A Rat Run

Whilst tidying up a neglected corner of my garden I discovered a rat run into and through my compost bin.
We have made compost for years and have never had this problem although we had seen a rat come from under the next door neighbours decking recently.
Has anyone got any advice? We have never put cooked food on the compost although we have put potato peelings and carrot.
We have dug over the compost and blocked all holes and will from now on not put kitchen waste on it.
Is there anything else that we should be doing?

Some folk use a sheet of weldmesh underneath their bin to stop rats gaining entry by tunnelling

The rat had gnawed a hole through the plywood front of the bin. The other 3 sides are railway sleepers.

we have several darlick bins I set them on old slabs leaving just the joints exposed so the bin can drain but nothing can get in underneath had no problems with mice or rats also got a few mice traps set in the greenhouse

They have probably made a nest as it is nice and warm inside. A rat trap would help, spring loaded works well with choc stuck on it.
Weld mesh underneath stops them coming into the bin.

This long cold winter has seen folk have problems with rats where they have never been known before.  They chewed through one of our decking boards to get at the (warmer, dry) underfloor space.  Should be gone for wilder places now, but worth thinking about steel reinforcing of that bin for next year if it is cold.

I suspect that our next door neighbours decking is the luxury hotel and our compost bin is the a la carte restaurant 
Our neighbour has put some rat poison under his decking so hopefully that will be the end of it.
Yes I will definitely reinforce the bins for next year.
We have also been advised to stop feeding the birds as the rats feast on the dropped food. This is a shame as i love to watch them 

Some years ago, there were very big rats running in our yard.  So my husband borrowed a gun and sat in our break-down truck to get them.  After a couple of hours, I went out to ask how he was doing -   He was sound asleep  -      Mrs Bouquet

  husband      You