[Quetzal]

I was getting some potatoes out of the garage for tea last night when a rat scurried down the wall and behind the cabinets. I live fairly in the country, so obviously I know there are rats about, but this is the first I've seen in the garage, and I want to make sure they aren't going to eat my potatoes.

After I got down off the chair I appeared to have jumped on, I tidied up the last of the potatoes which had been drying on a blanket. None of them showed any signs of being eaten, bar one which had fallen off onto the ground.

All my potatoes are now in hemp sacks on a bench off the ground. Is there anything else I should think about doing to keep the potatoes safe from a rat attack?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(apologies if this is in the wrong forum - I usually stick around in grow you own, and couldn't quite work out where this fit best. Feel free to move it.)

[arugula]

I think the cooking, storing and preserving board is the right place for a food storage question.

I'd set rat traps if I were you, containing something more appetising to them than potato, otherwie I'd expect them to start on the potatoes when they get hungry.

[sunshineband]

We had rats in the garage last winter and they chewed a lot of the spuds.

used pasta bait which eventually got rid of them -- there were loads 

[Quetzal]

Thanks for the replies.

I was kind of hoping that 1 rat sighting didn't make a rat problem, and that potato sacks were magically rat resistant. But we shall see. Better add tidy the garage up to the weekend to do list

[AlaninCarlisle]

Yes, it's that time of year. We've had one in our spuds and apples in an outbuilding. Poison down and check every morning from here on in

[sunshineband]

Yes, it's that time of year. We've had one in our spuds and apples in an outbuilding. Poison down and check every morning from here on in

Sad but true... and we have apples in store as well this year and a few squashes.

Grew them for us, not them thar rats