hedgehogs and rats
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I’ve discovered your web site by googling “hedgehogs and rats”, as we’re going through a bit of a saga at the moment. We’ve had a rat now for several weeks, and it is SO destructive, breaking into bags of hedgehog and bird food, destroying just planted tulip bulbs and generally being thoroughly unpleasant.
The current regime means that my wife and I feed our beloved hogs in the late evening when they come out, and stand guard to shoo away the *** rat, which comes out to join in the feed. I’ve tried to kill it with a conventional trap (keeping watch to ensure no hog is tempted), without success. The rat even managed to take the (very expensive) peanut butter bait, and spring the trap without suffering any harm. Yesterday I put the trap out, only to kill a dear little brown mouse. I felt dreadful. Finally, I’ve borrowed a friend’s very powerful air rifle, and managed a shot this afternoon, when the rat came investigating. I think I hit it, but it bolted away. Watch this space. Comments and advice much appreciated.Wow there is a lot to get through here, I would never recommend using a spring trap where hedgehogs or other animals have access to it. How bad would you feel if you killed a bird or broke a hedgehogs nose.
If the rat ate the bait but didn’t get caught are you using a proper rat trap or mouse trap?
I am a pest controller myself and use an air rifle to shoot rats where they are troublesome but before you even start to think about shooting an animal you have to practice to guarantee you are accurate. The definition of accurate is being able to consistently hit a drawing pin at 20 yards.
Even a rat deserves the respect of being killed instantly and that requires a shot to the brain which is between the eye and the base of the ear.
I’m afraid just shooting at a rat without being accurate is inhumane.
Please practice plenty or you will cause agony and not death to this rat.Thanks for this. There has been no sight or sign of the rat since I shot it, and I feel more confident that it’s dead. I’m quite comfortable using a rifle, and was a marksman at Bisley, confident of hitting the bull 9/10 times at various ranges up to 800 yards. The rifle I’m using is a Weirauch HW 90K, with a telescopic sight. If I had had time, I would have certainly aimed at the rats head. I actually had less than a second, and could only aim at the centre before it darted away. I have absolutely no regrets doing this. As I said in my previous post, rats are extremely destructive. One recently got into the house and proceeded to chew through our plastic pipework, resulting in a flooded kitchen, a boiler out of action and a plumbing bill of several hundred pounds. I don’t enjoy killing anything – even a rat. Incidentally, rat poison contains chemicals, called anticoagulants, which cause the rodent to die slowly and painfully from internal bleeding. These poisons are not considered to be humane due to their toxic effects including difficulty breathing, weakness, vomiting, bleeding gums, seizures, abdominal swelling and pain.
Meanwhile our lovely hedgehogs are all fine and, fingers crossed, not now troubled by a pesky rat!
ps the trap is a proper Rentokill rat trap. I watched the rat as it took the bait, and I’ve no idea how it managed to spring the trap and escape unharmed. Amazing!
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