon decoying over stubble.

This would end up with scores of the birds at which point I’d simply remove the breasts and junk the rest. Those that you didn’t use fresh stood up well to freezing.

I used the breasts for many dishes, curries were particularly tasty as the flavour of the meat could withstand strong spices.

On one memorable occasion I did bone and stuff a couple of birds. Took ages and though very nice possibly not worth the effort other than as an experiment.

Moggy

Personally I prefer a rather simple approach to the use of pigeon breasts, I simply fry them in unsalted butter and then have them with salad, usually for lunch, most satisfying.

Rabbit and Squirrel make for excellent stew.

Trouble with that though ModelJets is the poor birds who havn’t done anything wrong get no food! Also the rat might simply go next door to eat from a neighbours garden and so still have a plentyfull supply of food therefore problem not solved. Oh another ‘trick’ that might get him to move on though is the good old hosepipe down into there little rat home underground, we did that once and hell the rat shot outa his hole at about 50mph it seemed (lol well not quite but damn fast), he never used that hole for a home again. Edit:I meant turn hosepipe on too not just put it down hole,

Actually, thats not a bad idea, he hasn’t got a hole as such, the shed is raised off the ground on battens and he comes in and out of the gaps, but if it got horrifically damp under there, well hmmm, could have a bad effect on the shed structure, will have to think about that one.
Our neighbours cat has decided to get in on the act and is lurking about, the dogs seem happy to have shifted the responsibility on to him and take no notice, silly sods.

Trouble with that though ModelJets is the poor birds who havn’t done anything wrong get no food! Also the rat might simply go next door to eat from a neighbours garden and so still have a plentyfull supply of food therefore problem not solved. Oh another ‘trick’ that might get him to move on though is the good old hosepipe down into there little rat home underground, we did that once and hell the rat shot outa his hole at about 50mph it seemed (lol well not quite but damn fast), he never used that hole for a home again. Edit:I meant turn hosepipe on too not just put it down hole,

Just taken from the bathroom window, I thought you might like to see a picture of our pal with his ‘mate’, the artillery shell is the ultimate deterrent in case he gets to be too much of a nuisance.

Cute rat, looks very happy too.

Just stop feeding the birds for a while. The rat will surely move on if there is no food then it will become someone elses problem.

There speaks an student of the Homer Simpson school of thought and I quote “A problem passed on is a problem solved.”:rolleyes:

Just stop feeding the birds for a while. The rat will surely move on if there is no food then it will become someone elses problem.

Hi there, after reading about your rat problem which i can relate to as we have had on and off ‘problems’ with rats for over 2 years i would suggest the best method is a trap. We have caught over 6 rats with a trap, some medium size, a few like your pet rat size. We caught our last one about 2 weeks ago after putting an old chicken bone in the trap, i went out to check it (as i do every hour or so) and sure enough there he was squeeking away, a bit upset but in no danger. What we do then is take them a few miles down to near where the local rubbish tip is and let them go there.

One problem though is the risk of catching birds in the trap, about a year ago we caught a female blackbird who accidently set off the trap, no harm done i released her but i’d imagine more then a few hours trapped inside and they’d be really frantic and upset. Poisons are another method that we did try but with little success, yeah the poison did kill one but others that we saw feeding on poison were unaffected! We have one rat that we know of still about but since i chased him a few times last week we havn’t seen him again, seems to be one thing they hate that is being chased but damn there fast! Anyway traping it is your best bet for sure. Edit: the trap that TEEJ linked is the one we have, very very good trap for sure.

He/she really is a beauty,well groomed and sleek.
I think your problem might be hanging above the ordinance there, apparently your common brown rats favorite food is cereal based.
A bit of info i found here

Or you could do it John Woo stylee….

😀

I don’t know how you do it but they’re good!

Just taken from the bathroom window, I thought you might like to see a picture of our pal with his ‘mate’, the artillery shell is the ultimate deterrent in case he gets to be too much of a nuisance.