Dead rat in the garden.,...

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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On Thursday it was overcast and rainy but the leaves needed sweeping up and we also enjoyed seeing a couple of Red Kites checking out the neighbouring gardens.

I spotted some odd signs of digging in the garden and thought squirrel or fix or hedgehog perhaps???

This morning from the bedroom window a Magpie apparently digging holes but no, it was having a go at what initially thought was a large dead mouse......but then realised it was too large to be a mouse. It was grey with a white underside/belly.

The Wagtail Magpie was clearly trying to butcher it! But it did not manage it.

Just when you need a Red Kite to scavenge such a dead wildlife it was nowhere to be seen.


I left it in the garden and I hope a cat, fox or Red Kite will take it away as I have no wish the find a way to dispose of it :(

PS I was not aware rats could be grey.....was it a juvenile??? @Cobra do you have any insights to offer?

Oh, I have idea what might killed it?
 
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badlywornroy said:
I would dispose of it in case it had been. poisoned ? If that was the case would you want a " cat, fox or red kite" to take it ?
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That is a point I had not considered :thinking:

But once bagged.......where should I dispose of it???
 
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Hunches Laurence..................................rat has been poisoned by nieghbour and died in your neck of the woods

.your description from magpie to wag is somewhat confusing.

Nature should take care of any carcass,if it's left long enough flies will deal with alot of any dead thing.normally some other bigger being finds it first. but the small things natures clean up squad always finish the job..cylcle of life an all

Yes I guess young rats are grey er? in colour but then me name aint chris. :LOL:

ern although it seems somewhat grisely a piccy paints a thousand words an all .Roys beat me to the next bit
badlywornroy said:
I would dispose of it in case it had been. poisoned ? If that was the case would you want a " cat, fox or red kite" to take it ?
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Roy in many ways I concur,but dispose of to where? A devils advocate post Roy..essentailly based on one question............just how does one remove an unknown poison from our ecosystem?

incineration maybe?.

Laurence I'm not up in legality of poisons now used for rat so that deeply liimits a correct method of approach following hunch I opened with..and moreso doesn't consider in anyway old skool hard stuff that ran down a food chain

all said and done if ya look out now has nature already negated all of the above?
.
 
Box Brownie said:
That is a point I had not considered :thinking:

But once bagged.......where should I dispose of it???
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One suggestion is 2 feet under the ground covered by stones, another is contact a pest control firm to incinerate it.
 
Stuart Philpott said:
Hunches Laurence..................................rat has been poisoned by nieghbour and died in your neck of the woods

.your description from magpie to wag is somewhat confusing.

Nature should take care of any carcass,if it's left long enough flies will deal with alot of any dead thing.normally some other bigger being finds it first. but the small things natures clean up squad always finish the job..cylcle of life an all

Yes I guess young rats are grey er? in colour but then me name aint chris. :LOL:

ern although it seems somewhat grisely a piccy paints a thousand words an all .Roys beat me to the next bit


Roy in many ways I concur,but dispose of to where? A devils advocate post Roy..essentailly based on one question............just how does one remove an unknown poison from our ecosystem?

incineration maybe?.

Laurence I'm not up in legality of poisons now used for rat so that deeply liimits a correct method of approach following hunch I opened with..and moreso doesn't consider in anyway old skool hard stuff that ran down a food chain

all said and done if ya look out now has nature already negated all of the above?
.
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Stu,

Re Wag........brain fart on my part now corrected.

Based on responses I need to get out there with torch, gloves & bag.....but still no idea of appropriate disposal???

@Cobra I need your insight advice please :police::thinking:

PS for expedience, provided I can remember where we put them........cover it with a brick and attend to it tomorrow?

Edit ~ I could not in find the bricks.....so have covered it with an upended flower pot and put a large stone on top to weigh it down. I will in the absence of more detailed advice, double bag and as @badlywornroy suggests put it in the landfill waste bin.
 
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Stuart Philpott said:
Hunches Laurence..................................rat has been poisoned by nieghbour and died in your


Roy in many ways I concur,but dispose of to where? A devils advocate post Roy..essentailly based on one question............just how does one remove an unknown poison from our ecosystem?

incineration maybe?.


.
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I would drop it in a plastic. bag, tie it up and drop it in your non recycling rubbish. It will get buried on a waste tip.
 
Roy ,Laurence.you may or may not know we keep S American frogs..................amphibians face an epic decline of late.part down to somethiing called Bd.chytrid and also RV. rana virus ( beyond the complete pigs ear we are making of looking after our planet)

So one has a duty of care, to dispose of said froggie waste with huge caution....one can't be part of speadiing any nasties right .nuff said. So one would bleach and then double bag something going into the waste stream ie the tip

or inciinerate.

Ok bung into the waste stream.we mean bung into landfill where a gull for example would or might be easily capable of taring open said accepted protocol of double bag???? Now double bag 'n' bleach suddenly becomes somewhat dodgy

incinerate.we have a wood burner. So by and large thiings like this situation go that way.

Guys what I'm not being is an ass here....what I'm tryiing to get out is just how hard it is to make the right choices......in so many ways nature takes care of thiings one shouldn't be worrying.................,but that said, once we ( humans) get involved so much of a spanner can get thrown in the works it's very hard to know what to do bar play percentages

Personally I'd burn something like this,but I don't know that is good advice...... it just seems better than throwing more plastic into our waste stream,which may potentially not escape nature's food chain anyway?

