Never Ignore a Rat!
Chris gives us a tutorial on properly identifying & eradicating rodent infestations using our extensive range of rat and mouse poisons…
Rats and Mice could be classed as one of the great ‘success stories’ in any garden, if you see one, they are rarely alone and their ability to multiply is quite astonishing. Young rats are mature and are able to breed at four to five weeks of age and with litters of up to 12 baby rats a single pair with no predation is able to produce well over a thousand offspring in a single year.
Rats in particular owe their success to the rate of reproduction and their ability to adapt to a wide range of food sources and situations, for these reasons without control they can quickly become serious pests.
Our gardens offer cover and a seasonal larder which both rats and mice feel secure in, so it is really important that mice are controlled in order to keep populations at levels where they pose few problems and rats which are really bad news totally eliminated.
The move towards herbaceous and meadow plantings and more naturalistic styles of gardening has huge potential to provide cover and nesting sites for both rats and mice. When I cut the meadows down under the fruit trees in the autumn the summers breeding success becomes very apparent with large numbers of empty, mouse, vole and shrew nests evident.
This year I even had a mouse nesting with live young in a growing bucket of potatoes outside on staging – It would have remained unnoticed if it had not eaten every sweetcorn seed from a freshly seeded module tray which resulted in a frantic search and relocation! Mice in particular are a valuable food source for Tawny Owls which I know visit the garden in the evening so complete control of mice is neither desirable or necessary until they become an unwelcome visitor in your home or shed.
Rats on the other hand rarely go unnoticed, they are very destructive tunnelling under sheds and into compost heaps and if you are ever unlucky enough to have one in a garden shed say goodbye to any seeds, stored fruits or anything else that takes their fancy. One of their favourite foods is maize and sweetcorn, they will quickly (overnight) shred and eat growing sweetcorn cobs, and if you live in the countryside beware once all the maize is harvested, they will quickly migrate to and infest gardens eating and chewing up everything in their path.
What can you do about troublesome rodents? You could make a call for a pest controller to visit, but there are two very effective controls methods that you can try and deploy very quickly for both rats and mice, although it may take some time to fully eradicate large populations.
For enclosed spaces such as sheds and greenhouses where garden birds or non- target species cannot get access my first choice would be the use of traps which are very effective when baited with chocolate for mice and pieces of apple for rats. Trapping is instant and is useful if you want to ‘live’ or ‘humanely’ trap the odd mouse, but can be a challenge for rats which are very aware of their surroundings and may never venture onto a rat trap despite eating all oatmeal you sprinkle around it!
Using Rodenticide baits on the other hand can be much more successful, grain baits such as Elixir Rodex 25 placed into Bait stations are very effective for control of rats indoors, for mice it is better to use a cut grain bait such as Elixir Rodan 25, this helps to prevent mice stripping the outer bran (containing the poison) off the grain and only eating the centre.
For exterior use especially in the cold damp days of winter, I prefer to use block bait which contains cut grain and poison formed into ‘Oktabloks’ by an edible wax. The great benefit of block bait is that it does not go mouldy in damp conditions which grain bait can do and is extremely attractive to rodents as it smells of chocolate. Blocks should only be used in bait stations such as the Elixir Rat bait box station to prevent any non- target species from eating it.
These lightweight bait stations have a key to open them, and come complete with a removable tray for grain bait and metal bar which is securely fastened to the body of the box, this effectively prevents the bait block from been taken out of the box by the rodents and therefore encourages eating of the blocks in situ. For added security a bracket supplied enables the bait station to be secured to the bottom of a fence panel or shed.
It is really important that when handling bait boxes that may contain rodent urine and saliva that you wear disposable gloves. Rodents carry many diseases that can infect humans causing serious illness. Gloves also prevent the user from coming into contact with poison baits and also somewhat prevent the smell of human hands being transferred, making the rodents more wary of entering the bait station.
Both Elixir Vertox 25 and Rodex 25 blocks have holes in them which helps to secure them to the securing pin. You simply release the pin from the feeding station, push the blocks onto the pin and clip it back into the box. To avoid any pieces of block being dropped on the floor and being eaten by non- target species I always push the blocks onto he pin over the bait station, that way any block chips drop into the bait tray.
The rat bait station will hold five blocks, although I don’t use grain bait outdoors, I leave the removable bait tray in situation, that way it does not get lost. I also like to fill the bait stations with five blocks, that way you can gauge the level of rodent infestation better, if the five blocks are eaten after a couple of days you know you have more than one rat present.
The lid closes with a click and is then locked securely effectively preventing access by anything including inquisitive pets. A huge bonus of using block bait is that if the bait station does get knocked over or disturbed, very little if any poison bait escapes, grain bait can entail quite an immediate clean up job to prevent non target species especially birds including free range chickens eating it.
Bait stations should always be sited along walls, adjacent to sheds and in areas where rodent activity is evident. Rodents will venture into open spaces but they are more comfortable running along with some protection from at least one side.
Bait stations should be checked every two to five days and replenished as necessary. During the wintertime when there is less natural food available the bait can be depleted quite quickly but usually after about 30 days you should notice bait is not being taken indicating that the rodenticides have worked. It is really important though that you check your buildings and garden for dead rodents and remove them promptly to avoid non target species eating them, the rodent bodies should be bagged up and put into the household waste bin for disposal.
Rodenticides are a valuable way to reduce and eradicate rodent populations in the garden, whilst the odd wood or harvest mouse living in your garden is not usually a problem and contributes to a balanced garden ecosystem, it has to be said never ignore a rat!
Chris Jones
Based in Shropshire Chris has many years experience both in growing projects of his own and passing on his expert outdoor knowledge to others through growing and gardening societies. Keep an eye on our blog posts and newsletters for his seasonal articles to keep you well informed on all things outdoors.
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