Rats nibbling my veg :(

Thanks for all the ideas folks, I'm putting down poison to begin with and might pop out tomorrow and get a couple of traps. I did use a trap some years ago but am very wary as there is a neighbours cat uses my garden and I don't want to harm that. I've been trying to discourage the cat as it uses my veg patch as a toilet, so maybe I should allow that if it does me a favour and scares off the rats.

The ultrasonic device was useless, I had it set up all day in my greenhouse and when I got home from work my last remaining sweet pepper has been half eaten.

From experience years ago it's very difficult to shoot them, I was a pretty good shot as a kid on the family farm but rats were too quick for me then so I don't think I could get one now unless it walked straight up to the end of the barrel.

 

Yes and I have had rat nests in there before which I dug out and disposed of. There are fields at the end of my garden plus all my neighbours' have a wild overgrown area between them and the road, it's good for wildlife but probably encourages rats. One neighbour had chickens and that was the only other time when rats actually came down into my garden and caused a nuisance. So I don't think I can eliminate them completely, I just want them to keep off my veggies.

 

I'm looking at something like this for a trap:

EASY SET RAT SNAP TRAP + EXTERNAL GARDEN PROTECTOR BOX - GREEN PET SAFE CONTROL | eBay

 

@JWK Those are the most popular types of traps as they're safe (mainly) for other animals.

@martin-f Some of the towns around us have banned the use of guns in urban areas because of danger of bad shooting and especially ricochets. A few years back there were a number of injuries to neighbours' children and also damage to homes.

It's different where we live as we are very rural with big gardens. So some judicious shooting of vermin works wonders. Many years ago the local authority came round and told all the properties not to use bird tables for feeding as this was attracting rats and said that we should use hanging feeders. Apparently there's a local By-law that says that they can enforce this if necessary. It was a pity because there was a good argument that it was much easier to shoot them when they were presenting themselves as good targets on the bird tables.

 

We have had a similar experience here @Jiffy, selfish shooters were peppering our windows with shot gun pellets then a wounded pigeon came down in our garden. I called the police and even showed them some pellets I'd picked up. I couldn't believe that people didn't consider where the shot was going to land if they fired in the direction of houses. The police didn't seem too interested and by the time they arrived the shooters had moved on. It's never happened again thank goodness.

 

I agree,
but a lot of councils now ban shooting after bad publicity about injuries and damage. Owning anything but an air rifle, I think, still needs a licence and doing pest control also needs a licence (doesn't stop you doing it on your own land).

I shoot only if there's a big nuisance and where appropriate.

 

I used to spend hours firing at targets with my air rifle as a youngster, it was good fun. I wasn't adverse to shooting birds but not with an air rifle as my old BSA wasn't really powerful enough.

I used a 12 bore for pigeons, that was a long time ago. I wouldn't want to kill pigeons now, although I know they are vermin to farmers. I might kill a rat if I could get close enough (no gun now). I dug out a rats nest in my compost heap once and a rat jumped on the end of my spade, I was taken by surprise and just tossed it away. Then I found the babies in the nest and felt sorry for disturbing them so moved them somewhere else hoping the mother would find them. I know I'm being hypocritical as I've been putting poison down and will get a trap, but I don't think I could directly kill one now. Must be getting soft in my old age?