# Rats - Getting rid



## perdiu83

Hi Folks

Lately I have seen a few rats in the palm tree in the garden and a few of the other trees round the egde of the garden.

Any thoughts/suggestions on how to get rid of them.

Veterano


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## fergie

We have seen tree rats in our trees, and walking along the boundary walls, and have been told they don't come into the house, I think I would freak out if one tried to do that.
However if you have pets it would be difficult to put poison and sometimes traps down. We have a dog so wouldn't put poison down, but we are considering getting a cat, that might work!


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## 90199

Poison, traps, air rifle, terriers. You have to get rid of them, they carry life threatening Viles Disease. Given the slightest opportunity they will enter your home.

Weil's disease: the cause, the symptoms and the precautions to take | Life and style | The Guardian


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## VFR

A good sized tom cat (re home if possible & neutered) will cause the rats to quickly look for somewhere else to live.


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## MaidenScotland

My daughter gets tree rats that jump from the trees onto the roof and then into the vineyards.
3 big dogs, 2 terriers, 6 cats.. and still they come,


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## donz

most people I know in the campo where we are have outside cats and that keeps them at bay usually. We do see the odd one however because we have dogs who can't tolerate cats. A couple of ours dogs will go ratting but not to the same standard as a cat can and would


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## bob_bob

If you have pets and or children try these

The Big Cheese - Rat Trap Cage - Poison Free Live Catch: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors 

When you catch one just dump the whole trap in a bath of water then throw the drowned vermin into your rubbish bin. An air rifle or .410 shotgun is a lot more fun though.


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## perdiu83

Hi folks

Thanks for the advice. I have bought some rat poison from Mercadona, which I have thrown in the trees, so we will see what that does.

As many people have suggested I may need to get a cat, however I am allergic to them so it will have to stay permanently in the garden.

Veterano


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## Soy guiri

I doubt a cat will get rid of them unless it ferrel, one rat can have upto 800 babies in its lifespan 

If I were you, I would go to a agricultural shop to buy poison, as mercadona etc only sell a weak form of posion, put it inside a plastic water bottle, cut the opening to the bottle slightly bigger to allow them to enter, put the posion inside, lay the bottle against the walls, as rats tend to keep to one side, but a brick or weight on them or tie them to water pipes etc to stop any animal wanting to pick them up or play with them, if you are actually seeing them, I would think there are a lot more there than you think  Maybe a dea to always leave a certain amount of rat food around in safe places, place it high up too if you can.


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## dunmovin

playamonte said:


> A good sized tom cat (re home if possible & neutered) will cause the rats to quickly look for somewhere else to live.



Greebo is never around when he's needed


and this was taken when he was in one his better moods, having just had snack of ten vampires, a great white shark and the Antichrist


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## baldilocks

dunmovin said:


> Greebo is never around when he's needed
> 
> 
> and this was taken when he was in one his better moods, having just had snack of ten vampires, a great white shark and the Antichrist


I wondered where the AC had got to. She doesn't seem to be around as much as she was more than a couple of milennia ago when even the Spaniards referred to dates ## anticristo.


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## dunmovin

we have had a rat problem as well, but nature helped out. The problem was rats got into the shed where we kept almonds.Then "hissing Sid" (a 4ft long snake) moved in.

Sid and I have an unspoken agreement :: Sid lives there (rent free + all the rats he can eat) and in return he will go away when I need to use the shed


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## dunmovin

baldilocks said:


> I wondered where the AC had got to. She doesn't seem to be around as much as she was more than a couple of milennia ago when even the Spaniards referred to dates ## anticristo.


ahh you DO know my Father's 3rd wife.......the one that ,when threatened with she is going to visit, causes people to book a holiday in Antartica or mars or venus


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## bob_bob

As a shooter in the UK I just had a quick look at Spanish law regarding firearms, like the UK, a shotgun license is easy enough to get :ranger:


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## MaidenScotland

bob_bob said:


> As a shooter in the UK I just had a quick look at Spanish law regarding firearms, like the UK, a shotgun license is easy enough to get :ranger:




ahhh maybe on paper.

My son in law has held a shotgun and firearms licence for 20 plus years... when he made the move to Spain he found out what he had today and did it to the letter and when he brought his guns to Spain, informing the ferry company he had shotguns in his car, plus the minute he landed in Spain he informed the correct people before he made the journey south to his home and then when he got home he went to his local police station to inform them the guns were now in Spain and in regulation cabinets, showed his licence for the UK etc...

Guns are now back in the UK.

I wont bore you with the story of how my exhusband almost didn't get his licence renewed because quite simply the policeman who came to see the cabinet etc told us.. I don't believe in fieldsports..


