Pest control told me to take down my feeders

Hi,

I had a visit from a pest control person yesterday. The next door neighbors called him because we have some rats in our gardens. The area we live in is full of rats because there is water and food sources by (allotments and community farm) although lately their numbers have increased.

I reduced the number of feeders and only left the non drip ones that rats can't get to.

I was now told to remove all of them as soon as I can.

We had the same problem last year and it went away when my neighbors on the other side dismantled the rat den they found at the back of their garden.

Anyway - I don't think it's right to just take down all feeders now, when winter is approaching. I have loads of birds of different varieties coming to my garden including a blackcap who returns every year from overseas.

Any thoughts on what to do? I also don't want to just ignore the request and upset my neighbors!

Hello Kay,

This comes up quite often as an area of conflict and there are a number of possible solutions and it also depends on if you are the home owner or renting as landlords be they housing associations/council or private can have different views.

The simple solution at the moment is to stop feeding while there is plenty of wild food about - there are berries, plant seeds and insects still available. One of our regular posters had a rat issue that he picked up on his wildlife camera so stopped feeding the birds for about 3 weeks and the rats dispersed from his garden.

Going forward and another possible way for now -
Remove feeders at dusk and put them out again in the morning.
Reduce the quantity you offer so that it's eating in a shorter time period.
Look at the food you are offering - if it had a large wheat/corn content finches tend to fling that away
Create no spill trays under the feeders to catch spillage
Review the garden - are there plants you can grow to provide late autumn food sources (think sunflowers etc)
For your blackcap - spiking some apple pieces on a tree might be good

What you don't want to happen is for your neighbours to feel that they need to put poison down as this has serious implications for the wider population of wildlife.

Cin J

Good advice from Cin.

The only thing I would add, if you can, put a trailcam up in the garden, most if not all, rodent activity should be captured, and it would give you an idea how bad the problem is. You might not be aware of how bad the problem is, due to the fact the rats will not always be around when you are, but the trailcam should capture their activities, 24/7. But you will need to monitor the trailcam on a daily basis.

I have two trailcams operational and the rare occasion we have had a single rat, it has enabled either my wife or myself to act quickly and remove the feeders.

Mike

Flickr Peak Rambler

Re returning blackcap, small birds aren't long lived and although it's possibly the same one for a year or two, realistically as there are loads in the UK each Winter, it's probability percentage wise, unlikely to be the same one for years.

re feeding, prior posts have covered it well.

Hello,

Thank you - these are all are great suggestions. I do have a wildlife camera so will install it overnight as I'm aware that rats are mostly nocturnal.
It is true that there are still quite a lot natural food sources at this time so birds don't heavily rely on feeders for survival.

It will feel very strange to remove all feeders altogether as I have so many visitors but I do much rather that than rat poison being put out.

Thanks again!

In reply to Kay Kay:

Kay Kay said:
Hello,

Thank you - these are all are great suggestions. I do have a wildlife camera so will install it overnight as I'm aware that rats are mostly nocturnal.
It is true that there are still quite a lot natural food sources at this time so birds don't heavily rely on feeders for survival.

It will feel very strange to remove all feeders altogether as I have so many visitors but I do much rather that than rat poison being put out.

Thanks again!

It is hard, I've had to do it here, thankfully not that often. While there is a plentiful supply of food around, they will quickly move off, but obviously once the food supply returns, so will they.

What I will recommend is keep the trailcam running 24/7, rodents may be more active at night, but they can be active during the day as well. That way you get a fuller picture if you excuse any puns, of their visiting activities.

Mike

Flickr Peak Rambler

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