I’ve been delaying making this video for some time even though I get a lot of requests for it.
And the main reason is that I think a lot of people aren’t going to like it.
There’s a lot of people out there who hate rats, who think they are vile and disgusting
creatures, and will be disturbed that I even tolerate their presence.
Other people love rats and think they're wonderful creatures, and will be disturbed that I see
them as a pest.
And still others might be disappointed that at no point during this video do I show the
actual killing of a rat.
But this is the nature of the diverse range of opinions that we have about this creature
that has adapted so well to live among us.
Personally, I quite like rats, I think they’re intelligent, sociable creatures, and they
make very good pets, and at the same time, in the context I’m in, I actively cull their numbers.
Or, in other words, I kill them.
Rats have a very bad reputation, especially in the cities, and for good reason, but I
think the countryside is a little bit different.
Most people are concerned about Leptospirosis, or Weil’s Disease, so I decided to do my
own research on it.
According to the official statistics, there are generally fewer than 20 cases reported
each year in Ireland, many of which require hospitalisation, but very rarely are there any deaths.
It seems that most people were infected either engaging in water sports, or with farmers
working directly with animals, or with people who are working in and around water, or people
who travel to the tropics.
This is a water born disease, and any water that could have had rat urine washed into
it is potentially contaminated.
Apparently the highest risk comes from when water is contaminated, comes in contact with
open cuts and abrasions in the skin.
So, its relatively easy to avoid by staying away from water, or by covering any cuts and
abrasions with waterproof plasters, and by washing your hands.
Because of all of this, I consider it to be a low risk, even if rats are around, and it
can be reduced even lower by common sense practices.
But I do recommend that people do their own research on it.
I think we need to be careful about how we seek to manage rat populations in our gardens.
Rats are pervasive in this country, and I don’t think you can do anything to eliminate
them, without doing serious damage to other biodiversity.
As one example, any habitat that might be suitable for hedgehogs or other useful creatures
in your gardens, would also be suitable for rats.
Poisons are seriously problematic, especially as they can kill off any bird of prey that
eats a poisoned rat.
Traps can be effective, and I’ve used a number of them over the years, but I’ve
also found that they can kill animals that I don’t want to kill, and it seems that
rats are intelligent enough to learn how to avoid them over time.
I occasionally find cats hanging around my gardens, and no doubt other predators that
I’m not aware of pass by.
A few years ago, i used to see a buzzard, which is a type of bird of prey here in Ireland,
hanging out on my compost pile, obviously waiting for a tasty snack to appear.
But I haven’t seen it again since I got a lot better at controlling the rat population.
I learned a valuable lesson about the relationship between predators and prey, which I think
is similar to the relationship between aphids and ladybirds or ladybugs.
It seems that we tend to not to be tolerant enough of a background population of pests,
in order to sustain the predators that we want to help out in managing them.
in this case it seems that the number of rats that are needed to sustain a buzzard, is too
many for most people.
It was then that I realised that I needed to take on the role of being a predator of rats.
There’s this pervasive idea that you should never add certain types of food to a compost
pile, for fear of attracting rats.
But, in my experience, rats are attracted to compost piles in general, because there
is probably always something to eat in them, and they seem to make ideal places to build nests in.
It seems that rats are always going to be attracted to an allotment or a garden, there
tends to be a diverse range of habitats for them to live in, and there’s always something
to eat, either in the compost or growing in the garden.
I’ve seen many examples of rats eating things directly from the gardens, including digging
up pea seeds that were freshly sown.
I’ve had the tops of carrots gnawed at, I’ve had beetroot being chewed, I’ve had
squash hollowed out so that the rats could get at the seeds inside, and a neighbour had
an entire crop of sweet corn stripped by rats.
I’ve sat and watched a rat come into my gardens, climb up a pea plant, pick a full
pod of peas off of a plant, and drag it back into the nest, only to come back a few minutes
later and do the same thing.
I’ve also seen them do it with broad beans or lava beans.
While rats may be more attracted to certain types of material put into a compost, eliminating
these items is not going to eliminate rats from your garden.
And, I’ve come to realise that if rats are attracted to your compost, they can actually
be easier to control.