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## bob_bob

Bad news Maiden, very bad. Shotgun tickets in the UK are very easy to get, a full chitty FAC is much harder and rightly so.

I have been shooting since age six or seven when dad gave me an air pistol and taught me how to use it safely. I shot everything from .22 pistols to .44 magnums but now I can't own a pistol (broadly speaking) yet I can own a sniper rifle which can kill you at a kilometre. Shooting is a wonderful sport and hobby.

Its a crazy world at times.


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## perdiu83

*Update on the rats*



bob_bob said:


> Bad news Maiden, very bad. Shotgun tickets in the UK are very easy to get, a full chitty FAC is much harder and rightly so.
> 
> I have been shooting since age six or seven when dad gave me an air pistol and taught me how to use it safely. I shot everything from .22 pistols to .44 magnums but now I can't own a pistol (broadly speaking) yet I can own a sniper rifle which can kill you at a kilometre. Shooting is a wonderful sport and hobby.
> 
> Its a crazy world at times.



This thread seems to have been hijacked by a debate on guns!

Anyway after throwing some poison in the trees I found a dead rat today under the palm tree.

One day, ......several more to go!

Veterano


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## Sceptocrat

Rats are a very real problem, in some ways worse than in the UK, because they are almost a rat/squirrel hybrid. Over the last couple of years I have managed to cut numbers back, but they are always reappearing. A couple of tips that I have found to work well follow, and I'd appreciate feedback from anyone else to improve what I do.

First off, eradicate all places where they can shelter. Don't allow them access to spaces where they can nest, so make all outhouses etc rat proof. Composts and rubbish heaps are like hotels, so look at them too. Traps are of limited use (but helpful) as the damn things are so intelligent, and very fast learners.

Poison. I don't use it for a number of reasons. You can be as careful as you like with how you put baits down, but a poisoned rat carcass can kill your pets or someone else's. There is however a poison you can use which leaves the bodies harmless. Get plaster of paris and mix it about 50:50 with dry oat flakes, stale four, breadcrumbs, anything that a rat will go for. I save all the out of date food, stale biscuits etc, all get ground down and mixed with plaster of paris powder. Put the bait out in tubes wedged against walls etc - if you have dogs weigh them down well, and put out water for the rats to drink. Works like a charm.

I'm trying to design a trap where the trigger is a biscuit, as normal traps have a limited success rate.


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## mrypg9

The obvious thing is not to leave any scraps of food or anything else lying around that rats might eat.
Keeping trees, bushes and shrubs well-pruned helps avoid creating cosy areas for rats.
We found two large and dead rats in our garden about two years ago but since we've adopted a feral cat we've seen none.
We put out food and drink every morning inside a small kennel that we inherited with the garden and the cat (Kincat) has grown sleek and fat. It is still feral and won't let us approach it.
I do worry that it could get too plump to evade Our Little Azor, who strongly disapproves of its presence in his garden.


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## perdiu83

I think a cat is the best idea however unfortunately I am allergic to cats!


Veterano.


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## Sceptocrat

We have two terriers and a shedload of hungry cats patrolling the area.


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## Lydnem

We had rats in the fig trees a couple of years ago and they went onto the neighbours roof. i bought some poison from the garden centre. It was only 4 euros and it looked like plaster-cine but within 2 days, no more rats. Sorry i cant remember the name of it, but it was very effective!


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## donk

we found some in the garden after living in the house for 10 days - i laid 4 bait stations and for the last 4 days bait was being taken - i left 1kg in each station as were gona be away for 6 weeks - im just hoping theyre gona be gone in august - just in case im taking 10kg of bait from uk - luckily its just a rented house - i wud be devastated if id bought it!


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## fergie

Sceptocrat said:


> Rats are a very real problem, in some ways worse than in the UK, because they are almost a rat/squirrel hybrid. Over the last couple of years I have managed to cut numbers back, but they are always reappearing. A couple of tips that I have found to work well follow, and I'd appreciate feedback from anyone else to improve what I do.
> 
> First off, eradicate all places where they can shelter. Don't allow them access to spaces where they can nest, so make all outhouses etc rat proof. Composts and rubbish heaps are like hotels, so look at them too. Traps are of limited use (but helpful) as the damn things are so intelligent, and very fast learners.
> 
> Poison. I don't use it for a number of reasons. You can be as careful as you like with how you put baits down, but a poisoned rat carcass can kill your pets or someone else's. There is however a poison you can use which leaves the bodies harmless. Get plaster of paris and mix it about 50:50 with dry oat flakes, stale four, breadcrumbs, anything that a rat will go for. I save all the out of date food, stale biscuits etc, all get ground down and mixed with plaster of paris powder. Put the bait out in tubes wedged against walls etc - if you have dogs weigh them down well, and put out water for the rats to drink. Works like a charm.
> 
> I'm trying to design a trap where the trigger is a biscuit, as normal traps have a limited success rate.


