I’m happy to update that ratty has decided to leave the garden for now 🙂 I did stop feeding the hogs for about a week but this year there are loads of worms and invertebrates around in my wildlife friendly garden due to the mild winter. It was hard watching footage of the hogs search the feeding areas in the early hours though. I wouldn’t have stopped if it had been cold as a couple of hogs are out all year.
I also moved all the feeding stations around and dismantled some, leaving their components randomly dotted about.
Then I removed what I could of the rat’s nest from under the shed, finding it had also been feasting on the frogs from the pond 🙁 That’s nature for you!
Finally I sprinkled peppermint oil all the way around the bottom of the shed.
No rat on the camera for the last 5 days 🙂 so hogs are being fed wet cat food for a while before I revert to their normal dried food.
I’m also going to place random items near their nest boxes throughout the year just in case ratty comes back but despite having 5 boxes I’ve never come across a rat in any nor smelt that they had been present when I clean them out.
In relation to people using bait – please consider that the rat will die a very painful death and you have no control of where it dies. A fox or someone’s pet could scavenge the body and die.