For the last few years, I’ve been managing a community composting facility as part of
this RED Gardens Project.
For me, it enables me to capture a lot of valuable fertility for use within the gardens,
and for my neighbours it means that they don’t have to have their own composting facility
in order to manage their food wastes and yard wastes.
But, by being located away from the houses, it also means that any problems that do arise,
including issues with rats, are much easier to manage.
I’ve learned a lot from managing this composting system, including developing several strategies
for dealing with rats.
Most of them are based on the fact that seem to prefer building their nests within the
compost itself, seemingly because it’s safe and warm, and full of food.
I used to borrow my neighbour’s dog whenever I felt that rats were in the compost, and
together we made a fairly effective team.
As I dug the compost to turn it, he would quickly and efficiently kill any of the rats
that ran out.
Unfortunately he’s now too old for the task, so I’ve taken on both jobs, though I’m
not nearly as skilled as he was.
This was when I realised that there was real benefits to having an enclosed box for a compost
bin, but still enabling rats to burrow in and make nests inside.
Whenever it was time to turn the compost from one bin into the next, I would seal up any
of the holes, effectively trapping any of the rats inside, and because they were trapped
in there, they were much easier to kill.
It was a vicious process, and I didn’t like it, but I became quite skilled at it.
As more people started tot use this community composting facility, I ended up having to
turn it more frequently, and more often than not I was finding nests that still had baby rats in them.
And I realised that it was a much easier and more effective strategy for culling the rat
numbers was to kill them when they were still babies, than to try to find them and kill
them when they were adults.
I found that turning the compost heaps once a month gave enough time for the rats to become
established, but wasn’t long enough for the baby rats to mature and be able to leave the nest.
And I found that this was quote an effective strategy for controlling the rat population,
especially during the autumn, winter and spring, when the extra warmth of the compost heaps
was an added attraction for the rats.
In the summer time the rats were more likely to nest in the broader landscape, but continue
to use my gardens and the compost pile as a source of food, so I had to develop a different strategy.
the method that worked quite well, was when I surrounded all of the compost piles with
a makeshift fence, and left a short section of pipe at the base of the fence, so that
the rats could come in and out as they pleased..
And I was able to determine when there was a lot of rats visiting by the path that they
wore up to the entrance to this pipe.
And then, any time I was in the area, I would make sure the fence was secure, and fix a
bag over the end of the pipe.
I would then lift all the coverings in the composts and poke around until any rats that
were there were scared off, and more often than not, they ran straight through there
pipe and were trapped in the bag, and were very easy to kill.
This ended up being very effective, and a lot easier than trying to find and dig out
all of the nests that they built in the wider landscape.
And I realised that the more attractive the compost pile was to the rats, the easier it
was to control their numbers.
So, in the context of this RED Gardens Project, I’m actively attracting rats to my compost
pile, away from the houses and the broader landscape, and taking responsibility for killing them.
I’ve been quite successful at this over the years, and have developed a number of
different methods, but sometimes I’ve been less successful, and these have been great
opportunities to learn some more.
Some of my neighbours still have problems with the way that I manage this composting
facility, and would prefer that I had conventional rules of not allowing certain types of material.
But, if these materials weren’t allowed, then where would they be composted, and how
would I get the fertility back into my gardens, I think these are important things to consider.
Perhaps I could develop a rat-proof composting facility, but that would be a hard thing to
do, and even if I was able to achieve it, the rats would still be in the landscape,
and would probably do a lot more damage to my gardens.
I believe a background population of rats is tolerable and inevitable, but we need to
take responsibility for managing their numbers.
Within the context of abundant food and lots of habitat, and not enough predators, I’ve
found that a compost pile is by far the best rat trap.
Well, if you made it to the end of this video, I do hope that means that you valued what
I had to say, or at least found it interesting.
As with all of the videos in this YouTube channel, and with my work in the RED Gardens
in general, I try to focus on the specifics of my own experience, rather than trying to
give some generalised advice.
If you value that type of approach, and like the work that I’m doing, please consider
supporting me by going to my Patreon page linked here or in the description below.
As always, please like, subscribe and share, but most importantly, thanks for watching.