I like your 50/50 bait idea, safe for pets etc. Thanks


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## VFR

Insted of Plaster of Paris I wonder if quick setting Yeso would do the trick.


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## donk

Do they nest in palm trees? We have some very dense yuccas in the garden but cant cut them down with the house being rented.


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## Nugget_Hound




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## passiflora

Never heard of Plummer terriers before. Are they a "home made " cross used by ratters in that area do you think?


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## Nugget_Hound

passiflora said:


> Never heard of Plummer terriers before. Are they a "home made " cross used by ratters in that area do you think?


Not sure , I know a lurcher would be very good at catching and killing rats , they just love chasing after stuff and are very quick and pretty vicious when they want to be!!


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## Megsmum

:behindsofa: make not to self......add ratter to the animal wanted list


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## Balvert

Live and let live anyone? These seem to be harmless fruit rats, I don't think they carry bubonic plague.


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## bob_bob

Rats are awful and do need controlling. I'd still go for poison, poisoned cages and a .177 rifle with a couple of bright Cree based torches...I'm speaking from UK rural living and these little furry fluckers cause a lot of damage.


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## Balvert

Found this on an Andalucian forum,hope it helps:

Ok, so Rats...over your way you should have the black rat rattus rattus and the brown rat rattus novegicus. Google for some images and when you see some of your newly acquired cute creatures you should be able to identify which ones you have. (You bought them as sitting tenants with the house  ) They are not tree rats... They are the same rats as you would see in the UK. Yes they carried the black death...

Firstly, the rats will choose a safe place to live and rear their young. If the old owner has told you they are nesting in the fruit trees then I would have to question his gardening ability. Fruit trees should never get that dense to enable a rat’s nest in the middle of it. Fig trees would be an exception to this. Rats will eat almost anything including seed, nuts, fruit the list is endless.

If branches of trees are touching any building the rats will use them as access points to cavities in walls and roofs. They are an important part of the balance of nature but the problem here seems that they have bred a little too much whilst the old owner mistakenly thought the dog was controlling the numbers... 

These very intelligent and quite cute rodents don’t spread disease just because they are rats. They can help to spread disease when they are living in places like sewers and in other places where they feed on human waste so the blame there really lays with humans me thinks. That said they can carry leptospirosis which the following wikipedia article explains is quite a rare occurrence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis

So my recommendations for a happy life are...

Get two cats from the local cat’s home or vet. (Make sure they have had the chop!). During the winter they will take a rat per day in the summer 3 a week. Dogs are useless for rat control as they have no patience and are fairly daft when it comes to ratting. Can’t climb trees either!

Get a good gardener to advise you on the pruning and management of your orchards (not as easy as it sounds I know)
A priority is to cut any and all branches that are touching houses or sheds.

Somewhere on your land away from your house in a quiet corner supply a water bowl like an upside down dustbin lid for the local wildlife. This will stop the rats coming to your house and chewing through pipes. They would much rather drink quietly than run the gauntlet to a dripping tap.

Never leave a food supply uncovered in your garden shed. Even a packet of sunflower seeds is irresistible to a rat and he will find them and also think whilst he is in the shed that it is a nice place to stay a while and raise a family...

Make sure there are covers on all drains. Especially house sceptic drainage.

A definite NO would be the bog standard rat poison bait (which almost every person will recommend out of ignorance). This will kill the rat and kill the owl that eats the rat and the fox/dog/cat that eats the dead owl it found. And you don’t want to know what happens to a child if they come across a piece of that horrible poison that looks like a sweety.

I can guarantee that the most annoying and expensive damage thing they can do is climb up into the engine compartment on your car.. A nice warm place when you come home on a winters day. They can completely destroy a car this way.. We once had a rat living in our car for a few months. I think one reason they go there is that they can smell the water in the window cleaner bottle... So never park your car next to a fig tree where you know the rats are living 

Well, my advice isn’t obligatory but I hope it helps to put your mind at rest a little bit. Some of it will enable you to develop a healthy and balanced orchard with just the right amount of wildlife in order to maintain it’s biodiversity.


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## bob_bob

Sorry Balvert, I don't do the save the Whale/tree hugger route. Rats are nasty and need killing.


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## Alcalaina

Goodness, this thread is over four years old. The original rats will have died of old age by now.

Some good advice there though, in case their great-great-grandchildren are still around.


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## bob_bob

They will be around unless you kill the little ****ttttes.


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