Monday, February 04, 2008

There's a Rat on Mi Bird Table, What Am I Gonna Do?

Ratatouille rateDad (Bill in Ballaugh) has been enjoying feeding the birds and watching them from his kitchen window. But he phoned me up for advice when he saw a rat helping itself to the bird food.

The chances are he's always had rats in his garden. He just hasn't spotted one before. He lives on a hillside in rural Ireland, surrounded by small dairy farms. The landscape will be full of rats, and it's OK. It's probably also full of field mice, foxes, squirrels, bats, rabbits, hares and all sorts of lovely things. If he saw any of those in his garden he'd be delighted, but he's not so keen on the rat. I don't blame him - if I saw a rat I'd wonder if it might come in the house, where it definitely would not be welcome. I wouldn't welcome squirrels or bats etc. in the house either. But still, I don't think spotting a rat in your garden is cause to panic.

There's no need to stop feeding the birds. But there are steps he can take to try to make sure the birds get the food and the rat does not:

  • Feed on the bird table, not on the floor.

  • Rat-proof the bird table - an inverted cone of metal or chickenwire, or one of those big round tins you get chocolates in at Christmas, inverted and attached round the post, might stop rats climbing up.

  • Only feed enough for one day. Feed in the morning, and clear up any leftover food at night. Birds don't come to the birdtable at night so this doesn't deprive them of anything. But it deprives the rat of a midnight snack. I know dad saw his rat in the daytime, but it could have been visiting the table at night for weeks before he saw it.

  • I wonder if those squirrel-proof bird feeders also keep rats out? I've seen a spinning bird-feeder - the weight of a squirrel or a rat causes it to spin faster and faster, flinging the unwanted mammal right off. The video is hysterical. I think if I had one I'd be praying for squirrels and rats to vsit it, just for the laugh.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Replace the pole of the bird table with a shiny metal one. However clever rats are I have yet to see one scale a 4' metal pole.

benjymous said...

The rats will still eat the food that falls off the table, though, unless you can fashion a shelf to catch the dropped bits (in a way that birds won't land on there, and toss the food onto the floor too...)

...hmm...

Anonymous said...

I knew we had rats. The made their presence known last year when I had furniture stored in my barn/shed during building work.I wasn't panicking at seeing it, in fact I thought he was quite handsome in his russet brown coat it's just as you say - I don't want him in the house. As for not putting food on the floor, that's the only place the chaffinches feed. They never use the table at the top, or the boxes at the sides, and they are beautiful. I'd miss them if they stopped coming. We do have lots of other wildlife around. I've got two hares resident on the haggard, along with a pheasant. I've seen mink in the garden and a vixen and three cubs patrolling the hedgerow last year. And I know rats are a given in such a rural area.

Heather @ Wiggly Wigglers said...

The Droll Yankee video is great - cause many a titter in the office.

We have recently had rats in our compost heap, which prompoted my post at http://wigglywigglers.blogspot.com/2008/02/rats-and-random-ramblings.html

However, not likely to try the rat recipes. If you put Rat Recipes into Google you get some interesting results!

Anonymous said...

I have only just come across this so please forgive the 'late' comment BUT I do wonder why you would not welcome bats in your house?????? They do absolutely NO harm whatsoever and are practically always nowhere near where humans are, ie. in the attic ( perhaps ) but even more likely just tucked into the inbetweeny spaces of 'up there somewhere'. Find out all you can about bats and you'll end up like a lot of others who wish fervently that bats would grace and honour them with their presence, even just as a rest/temporary roost - they are the most amazing creatures as you will find out if you endeavour to do so! Cheers, Cornelia

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