Last year I put chicken wire around the compost pile and was rat free. And is it ever nice to have a rat free year, good for you Coastal.
The thing about rats and water, unlike mice they require actual water to drink. This is why they're so often nesting on river banks, also why the first thing I had to do on realizing there is a rat, is to empty and turn over all the buckets, trays etc that were sitting around picking up rain water. Very careless about that and I know, it's a key thing they look for when choosing a place to nest. If the only water source is further away, they'll nest closer to that. I did find a young toad in one of my rain pans, and it makes me sad to leave no water for birds or dragonflies or friendlies but...
Trouble is of course we're now getting into rainier season and even last night a few puddles filled in the driveway. So I need to fix that too.
