>I've had to stop feeding the birds because of rats!! Does anyone have a miracle solution for this? I have tried scatter free seed but still a mess attracts those damn rats. The trouble here is we have no ground feeding birds so any mess stays there.
I'm very glad to say we don't have rats but we do have ground feeding birds like collared doves and the odd wood pigeon. Currently we've got visiting ducks and a few weeks ago we had regular moorhen visitors. I have to say our terrier type mongrel probably helps keep rats away but I suspect it's more to do with the nearby farms that have better rat food!!
Have you thought about trapping the rats? Apparently it's doable but you have to despatch them humanely afterward - not sure I'd know quite how to do that...
I read in this
rat control article that rats are neophobic which means they are wary of new objects - perhaps you could just rotate some odd objects under your feeders (like a cat!!). Just a thought, your woodpecker will eat peanuts and they don't leave quite so much mess. Another option is to create a hard surface area under the feeders and sweep up each day, I hang one of my seed feeders over a stone bath which helps to stop the doves from making my grass bald.