Rats and the absence of frogs and toads....

I have no idea whether the two are actually connected or not, but if you believe they are then the first suggestion would be to minimise the food available for the rats. Don't put food down on the ground and fit trays to any hanging feeders. These catch a lot of spill but not all. Obviously, ground feeding birds might suffer also (if there's no alternative for them to use), but only you can decide what your priorities are.

Thank you Nigel for your suggestions.

Hi Dorothy

I seem to have the same problem.  Frogs have decreased from 50 a few years ago to none this year - and I have seen rats about rather than mice as previously.  I also have newts in the pond which I thought might be predating tadpoles but I guess the rats will take those too.  Rats come in from neighbouring garden but I think the compost is attracting them so I've stopped adding to it.

Hi Sue and welcome to the forum, as this is an old thread I doubt any updates from the OP ... I had a rat problem too and stopped feeding birds and hedgehogs but the final straw for me was when I saw them swimming in the goldfish pond and eating all the fish food, had to give that up too plus all the frogspawn was eaten as well!  Maybe you need some kind of rat trap?  I have read that they are attracted to compost heap but you can put them off by planting Lavender, Mint, Thyme & Rosemary as they hate the smell!  I may experiment this year by having  a pole feeder with these plants around the base!

I've faced a similar issue over the past two years, which I have blamed on an explosion of rats in our neighbourhood. There has been a huge increase in rat population nationwide - primarily blamed on the Covid lockdowns i.e. ratters couldn't do their job.

However, I believe all cannot be blamed on rats. Amphibian populations have suffered a catastrophic decline world wide over the past few decades. Culprits are: habitat destruction, disease, climate change. I don't have control over these factors leading to the absence of frogs in my garden, but I do over the large number of rats we've seen this past year. Therefore, I've waged war on them.

I have trays under my peanut and fat ball feeders. I fashioned them out of 1.5 mm square steel mesh, bought on Amazon; helps drain in rain. I have built up the of my traditional, flat wooden bird feeder. I had some spare Perspex sheet - cut to about 2" (50mm) tall, and screwed to the sides of the bird feeder. These mods so limit the amount of bird food that gets spilled onto the ground that pigeons have given up lurking around the feeders. We used to get up to 13 pigeons swooping down to feast on bits the moment they fell from the feeder. Now, we have only two resident wood pigeons. We do still get lots of Dunnocks, Robins, Blackbirds cleaning up the small amount of spillage; so there is virtually nothing left for any rodent of any species.

Although our cat, and possibly other local cats, have accounted for at least two rats, there were still too many rats to be seen. I decided to invest in rat traps, after two local ratters didn't respond to my request for help.

A word of warning about traps. Rats are highly intelligent. If a trap just misses getting a rat (or rats) then that's it, they will never enter it again.

One of the more effective traps is a Break back trap.  WARNING these can be lethal to cats and dogs (plus other animals like hedgehogs) and your fingers. I put mine behind 4"x2" mesh cage. Currently, that cage is my raised vegetable bed, which I protected from cats and Wood pigeons with 4"x2" mesh - it also happens to be one of the routes taken by rats, so was a no brainer to place there.  I was going to make a small cage out of spare 4"x2" mesh, and may still have to if the rats change their routes. The cage would be about, say 1 1/2 foot (45cm) square and about a foot (30cm) high. Just enough to keep cats, dogs, hedgehogs, etc from getting near the trap.

 

This is the break back trap I went for. Not the cheapest, but one of the best; which I can attest to.

A piece of food (small slice of apple, potato, chocolate!) is placed under the spike - just push the spike into the food. A rat, hopefully, attempts to eat the bait, pulls it up, which lifts the arm with the spike on it thus triggers the trap, and wham! that big curved bar slams down. And I mean SLAMS down. I reckon if it slams on to your finger it could possibly break it.

You have to be very patient when trying to catch rats. Only if you are very, very lucky will you get rats quickly. I got lucky twice. But it has taken months to get two other rats. You have to observe their routes through your garden, and where they hang out. Place the trap or traps along these routes. Also, be prepared to find missing bait. Mice and small birds are light enough to eat any bait without setting off the traps. I started out using peanut butter, and would always find it gone. Not surprising as I reckon mice and slugs/snails and rats could lick any peanut butter of the trigger arm of the break back trap without setting it off i.e. they don't lift up the arm. 

So far the score is

Cats/foxes : at least 2 rats

Traps: 4 rats. 

So far, I have not seen a rat in over a week, which was when the last one was dispatched by a Roshield. Unfortunately, this is not unusual, not seeing rats for a week or two. Heavy rain or freezing cold weather seems to put them off wandering around. I suspect the war continues.