Winter's coming!
It's the time of year when we need to start thinking about winter heading in, so chimneys swept, logs ordered, heating oil tanks fuelled up.
Mice and Rats will also be thinking about winter heading in, so your open fires. your woodburners, your central heating, plus of course any potential scraps of food are all very inviting for them.
Pest control
The first port of call is generally the local council's pest control, which is not free, even though you pay council tax, and in fact below is a list of fees payable by one council in SE UK
The picture below is one typical set of charges that a local council may charge for their pest control services.
"Charge" is the column which a local council may often charge for their services.
"Cocessionary charge" is for people in receipt of benefits.
So Rats are £87 for 3 visits and Mice pip them at £126 for just 2 visits
The fee schedule itself is suggestinng that More than one visit is required, so the obvious answer is:
Get 1x good cat and/or
1x good Jack Russel 👍
Joking aside, as of course we would never support the killing of innocent animals for the benefits of Humans
But one of the biggest, yet often not thought of, encouragements for Rats and Mice to head into your gardens initially are the bird feeders that get forgotten about once the temps start dropping; Rats and Mice love a bit of seed, and small fruits such as raisins/sultanas, so a good Idea is to get any bird feeders away before the winds start swinging them around and/or dump them on the ground. Squirrels also love a bit of bird food too, and you don't want any of those 'tree rats' moving in either!
Protecting your period and listed buildings from damage caused by nibbling cables and potential fire hazards often forgotten or overlooked
Rats tend to follow their "runs" and are Neophobic, meaning that if you try to 'trap' them they will look at your trap, think, "hmmm, that's new, it wasn't there before" and will do their best to avoid your trap whereas mice are inquisitive so they are more easily trapped - of course there's today's debate between killing a mouse by using a traditional trap, or killing a mouse by using a 'humane trap'. (Is a fast death or a longer drawn out slower death the more humane? and who exactly is that humane for?, it isn't you that you want rid of is it? So leave todays trend of virtual signals out of it, and think selflessly. Then decide. and don't be steered by Mark Eting either! His only job is to vacuum money out of your pockets frankly.
Rat's front teeth are continuously growing so Rats like to keep them under control by nibblingand gnawing, and whilst lab tests have shown that Rats can gnaw a hole big enough, through a ¼ inch or 6mm thick steel plate for them to contort their bodies through, a nice bit of 240 Volt electrical cable is also inviting to them.
Rats are known to adapt to their environment. Some Rats found in a cold room in a slaughter house were found with long coats and long claws, both to obviously help keep them warm!