Help me get rid of my nightly visitors!!!!!

[Miniflock]

What is an electronic rat trap?

We haven't had any luck with the electronic ones for rats. Killed a few innocent chipmunks with it though.

 

[cmom]

I highly recommend watching SHAWN WOODS on YouTube. He is an expert on methods of removal. He tests all sorts of traps and products.

Also watch JOSEPH CARTER THE MINK MAN. Terriers are the way to go!!

I have watched their videos too. Very interesting.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

What kind of traps have you tried? I didn't have chickens of my own when we lived near a commercial chicken house, but I did have the rats. Nothing we tried ever worked better than old-fashioned snap traps.

What's your soil like? Can you dig down a full foot -- below the lowest tunnel -- to put in 1/2" hardware cloth?

Can you get all feed secured in rat-proof metal cans and bring feeders in at night?



If you don't own the property you have no right to dump a pest animal on it. It's highly unethical to give your problem to someone else.

Thank for the advice. The soil is not to compacted. I had tilled up the entire area last summer. I think we could dig down a foot. Maybe real close to that. I’ll try that too. I have 2 rat terrier dogs but I’m seriously afraid the little girl is too well fed and spoiled to be exp perched to catch rodents lol. But my fat little boy is sure doing his best but I think there is just too many for him to eradicate on his own. I seriously am not considering live trapping. I know what I’m going thru with them and sure wouldn’t want the problem moved so it’s someone else’s.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

I had a nightmare with rats a few years ago. The neighbor's coop inside was always covered with loose feed. It was awful. I tried everything. I tried all the home made contraptions that kill one at a time, but when there's alot-and 50 is about the norm, they would still multiply faster than I could kill them.

What works for me is this; rats are not a one time thing. Killing rats is a maintenance and you will always be doing it.

I cover all the feed at night. 5pm or so is great if you can do it. You need a spill proof way of feeding the chickens or clean up all the feed. Then buy those bait stations. The bait is round and has a hole in it so when you load it, it stays where it is. I have 4 (yes overkill) and you need to check on them weekly to see if the bait is eaten. When you find no new bite marks on the bait, your maintenance is good. But it does not end.

That’s pretty much what I figured. My son in law told me to bring in the feeders at night so they can’t get to them. So that’s what we’re doing. But I still saw a lot of action on the trail cam so it didn’t occur to me to clean up around where the feeder hangs. Thank you, I’ll try that. I did get a couple of bait boxes. Hope powerfully they’ll work and I won’t have to call the exterminator. Even though he’s given us a pet price the other times we had to call him out (ants and mice) I’m afraid this would cost me a fortune. Especially if I showed him my videos from my trail cam

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

Also watch JOSEPH CARTER THE MINK MAN. Terriers are the way to go!!

I have 2 rat terriers ironically. Penny is too spoiled and prissy to do much damage but Jake is doing his best. But he’s only 1 little dog. My son has a pit Bull who can catch move faster than any cat I’ve ever had but unfortunately they live about 200 mi away!!!

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

We live in the woods and have the occasional field mouse or wood rat show up. It used to be really bad but we keep the Tomcat disposable rat and mice bait stations out all the time now. Haven't seen a mouse or rat, live or dead, near the house or barn in years now, but over time the bait still disappears.

If you have the number of rats you claim, it will take awhile to get rid of them. First thing to do is stop feeding them ... it takes a lot of, easy to get, food to sustain that many rodents. As mentioned by other posters, you need to rodent proof all of your feed storage containers and feeders. Once you start putting the bait stations out you must keep doing it. Even after you THINK all the rodents are gone. Every few days make a round of the bait stations and check that they still have bait left. If they are empty, replace them immediately.

In the beginning you may be replacing bait stations daily, but as they eat the bait and die you will start seeing fewer and fewer rats/mice. You can confirm this by the longer times in between bait changes.

Some folks have mentioned single kill or live traps. If you have one or two pests these may help out .... if you have bunches of them you will never be able to control them by killing them one at a time.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

Also watch JOSEPH CARTER THE MINK MAN. Terriers are the way to go!!

I

Also watch JOSEPH CARTER THE MINK MAN. Terriers are the way to go!!

I highly recommend watching SHAWN WOODS on YouTube. He is an expert on methods of removal. He tests all sorts of traps and products.

thank you for the suggestions on what to watch on you tube. We are going to buy the Uhlik repeater rat trap. It’s $200 plus $50 shipping but after watching the video, we figure we’ll be saving in the long run. MArtin our exterminator will cost more than that. Even adding in the cost of a pellet gun to kill the rats after they are caught, we’ll be saving in the long run. Keep your fingers crossed that I’m able to make a huge dent in my vermin problem.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

Have you tried running water down the tunnels with a hose?

If you have sandy soil it would not help, but if you have clay soil that will hold the water, it might at least drown the babies so they don't have a chance to grow up and make the problem worse.

(I have not tried this, so I'm just guessing. And I know it would not work in soil that drains quickly.)

Sadly we have tried running water into the tunnels. I don’t think it made A difference at all. The next morning there were just new entrances to the tunnels in a different part of the yard.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Poison, traps, shooting them, dancing around the coop clockwise naked while chanting or speaking in tongues and splashing peppermint and plaster mixed with flour and peanut butter... all of it might work for some for a while. What does work every time is to buy a treadle feeder with a spring loaded door. You stop feeding the rats and they leave or they starve to the point where there are only the few that their territory will support with natural food.

Bringing your feeder in at night just teaches the rats to eat during the day once you have an infestation. Get a treadle feeder. Done, go on vacation, be lazy on Sunday morning, not worrying about having to set out the feeder and bring it back inside is worth what to you?

Starve em out. Do a forum search for Howard E 's excellent posts on rat control. Clean up the pathways to and from the coop so the rats are exposed to predators as they travel too and from the coop. Bulk feed in metal barrels with good lids, coop feed in spring loaded door treadle feeders and when you shop pay close attention to the negative reviews, those are the customers that actually had a vermin problem, the rest needed a chicken feeder. Compost piles can be a draw too but to support a large population you need a steady supply of animal feed.

Good luck!

 

[maroongrad]

There are people who have ferrets and terriers and such and who will come out for a few hours and literally kill almost all the rats for you. The dogs are bred for that, and they are GOOD at it. See if you can google anyone local who does this; it's a one-evening-fix. Then, follow up with poison for any new rats that move in.
We have a pair of collie-type dogs; one is probably australian shepherd/lab/border/something, the other is a scotch collie. They are death on four feet to the rats. The very few times we had a rat come in, the dogs went out at night, found it, and, well, no more rat. They've taken out three, and then we put out poison, and no more rats.
Our ONLY concern is that the chickens will absolutely eat mice and small young rats, so we have to check for rodent bodies just-in-case. Haven't found one But the dogs go and check and will absolutely destroy any that show up, and they aren't even terriers. A collie-type dog (border, aussie, heeler, kelpie, corgi, scotch, rough, mcnab) should also be a very good vermin dog, they're bred to it. And we can attest to their effectiveness, too!