gilli wrote:
Hi Folks,

Just discovered burrows in garden near house, now confirmed to be
caused by rats as
our cat has caught 3 in last two days.

I think I am at fault in encouraging them by putting out food for the
birds without using
proper bird feeders.

Fortunately, she seems not to eat the rats and I am thinking of
putting out poison.

I am going to ask advice of our county council authorities as they
offer a service for a
reasonable price and I must protect the poison from the cat and the
dog, but
I would be interested to know if anyone has any positive evidence of
the effectiveness
of poison for rats.

I looked at rat traps (the killing type),but not sure if the sort
which are cat-proof are
effective long term.

Thanks for your help.

David G.

Don't think that it's just a matter of putting down a bit of poison and that
will be the end of your problem, because it sounds like an infestation - I
had one at a house I used to live in and I never managed to kill them all
off.
The council will come and put down wax poison for free, they did with me, he
put down a good few Kg's of the stuff and told me it would be a few days
before they ate it all - it was gone in six hours.....he came back a few
weeks later and did the same, but it was a wasre of time, as those who had
survived the first blitz had bred like wildfire in that time, meaning that
there were as many again.
What you will find is that one or two rats will eat most of the poison, so
what you need to do is spread it out over a large area - under plantpots,
between boards and such likes so that most of them get dosed, then do the
same every day for a week, or until the posion doesn't get eaten.

and obviously, stop feeding the birds.

--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008