Following the rat infestation at Lyndhurst Gardens Lane we were sorry to hear that a family pet in the area died after eating rat poison.

It is essential to protect children, pets or wildlife from coming into contact with rat poison or traps.

☠️

Rat boxes

The only legal way to put rat poison or traps down in a public/shared outside area is to put it in a box specially designed for that purpose. These boxes are locked and have a hole for the rat to go in which is too small for a cat or dog.

The rat poison is in cubes with a hole in the centre which a wire is threaded through. This means the only way for the rat to bring out the poison in the secure box is by eating it, so the wire stops the rat dragging the poison out into the open. In general, rats tend to go back to their nests to die.

You can buy the boxes from DIY stores or online.

Even if you see just one rat, this is most likely evidence of a colony. It’s important to treat that local specific colony until all are gone. This means continuing to use poison and/or traps for a while after you think the last rat has gone, in case there are others.

The location of the rat boxes is very important to their effectiveness. Try to position them along the edge of walls and structures as that’s where rats tend to move – they don’t tend to run out in the open.

Prevention

As ever, prevention is better than cure: don’t feed the problem!

• Be careful with your food waste – the more rats eat, the more they breed
• If the on-street food waste bin is full, don’t leave food waste beside it
• Be careful with birdseed as rats will eat that too, so try to avoid seed spilling onto the ground
• Keep your bin areas clean
• Keep lids on bins
• Ask the Council to replace damaged bins
• Avoid giving rats shelter under plastic sheeting etc lying about in your garden – you want to make it easier for cats and foxes to predate on the rats
• Use rat wire at the bottom of basement doors to stop rats getting in
• Try to block up any holes in your basement other than air ventilation holes, and if the holes are large use rat wire across them (in general rats, unlike mice, don’t tend to climb much)

The British Pest Control Association has sensible guidance on how to prevent rats.

Find out more

You can find out more about rat control at the British Pest Control Association and Glasgow City Council.

Please help keep our neighbourhood safe!