Something? is making a home under my shed

Terrywoodenpic said:
They seem to be living off scraps from my bird table
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I'm sure they are.
Terrywoodenpic said:
so I am going to stop feeding them for a while
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That's the first thing I tell people to do, or there is no point in even attempting to poison them.
However a Fen MKIV smeared with peanut butter on the tread plate, may be more attractive than the spilt seed.
Obviously not really an option if you have kids and pets.
UNLESS well secured under a small tunnel, to exclude both.

Terrywoodenpic said:
I have replaced the outside tap as it tended to drip.
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Smart move (y)
Although don't forget the dew off the grass or small dew puddles that form early morning, they reportedly travel up to a mile for food
not sure about water.
Terrywoodenpic said:
suspect that they have been cleared from somewhere near by,
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Possibly is there building work local? that tends to move them on. It may also be a colony breaking up as the young move out loking for a new home.
sphexx said:
Are you claiming your rats in Swindon are bigger than our rats in Yorkshire?
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I think we've all heard the story of the two feet long rats in London, :D
I've yet to see one though ;)
 
sphexx said:
Joking apart, some male rats can be pretty big.
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Most of the ones I deal with these days are for the waste industry, landfill sites / transfer stations etc
Plenty of rich pickings there.
I suppose if you were to stretch a large male from the tip of his nose to the tip of the tail it would be approaching. 2 feet,
but certainly not the size of a small dog or large cat that get reported.
I guess the people that report these sightings are also fisherman? :D
 
Cobra said:
Most of the ones I deal with these days are for the waste industry, landfill sites / transfer stations etc
Plenty of rich pickings there.
I suppose if you were to stretch a large male from the tip of his nose to the tip of the tail it would be approaching. 2 feet,
but certainly not the size of a small dog or large cat that get reported.
I guess the people that report these sightings are also fisherman? :D
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Around 1950 we found a huge and dying (poisoned?) rat in our school grounds adjacent to farmland. It wasn't dog sized but it was big enough to have weighed (guessing) four pounds. Whatever the weight, it was quite outside the range of normal rat sizes. A possible explanation would be that it was an exotic species but the date is rather against that. Anyway, because of that I'm half inclined to believe that brown rats sometimes reach freak sizes.
 
sphexx said:
but it was big enough to have weighed (guessing) four pounds.
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A big fat male may go around a kilo (2.2lbs)
Just a thought I wasn't a young Coypu was it?
I know they have been mistaken for rats in the past.

sphexx said:
I'm half inclined to believe that brown rats sometimes reach freak sizes.
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I agree, there are freaks of nature, so I guess that may also be possible.
 
Cobra said:
A big fat male may go around a kilo (2.2lbs)
Just a thought I wasn't a young Coypu was it?
I know they have been mistaken for rats in the past.


I agree, there are freaks of nature, so I guess that may also be possible.
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Yes, the male lab rats I used to work with usually went about 800g+ but this was much much bigger. I've thought about a coypu but they don't really look like rats and coypu didn't occur nearby. Also this was "captured" so it wasnt a passing glimpse.I should say I am a zoologist and mis-spent most of my childhood looking at and reading about animals. I think it was either a freak or an exotic species.
 
Cobra said:
Most of the ones I deal with these days are for the waste industry, landfill sites / transfer stations etc
Plenty of rich pickings there.
I suppose if you were to stretch a large male from the tip of his nose to the tip of the tail it would be approaching. 2 feet,
but certainly not the size of a small dog or large cat that get reported.
I guess the people that report these sightings are also fisherman? :D
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We do the it for the local waste sites. Worse job was rerunning cables that had been chewed by rats. Now they are big...

The ones from our garden/ neighbours were about 6-9 inches in the body, about twice that with the tail. Well fed and fat so looked very big.

I've 6 traps consistently set in the garage to take out mice. They had a habit of camping in the Tvr and chewing the cables.
 
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Byker28i said:
They had a habit of camping in the Tvr and chewing the cables.
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Probably because its nice and warm, I have the same issue from time to time with the compactors and loading shovels...
Jam or peanut butter smeared on the traps, never fails (y)

sphexx said:
.I should say I am a zoologist and mis-spent most of my childhood looking at and reading about animals.
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Behaviourist here I cut my teeth working working in breeding "establishment" & labs ;)
 
I notice the chap next door has cleared out under his shed and removed the bottom plank. So I have probably inherit some rats from him.
Not that he has said anything.
 
Crows were chasing a Polecat across the field yesterday, now that is bad news for chickens and the fact that pc's are protected. It they are cornered they will attack. Evil creatures.:chicken:
 
Cobra said:
Probably because its nice and warm, I have the same issue from time to time with the compactors and loading shovels...
Jam or peanut butter smeared on the traps, never fails (y)
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Milky way seems to work for best for me, I have these, small pot underneath the tread plate which when they try to pull out the milky way - snap.
41N2BmMiY6SL.jpg
 
Shirleyr said:
Crows were chasing a Polecat across the field yesterday, now that is bad news for chickens and the fact that pc's are protected. It they are cornered they will attack. Evil creatures.:chicken:
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No, they're just polecats. Not evil at all. Many animals - including humans - will react aggressively if threatened/cornered.
 
Blimey, that rat has certainly settled in quickly, by the look of that photo above it's opened a shoe repair business! ;)

It always makes me smile when people say that they saw a much bigger example of a certain animal when they were a child/at school. I was talking to a chap once who would have it that frogs were smaller these days, as when he was a youngster they would be the size of his hand when he picked them up. Only when I asked him how big his hand was when he was a child did he begin to realise! :D
 
Cobra said:
Most of the ones I deal with these days are for the waste industry, landfill sites / transfer stations etc
Plenty of rich pickings there.
I suppose if you were to stretch a large male from the tip of his nose to the tip of the tail it would be approaching. 2 feet,
but certainly not the size of a small dog or large cat that get reported.
I guess the people that report these sightings are also fisherman? :D
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I've seen them bigger than a cat, huge things, not bothered by people at all, I swear one had a tattoo....
 
swanseamale47 said:
I've seen them bigger than a cat, huge things, not bothered by people at all, I swear one had a tattoo....
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and no doubt carrying a baseball bat :)
 
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