Whats in my compost bin?

Sorry Bren, but yes it's almost certain there are rats under the shed, feeding off bits in the compost.
Remove the bin and start again as far away as possible. You must bait the run under your shed.
It is very expensive to get a rodent man in. If you are still worried, come back to me.

Either as Doctorbob suggests bait the run under the shed or otherwise, if you have a neigbour or friend who has a terrior get them arround and let him sniff the track then tip the bin up to aid him do his natural job!

If you are worried about poisoning other animals then you can buy the rat poison in a trap which prevents birds etc from getting at it. Some folks might suggest using a humane trap and releasing the rat elsewhere, but why put the problem on to someone else?
We kep our chicken shed permanently baited as the rats come in from the fields around us rather frequently.
There has been some suggestion that there is a dangere to cats and dogs who might catch and eat a poisoned rat, but none of our rat catching cats (and they do) have ever suffered since they refuse point blank to actually eat the rat!

Thanks for your suggestions. we are going to do what Doctorbob suggested,and tip out all the compost,and resite bin,but we are also going to stand the bin on Very strong wire mesh and block up any holes with bricks.
and tell our neighbours,cos next door has rabbits and next but one has chickens.So thanks everybody

~use rat atak it's quick~we tried the capture and release method but were not getting on top of the problem~ plus we were going miles to release them in the middle of nowhere at least a dozen trips!

Bren. Although rats are endemic to anywhere they can get a meal, ask your chicken neighbours to make sure they are being tidy with their chicken food. Be careful how you do it, I once had a neighbour that I made the same request to (before we got Ed we had traces of rats in the garden) and he reported me for having rats and endangering the lives of his chickens. Actually as a result of this the health people issued an order to stop him keeping chickens (we are only semi-rural here) but he didn't speak to us again until he moved. Sounds semi-humorous but we are a friendly community and it did lead to bad feeling. (Until he went).

John.

I am sure you have a rat problem. There are rats around most places and it is wise to put poison down for them , especially if you have neighbours with chickens or rabbits and bird tables are another great attraction to rats. Don't think of trapping them(stupid idea) they are vermin and spread a ghastly disease (Wiels). They spread it around in their urine,as they drag their tails through their urine and droppings. If cornered they are dangerous and will attack.How anybody can keep a rat as a pet ,I will never understand. Having lived surrounded by them in farm buildings etc. it was a constant battle to keep them down. terriers were they best rat catchers and could dispatch them quickly. Our cats tried their best and would succeed with young rats but not adult ones.One way of confirming that rats are around ,is to look for their droppings ,black elongated pellets about the size of your little finger nail.

If it is rats,and i,m sure it is will it contaminate my compost,cos i,ve read they pee a lot as a kind of scent trail?

Yes Bren, they will have done, but don't panic.
Spread the compost out and drench it in a strong solution of Jeyes fluid. It's only a small amount and the rats have been there for a little while. Work on the underneath of the shed with rat poison, checking daily until it stops being taken.

there is another option to rat poison if you have electrisity in your shed, you could try a sonic rodent deterant, they are cheep and effective, we had the same problem along the side of our house where the bins are, and i was worried about them getting into the house, i put the sonic deterant in our hallway (inside the house, but next to where the bins are) and we have'nt had them come in at all. they seem to have moved on from our bins too, maybe a coinsidence as they are not suposed to work through outside walls, but they do go through floor boards and inside walls so if the problem is under your shed it should sort them out in there.

Sorry Majeekahead must disagree. That may keep them out of the shed (or not) but they will just nest somewhere else and still be a nuisance is the garden. These are only useful to deter from one particular area.

John.

~we used to see them outside in the garden`and would hear them scattering amongs my pots.When I thought we had succeeded in relocating them I spent the weekend in the garden tidying up~by Monday I came down with a very nasty virus~`not Wiels but was given 2 weeks of antibiotics just in case~never been so ill!
so just get rid of them as fast as possible~might be a good idea to wear plastic disposable gloves in the meantime!

LOL thought you might John, to be honest i don't have a problem with rat poison but if there are other animals about that might get poisoned in the process thought it might be worth saggesting. ofcourse it won't work in the compost bin, but if they are nesting under the shed, might move them on from there, with the winter coming they need somewhere to nest every bit that they need to feed, you might just be removing one of there needs. just an idea, i know they are effective in the house, but never tried in the shed, so on this occasion you may well be right John! lol

Hey Majeekahead (I'm abbreviating that in future to Maj ) I just very nearly agreed with you on the orchid thread. Well I didn't disagree anyway. LOL.

John.

Well we have done the best we can,compost is now spread out to frost over tonite (hopefully) resited the bin and stood it on VERY strong mesh. we also found another hole going into or out of greenhouse.bricked all holes and hammered the bricks in
Spoke to enviromental health at council and they will set poison and do a recheck for free. so thanks everybody for your advice.and hopefully i,m soon going to be rat free

Great Bren, Good luck.

If all else fails I will send Ed to you for a couple of days holiday. Good luck.

LOL you did indeed John - almost fell of my chair! lol you can call me Maj if i can call you Sarc-e ?lol

I would suggest getting the rat man in. We had site of a rat once and we called him in. The charge was £40 the poison he used is commercial rat poison and cant be bought over the counter. He knew what to do the lure the rats and on his second visit highlighted were the rat had eaten half of the poison therefore assuring us that it was unlikly we would see any more rats. Although he came back to check several times we never saw any rats again.

Ive read that mothballs are a good deterant for rodents,I havnt tried it myself but its worth a go,they dont like the smell.