Feed the Birds/FEED THE RATS?? (1 Viewer)

George Garner

Well-known member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #1

Hi everyone,
My brother had to call on the services of the local pest control officer this week, due to a rat problem. The said man complained loud and long about the fact that people feeding birds, were making his job so much more difficult. It is a fact that birds are messy eaters, and that seed and grain finds it's way on to the floor. And also that no matter how tidy we are some seeds get left behind, bringing in less welcome visitors. The question I would pose is this, are we not so enviorenmentally friendly as we think we are? or are we just litter bugs however well meaning?
Me I will continue to feed "my" birds, but I will be interested in your thoughts on this .
Regards
George

 

Kits

Picture Picker

Social Media Editor

• Aug 27, 2006

• #2

Hi George

Good question.

I think the Rat Man was right in some ways, but there again, I am sure we have all read that one is never more than 6 (or is it 10?) feet away from a rat? They are there no matter whether we feed the birds or not.

I live in a rural area and yes, I do see the occasional rat in the garden, and yes we do put poison down for them. However, I have a friend who does not feed the birds and she also sees the occasional rat.

So, to answer your question I believe we are not well meaning litter bugs.

It will be interesting to see what others say.

 

Pam_m

Well-known member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #3

Hi George and Kits,

I believe that we are not well meaning litter bugs, rats and mice I believe are inevitable if you feed the birds, and appropriate action is then taken especially when rats are visitors.

Go down our local Town High Street in the early hours at weekends and see the rubbish strewn around from take aways, certainly more of a magnet for vermin than my back garden!

 

R

Ross Hunter

The two things that matter in life are the 2 B's B

• Aug 27, 2006

• #4

Can't you get big bowl shaped type things put under the feeder to minimise the food on the floor

We have killed two rats in our garden in a month

 

M

Mary Evelyn

New member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #5

I also agree with Pam and Kits, George.

I live in a semi rural area and in all the time i have fed the birds, rats have never been a problem.Not because they are not out there and i am sure they at sometime, will visit all the gardens but i feel that providing we are hygienic and they are not living in my garden, i don't worry about it.My ground feed is always gone by early afternoon and i jet wash once a week.We have 2 sheds and i ensure nothing is living in ha ha or underneath.I believe that a good warm place to live, would be more of an encouragement than a few fallen seeds. :flyaway:

 

BazR

bazr

• Aug 27, 2006

• #6

Hi George, and All.
I, like many of you I'm sure, have been feeding the birds for more years than I care to remember. In that time, well over 20 years, I've never seen a rat in my garden. I've also been a composter for very much the same period, and the compost box is supposed to be an attraction to vermin. True, I have had families of mice in the box, which were despatched without them leaving the box, but I have never seen a rat anywhere near it. So my answer to your question George, is a resounding. "no."

All the best.
Baz.

 

Bridie

Well-known member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #7

Hi all

However hard you try there is always an area around the feeders that has spilled seed. I try hard not to fill up the mixed seed feeders too soon to encourage the dunnocks, chaffinches and sparrows to eat up what they have previously rejected. Regularly I rake up the residue seed, put it into carrier bags and carry it up the lane out of the town. I then empty it out for the countryside birds.

We have once had rats in the garden and put down poison. I hated doing it as there is no way of ensuring other rodents - field mice, bank voles etc. don't also eat it, but it had to be done, rats do bring disease. At that time other people in the town also had rats and they didn't feed the birds. It had been a very wet spring and seemed to have flooded out the rats from their normal runs.

As others have said it is a problem that has to be managed.

Bridie

 

Renee Redstart

Well-known member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #8

I only ever saw a rat in my garden a few years ago, when it dashed across from next door and back again. The neighbours dealt with it. I wasn't feeding birds properly then. There is far more food waste in the streets these days left by real litter bugs.
I have composted all vegetable kitchen waste as well as garden waste for more years than I can remember, and kept to the rule never to throw meat products on it. Never had a rat problem there.
Mice - a different story. They got under the floor boards through a gap, we believe, where some mortar had crumbled. Been a great battle all summer, taking an abnormal amount of my time. Then we arrived in France to find the kitchen full of mice droppings! Another battle ensued. Have recently arrived home to try and complete the mice problem here. It's really been a rodent summer for me!

 

CBB

Well-known member

• Aug 27, 2006

• #9

My feeders are just over the fence so anything that spills, spills in the farmers field. Suppose the 'rat man' has a point but like pointed out, they are more dirty parts of the city than my back garden.

 

Sue Wright

Well-known member

• Aug 28, 2006

• #10

Hi George,

I go along with what Pam and Renée have said about the real litter bugs. Only last Thursday or Friday there was a story on the news about the awful increase in urban Rats and I was waiting for the blame to be put on us all......but NO! They DID however blame folk who drop left-overs (rubbish and all) from take-aways onto the streets.

I suppose we must add something to it all, but on the whole my answer would also be NO!

Best wishes,

Sue.

 

Cathy H

Cathy H

• Aug 28, 2006

• #11

Hi all,

My Dad's the only one to have seen a rat since we moved in here, and funnily enough it was in the compost bin (at the time it was a kind of flimsy affair made of plastic and tied up down one side). We think it had gone in there to keep warm. We've never seen any rats at the base of the feeders although they may well be around as has been said. In the local town, they had a bad problem with rats last year at the school, as the bins hadn't been emptied for a while due to a dispute. The nearby houses were overrun!!!

:hi: :hi: