There's a Rat in me Shed, What am I gunna do?

We've had a rat come visit our shed...

Well, when I say paid a visit, I mean he has dug a complex trench system for the war which I am now perusing against him...

This was beneath a patio, and somewhat is a surprise... The first signs of a visitor were these droppings in the shed where the guinea pigs live...

I spotted these and immediately knew they were rat... The curled one on the right is a classic shape for rat droppings...

Anyway, I then decided to take a look around, and I found a black smudge and some trailed mud, in the back of the shed where no-one could go, so it was obvious there was a visitor, I moved everything out of the shed and found a neat hole cut into the back wall... Bastards!

I baited this and nailed it up, then placed more bait inside, after I had jeyes fluid cleaned the whole area and swept up.  As you can see in the second picture there was a lot of dropped matter, bedding and bits from the guinea pigs, but there was also hay from the stables in there and horse feed... Bad place to store them in the bag, rather than dumped into the hard plastic bins we have.

Anyway, inside secure, I set about looking outside, and saw what I thought was a run behind the shed in line with the hole, so I baited that and blocked the main exit into the garden with a tall slab.

I also saw this darker area of soil... Now we have a rabbit who lives free in the garden most of the day, and I figured she had just been moving earth around, as rabbits tend to do... Maybe for a fortnight I've seen this earth moved each evening, and assumed it was the rabbit.

But, it wasn't, seems the clever ratties decided it was a bore to go all the way around the shed, and they cut the above tunnels beneath a storage box... I lifted this and found the tunnels....

I baited the one nearest the shed, blocked another with yet another slab on end, filled in the tunnels then laid new slabs on them and placed the storage box back on this new footing.

The detritus in the middle of that run is all stuff from the shed, mainly guinea pig feed... So we've clearly been spilling it... In fact I know I have, the perfect invite for these little bastards.

Anyway, poison down, earth moved, slabs laid and gnawed shed patched up... The guinea pigs however are spending the night stood under three layers of blankets in the garden as I put so much cleaning fluid down the shed hasn't dried yet.