# climbing rats



## donk

does anyone have experience of rats coming out in daylight and climbing trees on costa del sol? we just long-term rented (11 months) a villa in torremuelle and were horrified 10 days into the stay to find rats in the garden - one had climbed onto 1st floor balcony, then my daughter put her hand info fish-food bag in outside cupboard and picked one up, then we saw one climbing down a conifer presumably it had been onto my balcony again. This was daylight and we were only metres away - they didnt seem afraid altho we were terrified! I baited 4 stations and the bait was being taken every day for last 4 days from all stations - when we left i left 1kg of bait in each station as i dont want to see them when we go back in august otherwise we wont be able to stay in the house. The owner didnt seem surprised, said they had them years ago but hadnt seen them for a while - of course they had a dog. Other neighbours said they had nests in the wall but they put poison down, also they had 2 dogs. There is a rockery and decking but i read recently about roof rats in california which next in trees and vegetation - are these rats the same type? - how can we get rid of them for good without getting a pet (cat / dog / ferret) which we dont really want - i dont want to be putting poisoned bait out every day we are living there - would appreciate any help/advice from anyone out there with similar experience.


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## fergie

We are in Costa Blanca, near a wooded area, they call those rats tree rats here, they are supposed to only eat fruit in the trees, but that is nonesense!
We are in a detached villa, but my elderly neighbour next door has a massive infestation, inside and outside the house, I know that because we share the same cleaner. Although the lady has gardeners, the rats breed near her BBQ corner and other corners, which are full of old tree cuttings, they wander along her window ledges and into her kitchen, where they have attacked food she leaves about on work surfaces, and have bitten large holes in dog food bags, and in cupboards to get at other contents. The cleaning lady we share is getting frightened of what she will find next. I see the rats crawling across her roof, even jumping into her pool-so they can swim as well. Once in a while a rat will crawl over our garden wall, and I am horrified too, but they crawl straight back!
Each week I make a weak bleach solution and mop down the joining garden walls, and all our other house walls, plus steps and balcony to our house,it seems to kill the scent of the rat trails, so I have never seen any in the house. We have a pet dog, and koi carp, so I always keep their food in a sealed heavy plastic or metal container.
If you have any holes around pipes etc, that is how they may have got near your property, perhaps check and block anything off, also if there are any cats around your area, encourage them to 'hang around', they'll keep vermin at bay.
Our neighbour will not put poison down, because she has a pet,which is understandable, nor will she get pest control in to sort the rats out, by clearing her messy corners and breeding places, she is forever ill, with either stomach bugs, or breathing problems, probably due to disease caused by her large rat population- we just have to do extra work to keep these pests out of our place.
Unfortunately if you live in an area with a lot of trees, this is the kind of environment tree rats like, you will see the odd one or two.
We also have sonic plug in deterrents from Amazon, which rats are supposed not to like.


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## donk

Thx Fergie - I initially thought because they were 'country rats' they would carry less diseases than urban ones - there are thick palm trees in the garden and thats where i think they may nest - there are two mesh grills covering the sub-foundations (no access to people) and one of these has a small 50p sized hole in the corner - i put some bait inside and this was taken within 4 hours so they must go in there too. Weve removed the fish food and put it inside landlords attached flat - im hoping that once theyve finished the 4kg of bait ive put down that will be the end of them - however im sure they are endemic to the area and with a park and wasteland full of overgrown bamboo not far from us im sure its only a matter of time b4 they come back - if id bought the house i wud buy myself some polecats or mink and keep them outside - however weve only paid 3 months rent in advance and 2 months bond so if theyre still there in aug i can see us just pulling the plug and moving into an apmnt - its a shame cos its a lovely area - excuse the pun once bitten twice shy, before we buy ill ask for a trial stay or even rent for a year first - i still cant understand why we didnt see them for the first 10 days in the house - and why my wife didnt see them the two times she viewed it as she went into the garden both times. Also cant understand why they are not nocturnal and arent afraid of people - anyone know the answer to that one pls?


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## fergie

donk said:


> Thx Fergie - I initially thought because they were 'country rats' they would carry less diseases than urban ones - there are thick palm trees in the garden and thats where i think they may nest - there are two mesh grills covering the sub-foundations (no access to people) and one of these has a small 50p sized hole in the corner - i put some bait inside and this was taken within 4 hours so they must go in there too. Weve removed the fish food and put it inside landlords attached flat - im hoping that once theyve finished the 4kg of bait ive put down that will be the end of them - however im sure they are endemic to the area and with a park and wasteland full of overgrown bamboo not far from us im sure its only a matter of time b4 they come back - if id bought the house i wud buy myself some polecats or mink and keep them outside - however weve only paid 3 months rent in advance and 2 months bond so if theyre still there in aug i can see us just pulling the plug and moving into an apmnt - its a shame cos its a lovely area - excuse the pun once bitten twice shy, before we buy ill ask for a trial stay or even rent for a year first - i still cant understand why we didnt see them for the first 10 days in the house - and why my wife didnt see them the two times she viewed it as she went into the garden both times. Also cant understand why they are not nocturnal and arent afraid of people - anyone know the answer to that one pls?


Not all nocturnal! I think they art partying rats, fiesta-siesta-fiesta, and used to noise heh!


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## nickbish

We have lots of these nasty little sods and they are particularly active when the almonds and walnuts are just about ready to pick. They can ruin a tree full of almonds in a couple of nights,as they eat through the shells,just take a little and move on and the part they have left is ruined.
they do look quite pretty,sat in the trees,eating the fruit and they are not as nasty looking as the rather humped backed house rat. They do however not confine themselves to the trees and have destroyed loads of stuff in our garage and my workshop,particularly by peeing and crapping on it and have made themselves little tunnels all through the ivy hedge,where they sit and munch walnuts all day.
We have tried different types of bait with little success and my Spanish friends tell me that i should sit under the tree with a bb gun and a torch and shoot them.
We did kind of hope that our sudden influx on 6 campo cats may be the answer,but we are clearly feeding them too well as the only rodent they have caught is the occasional shrew or small mouse.
All in all i think we have accepted that we are stuck with them,but if anyone does have some good ideas,that does not involve sitting under a tree with a torch strapped to my head,i would love to hear them


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## donk

When we eventually buy our Spanish property I am resigned to buying one with no trees in the garden which is a shame as that is the reason we are moving to Spain in the first place, to have fruit trees in the garden. I dont think shooting is the answer as you will never be sure when you have shot the last one. Also with baiting you might eradicate one infestation, but if your neighbour or the next door park has got some it wont be long before the youngsters are looking for new territory and venture into your garden again. I would also love to hear if anyone has got an idea which has worked previously and doesnt involve a BB gun!


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## gus-lopez

nickbish said:


> We have tried different types of bait with little success and my Spanish friends tell me that i should sit under the tree with a bb gun and a torch and shoot them.


Don't fall for the swivel chair !


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## Megsmum

LOL very good


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## passiflora

We are currently besieged with rats and I have been putting bait down for a week which is taken every night without fail. My dogs will not touch dead rats and if they find one on the ground will try to kill it but not eat it, same with the bait. A Spaniard told me to thread a piece of wire through several bait bags and then fix the wire to something heavy to prevent the rats carrying the whole bait bag away as they carry food to their nests underground or up in ivy or other dense cover and if disturbed, may drop the bait which can then be picked up by a dog etc. If the bait is fixed, the rats have to eat it in situ or carry mouthfulls home. The rats on our finca will only eat the pink bait----not the blue! I have tried all sorts of traps and caught one or two rats in a season, usually youngsters. I cannot cope with rats running about in broad daylight, watching me in the pool or sitting in the trees destroying my figs and pomegranates etc. They have even chewed through a heavy plastic bin to get at the chicken food and killed and eaten adult guineapigs after chewing through thick plastic to get at them. Poison bait is, for me, the only way to stop the current plague. In fact I'm now off to buy another bag of it.


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## passiflora

Re. The Mole----my husband used to terminate them with a shotgun: Emma, our rottweiler would tiptoe across the lawn when she heard the little blighter preparing to surface. If we saw her doing this I'd yell MOLE! and OH would grab the DB, call the dog back and tiptoe himself across the lawn and wait,poised til earth started showing above ground then give it both barrels----worked every time! I had a mole stuffed one year and gave it to him for Christmas, glass case and all. The taxidermist said it was the first time he'd been asked to stuff a mole!


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## Nugget_Hound

This sounds cruel but your best solution would be to get a massive cat and dont feed it till they are all gone , trust me when it gets hungry it will start smashing through rats in no time , when they are all gone you can get the whiskas in!


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## donk

Passiflora your situation sounds worse than mine - obviously even the presence of the dog does not put the rats off from making your garden their home - how long have you been living in Spain and when did the rats first appear? I found some pink oat bait which the owner had stored - it may have been old as the rats didnt touch that - however they loved the blue square 'biscuits' which we bought at the local hardware store. We dont have pets so i dont mind them carrying it back to the nest as long as they eat it all. Re the mole and shotgun, the pellets must have made a mess of your lawn, although when the moles were gone you could repair it for good!


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## passiflora

donk said:


> Passiflora your situation sounds worse than mine - obviously even the presence of the dog does not put the rats off from making your garden their home - how long have you been living in Spain and when did the rats first appear? I found some pink oat bait which the owner had stored - it may have been old as the rats didnt touch that - however they loved the blue square 'biscuits' which we bought at the local hardware store. We dont have pets so i dont mind them carrying it back to the nest as long as they eat it all. Re the mole and shotgun, the pellets must have made a mess of your lawn, although when the moles were gone you could repair it for good!


We live in the campo, no near neighbours and have been here almost 12 years now. Rats are always present. We have half a dozen hens so rats soon sniff their food out. The rat numbers seem to build at this time of year and it's horrible to sit out in the garden or be in the pool at night and to see and hear rats running along the fence tops and through the trees and bushes. Their eyesight isn't too good but their sense of smell is very good.We get the rat bait from an animal feed store. The stuff I've just bought is called Ratoli. t's not the one they usually have in stock but contains the similar pink squares of semi moist bait in little packets. It's quite funny because reading the blurb on the back it says:For all sorts of rats and mice including domestic rats, drain rats,campo rats and, last but not least----MOLES! 
The lead pellets disappeared in the lawn!


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## donk

Campo? Is that the countryside? When you say their numbers build at this time of year, Im assuming at some time they must start to decline - when is that? at the end of the summer?
Nugget Hound - we had considered the cat solution (along with the dog / ferret / polecat solutions!) which my daughter especially liked, but i didnt just want to get an animal to get rid of another animal - it might have been a better solution if wed bought the house instead of renting it, as i thought it might have run away from the new house to come back to the old house. Im tempted just to buy a town house on a gated community with no trees or nesting sites.


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## passiflora

Rats are everywhere-------gated communities are popular with them as well----wherever there are people and, more importantly, rubbish bins, there are rats. They seem to build in the summer because there's plenty of food in the campo/country with wild bird eggs and babies, melons,tomatoes etc in plentiful supply so they breed like---well like rats I suppose!


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## donk

ok thx for info - when i get back in august ill let u know if theyre gone or not!


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## Nugget_Hound

You need a few of these Jack Russells !!!


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