Rats
How Rats Use the Footpaths Behind Burnt Oak Gardens
The path behind a row of estate houses is an edge that every household backs onto and nobody tends to watch. Fences lean, brambles and ivy grow in from both sides, and garden waste, old timber and bags end up in the corners. Rats prefer a route with cover on both flanks, and a fenced path gives them exactly that, with the gap under each back gate opening into another garden.
Bins at the back gate
Plenty of households keep the wheelie bin or food caddy by the back gate so it can be wheeled out along the path. A bin with a cracked lid, a caddy left open or a bag that would not fit and was left beside it is a meal for any rat working along the row, and it brings them back to the same spot night after night. Bird feeders and bread thrown on the lawn in the gardens either side add to the supply.
From the path into the house
A rat that has found food on the path looks for shelter close by: under a shed pushed against the back fence, beneath a lean-to or decking, or in the pile of cuttings behind the garage. The move into the house itself is nearly always at the back, through a broken air brick where the floor is timber, a gap around a waste pipe, or the join where a later kitchen extension meets the original wall. How rats get into homes goes through each route in turn.
What to Look For Along the Back of the Garden
- Burrows under the back fence or beside the shed base, often with loose soil spilling onto the path
- A dark, greasy smear along the bottom of the back gate or a fence panel where rats squeeze through
- Droppings or chewed bags beside the bins at the gate
- Rats running along the path or the fence top at dusk
- Scratching beneath a timber floor at the back of the house after dark
The guide to the first signs of rats explains droppings, smears and smells in more detail. Small droppings in a kitchen cupboard, with nothing happening outside, point more towards mice in Burnt Oak.
What to Do Now on a Shared Path
- Keep bin lids shut and put bags inside the bin, never beside it
- Clear cuttings, timber and rubbish from your side of the back fence
- Stop feeding birds until the rats have been dealt with
- Speak to the neighbours either side, since the same rats are probably visiting their gardens too
- Report rubbish dumped on the path to Barnet Council
- Do not put poison down on the path or in the garden, where cats, foxes and children can reach it
Council and housing association tenants should report rats to their landlord before booking anything; who arranges what on the estate is set out on the Burnt Oak area page.
Booking Rat Control for an Estate House
What to tell us
When you book rat control, say whether it is a house or a flat, whether you own it or rent it, and whether your garden backs onto a footpath. Tell us where you have seen activity: the path, the garden, the shed, under the floor or in the loft.
Before the visit
Make the bottom of the garden easy to walk to, clear the space in front of the kitchen kickboards and under the sink, and unlock the back gate in case the technician needs to look at the path side. Keep pets indoors while they work.
After the visit
You will be told what was found and what happens next. How long it takes depends on the house and how settled the rats are, and how long rat control takes explains the factors. Get back in touch if fresh burrows or droppings appear after activity had stopped.
Keeping Rats Off the Path and Out of the House
Once the rats have gone, the aim is to make your end of the path less useful to them and the house harder to get into. Clear out or close off the space under the shed, keep compost in a closed bin on a mesh base, cut back ivy on the back fence, and ask the neighbours to do the same, because one tidy garden on an untidy path only helps so much. Gaps into the house can be closed with rodent proofing in Burnt Oak, and rat proofing explains what that covers. For a rat seen once that may only have been passing, read what a garden sighting means.
The borough-wide picture, including the brook corridors along the Silk Stream and elsewhere, is on Rat Control Barnet. Next door in Colindale, building sites and new blocks make a different pattern again.
