[New shoot]

Are you sure the problem is rats ? Iwould have thought the rabbits would be the biggest pest  

I'd agree with this.  

Rabbits are everywhere, even more so than the rats.

If you have loads of rabbits, they will be the ones eating the green tops off everything.  Secure rabbit fencing round your plot is the only way to keep them off.

If there are overgrown areas, they will be full of mice and voles, which are the main culprits for eating seeds - especially peas and beans.  I start mine in modules and don't plant out until the plant is fairly well developed, so the seed has been used up by then and is of little interest to a mouse.

Hope the council can help with the rats, but I don't think they are your only problem - sorry  

[AnneB]

Our plot has rats.  They live in some plotholders' compost bins, however we don't have much of a problem with them eating crops.   

We did have one occasion though when a huge one, in broad daylight, pinched a plotholder's sandwiches from his shed!

[Swing Swang]

But you can eat squirrel (which I can vouch for), but I wouldn't want to eat a rat!

[strangerachael]

If mice/voles are eating your seeds you could try what the Victorians did and put dried holly/gorse/anything prickly around your seeds in the planting holes. I've never tried it but thought it sounded plausible, but you would have to start collecting and drying stuff this summer ready for next spring so it's probably too late for this year.

[Swing Swang]

@Swing Swang...whats the best poison to put down? Did you use the humane traps or the full on back breaker ones.

Have PM'd a lengthy reply to you before I saw that this was on the board. For consistencey:

Poison - the biggest, cheapest stuff (looked like treated grain) at an agrigultural suppliers.
Traps - back breaker ones.

By humane traps I presume that you mean taps that catch the rat alive - never use them because you've still got to kill the rat which means 'bagging and coshing' (no thank you), or shooting them with an air rifle (inquisative ratty usually comes to the barrel to see what's going on - but then that means getting a rifle and more importantly arranging permission/insurance to use it on someone else's land which is all far too much hassle to my mind), and other 'traditional' methods of dispatch are inhumane and illegal (drowning etc). The traps will also cost a lot more. No brainer all round in my opinion.

If by humane you mean electronic traps that electrocute Mr Ratty then yes I did use these - mainly to keep my family on-side as they were quite keen to see it in action. They're not weather proof so it for indoor use or certainly 'weather proofed'. They are also quite expensive and need the batteries replacing after about 8 kills. I use mine inside 'daleks'. You certainly hear them when they go off if you're close by.

[MichelleC]

After spotting a rat on my allotment I bought bait boxes and poison from ebay. Didn't cost that much either. The boxes are also locked so children/pets can't get to the poison. The poison has been nibbled but not as much as I thought it would. I also haven't come across any dead rats (as yet).

[Swing Swang]

You could mix some of your poison with a little peanut butter until the rats get a taste for it.