Concerned about rat

[ianpiper]

I have a hedgehog house at the back of my garden and at least one has taken up residence for the winter. I have a field camera set up facing the doorway and during November I recorded it taking in leaves and similar debris, so I think it is now hibernating in there. The field camera has not recorded any hedgehog movement for a few weeks. However, there is a rat in the neighborhood, and in the last few days I’ve seen it on recordings darting in and out of the hedgehog house.

Two questions. First, does the rat present a danger to the hedgehog? Second, if it does, I want to get rid of it. I’ve seen tunnel poison traps designed for rats, but is there any danger of a hedgehog fitting into such a trap?

[Nic]

Hi Ianpiper

It depends how big the tunnel is. Personally I wold avoid using tunnels because many people use them as entrances to hog boxes to deter cats. If you are going to use poison, winter is probably the least bad time, because there are probably very few hoglets left around. Had you thought of a bait box, which have very small entrances. A hoglet would probably get in, but possibly not an adult. Personally I would try to go down the deterrant route first. For instance do you feed the birds, because I find it is often dropped bird food which initially attracts rats. The following are various links from previous posts on the Forum about rats:

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/hedgehogs-and-rats/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-2/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-3/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-4/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-poison/

[Nic]

Hi Ianpiper

It depends how big the tunnel is. Personally I wold avoid using tunnels because many people use them as entrances to hog boxes to deter cats. If you are going to use poison, winter is probably the least bad time, because there are probably very few hoglets left around. Had you thought of a bait box, which have very small entrances. A hoglet would probably get in, but possibly not an adult. Personally I would try to go down the deterrant route first. For instance do you feed the birds, because I find it is often dropped bird food which initially attracts rats. The following are various links from previous posts on the Forum about rats:

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/hedgehogs-and-rats/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-2/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-3/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-4/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-poison/

[Nic]

Hi ianpiper

I have tried to give a proper response, but unfortunately the Forum isn’t always accepting longer posts at the moment. Here are some links from other discussions about rats, which might help.
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/hedgehogs-and-rats/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-2/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-3/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-4/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-poison/

Hope you might find something that helps.

[Author]

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