Rats in the compost bin.... Pros and Cons

[rebrascora]

Ok, so I have a plastic bin style compost bin, with an open bottom set on the ground at the bottom of my harden, a sliding trap door at the bottom to extract compost from it and twist/turn lid on the top with vents in the sides. I've had it for many years and this is the first time I have had obvious occupants and judging by the level of activity, it is rats. They have chewed a hole in the corner of the trap door and they are working right through the compost.
I was a bit horrified to find this activity the other day but I can also see some benefit too as it is turning and aerating the compost and helping to break it down. The nature of the bin means that it has a tendency to compact, so this is a welcome side effect.
As I get older and wiser, I can appreciate that there are positives to most creatures and even those we hate, serve a purpose if you look hard enough. It is all about balance. Most of us accept a level of pests and predators and to try to find that balance. It is impossible to exterminate all pests and predators and may not be a healthy goal to have anyway. Just wondering what other people's views are? Better to have them in a place where they are beneficial, than somewhere you don't want them?

At the moment I have a spike with a hook on it that I use to try to aerate the compost and give it a stir, so I am destroying their tunnels on a daily basis at least in the upper half of the bin and they may get sick of this disruption and move elsewhere. I do remove my feeders each night from the runs so that I am not actively feeding them and I have cats patrolling the garden and I may start to set traps for them too.

 

[RonP]

Well...

When they colonize, and run out of the immediate food source, they will seek others.
You may then have a serious issue.

Forget the chicken coop, your home might not be safe.

Just my thoughts on rats.

 

[Molpet]

I would worry about diseases they may carry, chewing into house, coop and they find eggs and chicken tasty..
I have chipmunks in my compost pile.. they steal feathers to line their nests, they are welcome to them

 

[rebrascora]

I think we all have to remember that rats are pretty much everywhere anyway but they are certainly attracted to poultry houses as there is plenty of spilt food. Many people don't even realise that they have rats until they start to see holes appearing. I am aware that pest management is a responsible part of poultry keeping and I've seen what rat infestations can do as regards damaging buildings as well as eating eggs and chicks and even a sick hen. Until now, I have not had a problem in my garden at home but I guess that time has come to an end and I need to take action.

We don't have chipmunks here. They would definitely be a cuter alternative!

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't yet had a barn cat who killed rats! Mice, chipmunks, rabbits, but not rats. You will need to make sure that they can't get into your coop, and then use poison. Rats are too smart to be easily trapped; you might get one or two, but never the colony.
Domestic rats are great pets, but wild rats carry some nasty diseases and need to be gone! Mary

 

[rosemarythyme]

The concern with rats feeding in the bin is that they'll make more rats, now that they have an easy food source.

I have a similar sort of compost bin (well, I guess most of them are just big boxes with hatches). I put hardware cloth on the open bottom (so that worms could still burrow through) and then ran it up on the sides and tucked it into the sliding hatches on the side as well. Currently the hatches don't have any hardware cloth (and not sure how I would go about covering those... might have to cover the entire unit).

So far I've seen a lot of uprooting of soil around the bin but the contents are untouched and the bin is undamaged.

 

[TalkALittle]

Well, just so you know...

The rat droppings I'm finding in the walk-in area under my home likely came from the rats that are living under my coop. The rats that are under my coop are likely offspring that came from the tunnels that are under a huge stump at the edge of my property. The rats in those tunnels are likely related to the rats that originally visited my compost pile located down a path in the woods. While I'm sure those woods dwelling rats do a great job of aerating my compost, their extended family are jobless slackers with too much time and resources at their disposal and are causing me all sorts of troubles.

...so you decide if you want to continue to employ those compost rats or if you want to eradicate them as best you can.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with you, mice and rats are a fact of life. Even if you put the feed away at night they will be attracted to spilt food. Putting the feed away at night does stop then from eating so much and pooping in it so there is a benefit. They can usually find a lot of good places to raise a family around our coops too.

I have mice and rats in my compost, but that compost is a pile on the ground in a brick bin. I don’t see any benefit in having mice or rats in my compost. They are eating the stuff I want to turn into compost. They are pooping in the compost so they are adding that but I think they carry away more than they leave and poop it out elsewhere. I think I’m coming out on the wrong end of that equation.

They are not going to hurt my brick but you can see what damage they are already doing to your plastic bin. That will get worse, not better.

As others have mentioned, if they have a good food source and a safe place to raise families, the numbers can explode. Correction, will explode. It doesn’t take long for a few to become a lot and they have to go somewhere.

I don’t know what your snake situation is in the UK but mice attract snakes (and other predators) around here. As long as they are not poisonous or in the coop eating eggs and baby chicks I like having snakes around. Not everyone feels that way. A snake isn’t going to eat enough mice to keep the numbers under control but I’ll accept all the help I can get. Some snakes are really beautiful and they can give your heart great exercise if one surprises you.

I almost always have snap traps and live traps set for mice and rats. I wire the snap traps in place so the rats don’t drag them away. Those traps might be in the coop area, around my compost, and I get a surprising number from around my vegetable garden. Traps alone don’t keep the numbers under control, when they get really bad I resort to poison just to get the numbers back down. I don’t see anything beneficial at all from having mice or rats around but I know I have to live with them.

 

[aart]

Saw title and thought...what 'pros'?!?
Eh, aeration maybe but far outweighed by the cons.
No rats around here, Knocking wood....mice for sure, and traps always set.