Reply To: Rat probelm

[Bellasmom]

Morning everyone,
I have tried finding past posts on rat problems but this is the only one I could find.
I have a tiny garden at the front of the house which I have turned (as much as possible) into a hedgehog friendly environment and I have one who started visiting us late last year.
My problem now is a rat which comes in off the road and it is eating any food I can put out for the hedgehog before hoggie reaches us on his nightly rounds. I put out both kibble and wet food in the hope that the rat would take one or some of each and then go away but it is absolutely demolishing both bowls. It arrives early and the camera is constantly snapping away for about 30 minutes while the rat grabs as much as he can each time, runs off, and returns very quickly to fill its mouth again. I can’t express how much joy I get from seeing my lovely hoggie coming to visit and have planted as many friendly plants as I can to entice the bugs, bees, etc. but once he realises the food bowls are empty he wanders off. My only recourse seems to be to stop putting food out at all but I was wondering if there is any natural dried bug type food I could put down which the rat would not be interested in. I know I can’t put mealworms down but is there anything else at all I can get? Any help at all would be appreciated as I don’t know what else to do except stop putting food down. (I would add also that there are many places across the road where the rat could have a nest and it would only take it seconds for it to cross the road and then come back for more food.)