sunnyday Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 (edited) Now I live in the country - with a field with three horses and stables behind my house - but today, for the first time ever ........ I saw an enormous RAT in my garden - horrid great fat brown thing - sorry if there are any 'rat lovers' reading this! My heart was beating so fast I thought it might leap out of my chest! Don't know what to do now - I feed our large hedgehog colony - or whatever the collective noun is for a group of hedgehogs - herd, flock, swarm ...........! Anyway that's what the vile thing was eating! Just thought I'd share! Sunnyday Edited April 16, 2009 by sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Oops title should have read - Something not at all beautiful etc.etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Oops title should have read - Something not at all beautiful etc.etc. You can edit your title when you click on 'full edit' sunnyday. Oh and thanks for sharing - it wasn't sweet and cuddly like the 'little chef' in Ratatouille then? Maz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 (edited) You can edit your title when you click on 'full edit' sunnyday. Oh and thanks for sharing - it wasn't sweet and cuddly like the 'little chef' in Ratatouille then? Maz Thank you Maz - and no it was not at all sweet and cuddly!!! Sunnyday Edited April 16, 2009 by sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sienna Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Lucky you don't live in Birmingham then, I've seen huge rats when driving down the road in the middle of the day. They are not even scared of me! My driving that is, not my face! I guess you will have to stop feeding the poor little hedgehogs for a while, otherwise you may have a rat family living in your garden... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Lucky you don't live in Birmingham then, I've seen huge rats when driving down the road in the middle of the day. They are not even scared of me! My driving that is, not my face! I guess you will have to stop feeding the poor little hedgehogs for a while, otherwise you may have a rat family living in your garden... Yuk - my darling husband was very keen to tell me about all the rats that he has seen when working in London! Poor hedgehogs - they are so used to being fed - but I think you're right. Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 ditto sienna .....and if your wandering around any shopping centre car park with the low hedges keep you eyes open they are full of them !!! shame it wasnt a pigeon you wouldnt be feeling so yuck but they are just rats with wings contact your local environmental health they will advise you (I think they will come out free of charge for rats?) they will have bait boxes hedghogs cannt get into Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Horrid aren't they? We regularly get rats in the garden. We live next to a stream culvert and a graveyard, and think they come to us from there. We put poison down their holes and in a hedgehog proof pipe. They disappear for a while and then others arrive. In the grand scheme of things they have their place in the ecosystem and are very good at surviving! I hate it when the hawks take one of my garden birds, or the squirrels take the eggs from a nes,t but they are just surviving in the only way they can. Nature can be very unpleasant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 our neighbour had one living under his shed, didn't believe me until he saw it running along the fence and eating off the bird table. Still makes my skin crawl. But the environmental health came and sorted it out, thankfully we haven't seen any since. jackie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chill Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Do not ignore it. Get poison down or get pest control in. Rats breed like mad and spread disease (they are incontinent so wee constantly - so I was told). If you have children you cannot ignore seeing rats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Do not ignore it. Get poison down or get pest control in. Rats breed like mad and spread disease (they are incontinent so wee constantly - so I was told). If you have children you cannot ignore seeing rats. Thanks for that advice - will do. Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Let us know what enviromental health advise/do could be useful info for home and settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorna Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Poor you. What a shock. Hopefully you can get it sorted soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 we had rats outside out church hall, one ran across a mums foot! Luckily it was a mum who has pet rats and while unpleasant etc was not scared by the incident. we were lucky in that I had installed those plug in sonic repellers in the hall so none inside... Environmental health were noo help whatsoever.. 4 weeks before they could come and then there was a charge.. we called in a local pest controller who did it in 2 hours and charged less than half we had been quoted. In our case the church had also been trying to sort it out, but we managed a cheaper alternative first so they paid for it. we had to ensure all rubbish in bins with lids etc as others had been dumping it in black bags on the floor.. Also compost heaps are a real attraction, lovely places for them to breed and make nest... warm and undisturbed for long periods. Inge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Yuck! My daughter looked after a friends pet rats for a short time. I must admit that they did look quite cute in the cage until they turned round and waved their tails around. There's something about a rats tail that makes my skin crawl! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmajess Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 We found a very dead rat in our garden behind a bin just after Chistmas. Bleeeuuuurrrghhhh! He was very nearly all gone, and fortunately as it was so cold, no maggots or anything - yeeeuuuucchhh! I had to scrape him up with a shovel (what was left of him - tail, spine and fur). Vile. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 18, 2009 Author Share Posted April 18, 2009 Just thought I'd give you an update on this delightful topic - not! Environmental Health a complete no go - seeing one rat doesn't constitute a problem according to them - it gave me a problem I can tell you! They told me to remove the food source - poor hedgehogs - but I guess that does make sense. We have an elderly man in our village who is a retired 'ratcatcher' (pest control really) I might talk to him - the only trouble is he is so eccentric you never really know what a chat with him could lead to!!! My husband thinks I am barking mad - he thinks the same way as the E. H. - so feel a little bit silly - expect I am completely over-reacting - but I really don't do rats! Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 We were sad today to find a a dead jackdaw in our shed - it had been shut in for a fortnight, poor thing. We all had a good look at him and how beautiful his feathers were and then buried him in the garden. We all wore our gardening gloves - lots of chat about handling dead creatures - and washed hands too. Interesting that during the 'funeral' there were some jackdaws on the roof watching and 'cawww'ing at us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 How fantastic that you turned a sad event into such a great learning experience for the children. That sounds a bit patronising - but you will know it's not intended to read like that. Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I know what you mean! Actually felt miffed at a couple of parents who said 'Ew, how awful, ooh you didn't TOUCH' it did you?????' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 I know what you mean! Actually felt miffed at a couple of parents who said 'Ew, how awful, ooh you didn't TOUCH' it did you?????' Aaargh - some people........! Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I felt like saying 'maybe if you'd explored the beauty of a bird when you were 4 you wouldn't be so ridiculously repressed now!' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 I felt like saying 'maybe if you'd explored the beauty of a bird when you were 4 you wouldn't be so ridiculously repressed now!' Wouldn't it be great if just now and then we could actually say what we are thinking! In my humble opinion your children will have gained so much from this experience I would be interested to hear whether or not they talk about it tomorrow - bet they do! Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I'll let you know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Yes, lots of chat. A little girl asked me what was going to happen to it, now it's in the ground, 'cos her Gran is in the ground. So we chatted about bones and skeletons (She'd broken her arm last year so knows about bones) and how the birds feathers would go into compost (we have a compost bin she adds her apple cores to so knows about the rotting process) and the bones would be there for a while, we have a skeleton bird skull we found a few years ago so she had a good look at that. We decided that the bones would go to compost too, after a long time, and then it would be 'just soil'. No discussion about worms work! This was one of the children who's Mum had recoiled yesterday. Some children who weren't here yesterday were a bit 'miffed' that they didn't get to see the bird and hold it too! All interested in the pictures we took though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 Fantastic - I meant to tell my work colleagues about this today but managed to forget - I would handle an event like this in the same way as you but I am not at all sure that they would so wanted to test for reaction!!! Forgot to say yesterday - I'm really interested that other jackdaws came to the 'funeral' - I once watched blackbirds 'calling in' other blackbirds when they were feeling threatened by one of my cats (I have three) that was in 'their tree' - there was no mistaking that that was what they were doing. Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Yes it was very bizarre - it started 'cawing' with just one on the chimney pot when the children were holding the bird and gently opening the wings. We commented at the time 'oh here's his friend come to see what we are doing'. Then when we were putting it in the grave there were several about, neighbouring trees, the roof and the one still on the chimney, 'cawing' away. The children commented that his friends had come to see what we were doing and say goodbye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnyday Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 Cait - have you noticed we are the only two discussing dead birds - what does that say about us I wonder!!! Sunnyday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 I'm not a bird person and positively hate those black things (crows, rooks, ravens - never did know the difference!!). Too much Alfred Hitchcock in my youth I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 but they are great! so intelligent and such fun to watch. I used to have a rook with a tatty wing who kept me company in the garden, we called him Noggin and he loved peanut butter on toast! I really miss him now. Is B****Y pigeons I can't stand with all their hoo hooing at all hours of the morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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