And it's only a hunch why a dead rat turns up on a lawn...... ;)
 
I took this on my phone this afternoon.......cropped image done on the phoneIMG_20221125_144000609~3.jpg
 
Of note, approx 100 metres away across a single carriageway road there is ground works infrastructure being done for a big housing development and when we went shopping I noticed they were working at the edge of the site and there is a small gulley watercourse that the "works" has more than likely disturbed.

FWIW about 4 years ago I did very briefly spot a Brown Rat in the back garden, this was the first and last time I/we have seen one!
 
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Double bag it and bin it in domestic waste. That will contain the juices and should be enough that nothing tries to eat it before it's decomposed beyond consumption. You may also find that your domestic waste is incinerated anyway - as ours is - rather than going to landfill.
 
Box Brownie said:
@Cobra I need your insight advice please :police::thinking:
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Late to the party as always :D ( I never saw the tag)
Rats do vary in colour a little. Some is down to genes or the type of soil they are digging in.
It stains their coats.
ie rats scavenging in transfer stations, which tend to be very mucky places, tend to be dark brown,
Rats scavenging in cleaner areas tend to have lighter ( cleaner) colour coats.

What to do? Bag it and bin it.
These days, the 2nd generation anti-coagulants are designed to break down in the target species bodies,
and the likelihood of secondary poisoning is almost zero.

However, "We" have to either deep bury or burn the bodies.
As already mentioned, if you throw it out with your rubbish, it will either end up buried in a landfill ( plenty deep enough)
or burned in an incinerator
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Double bag it and bin it in domestic waste. That will contain the juices and should be enough that nothing tries to eat it before it's decomposed beyond consumption. You may also find that your domestic waste is incinerated anyway - as ours is - rather than going to landfill.
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Cobra said:
Late to the party as always :D ( I never saw the tag)
Rats do vary in colour a little. Some is down to genes or the type of soil they are digging in.
It stains their coats.
ie rats scavenging in transfer stations, which tend to be very mucky places, tend to be dark brown,
Rats scavenging in cleaner areas tend to have lighter ( cleaner) colour coats.

What to do? Bag it and bin it.
These days, the 2nd generation anti-coagulants are designed to break down in the target species bodies,
and the likelihood of secondary poisoning is almost zero.

However, "We" have to either deep bury or burn the bodies.
As already mentioned, if you throw it out with your rubbish, it will either end up buried in a landfill ( plenty deep enough)
or burned in an incinerator
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Thanks both, especially @Cobra for the industry insights.

I wrapped and double bagged it about an hour ago. It will be put in the landfill wheelie bin waste but at the moment I have placed it on a gravel patch with the weighed down upended flower pot as a protection from wildlife investigation until the bin is due for collection.

In regard to its colouration, moving it onto the paper I wrapped it in I realised the grey colour was its underfur as the tips of the fur were brownish.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
I can only advise using something like handiscoop to clear up such mess. It's quick and hygienic
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Looks like a useful tool......if/when needed.

On this occasion the kill was fairly fresh with no obvious signs of trauma so a poisoning is potentially likely.

As for the way I handled it, I used a stick to roll it onto some sheets of newspaper. That meant just with gardening gloves, at no point was I actually touching it as I rolled up & folded the paper into a 'parcel' which was placed into the initial bag.
 
Box Brownie said:
Looks like a useful tool......if/when needed.

On this occasion the kill was fairly fresh with no obvious signs of trauma so a poisoning is potentially likely.

As for the way I handled it, I used a stick to roll it onto some sheets of newspaper. That meant just with gardening gloves, at no point was I actually touching it as I rolled up & folded the paper into a 'parcel' which was placed into the initial bag.
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Pick it up like dog poo. Hand inside a plastic bin bag, grab it and then turn the bag inside out. That way you can also scrape the grass etc at the same time.

Box Brownie said:
Of note, approx 100 metres away across a single carriageway road there is ground works infrastructure being done for a big housing development and when we went shopping I noticed they were working at the edge of the site and there is a small gulley watercourse that the "works" has more than likely disturbed.
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I missed that first time, yes developments like this often disturb colony's, and they go off looking for a new home.
So I suggest that you keep your eyes open for a few weeks.
Rats need 3 things, Harbourage, food, and water, If the water is still there, they won't stray far looking for food and harbourage.
 
Rats are everywhere, including all our gardens, however considering how many there are we rarely see them..
I bin any dead bird or rat that I find in the garden. no problem. One rat two pigeons last year.
 
Box Brownie said:
Looks like a useful tool......if/when needed.

On this occasion the kill was fairly fresh with no obvious signs of trauma so a poisoning is potentially likely.

As for the way I handled it, I used a stick to roll it onto some sheets of newspaper. That meant just with gardening gloves, at no point was I actually touching it as I rolled up & folded the paper into a 'parcel' which was placed into the initial bag.
Click to expand...
Poison or old age, it hardly matters. It's a decomposing vermin. My garden is getting constantly bombed by neighbours cats, which is hardly a pleasant scenario to deal with
 
One dead and one nearly dead yesterday in my garden, I'm guessing poison, lots of pets in my street so the poisoner wont be popular if tiddles gets poisoned.
 
swanseamale47 said:
One dead and one nearly dead yesterday in my garden, I'm guessing poison, lots of pets in my street so the poisoner wont be popular if tiddles gets poisoned.
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With that amount of dead in a short space of time, I suggest there is a professional on the job.
Using professional strength anti-coagulants.
And as I posted above...
Cobra said:
These days, the 2nd generation anti-coagulants are designed to break down in the target species bodies,
and the likelihood of secondary poisoning is almost zero.
Click to expand...
 
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