Help! Really smart rats!

[PingoBags]

I had to stop using peanut butter. Caught squirrels, baby bunnies, opossum, birds....

I would have stopped too. Once I killed that first squirrel, I made a box trap to catch rats alive, just incase I caught a squirrel.
I still used peanut butter and it worked. Maybe find a small box trap and trap them.

 

[KrisCVT]

So I tried freshly cooked bacon last night. BACON! Little a**holes didn't go near one trap but spent the night digging around my coop. I am so defeated.

 

[Naser]

Try rodent proof feeders, that is what I use.
The cheapest and the most practical one is trigger happy chicken feeder. Actually if you make a hole of 1 to 1.5 cm in the bottom of a bucket and put something red around the hole and hang it up, the hens will get the pellets and rats won't " It is only a guess" as I have trigger happy chicken feeder and I noticed many hens don't use the trigger at all they peck at the base of the trigger and still get food.
The one I have is much higher than this and the dust bin is hung by ropes so rats have no way to get to it. the only thing managed to get food from it was a robin, he flies and hits the trigger
"he does that only during harsh winter months"
The only catch is some hens can trigger more than they eat, but that doesn't happen all the time and the pellets left behind aren't so many.

 

[aart]

So I tried freshly cooked bacon last night. BACON! Little a**holes didn't go near one trap but spent the night digging around my coop. I am so defeated.

Geeezzz.....they are smart!

 

[HeyHouse]

I had quite a bit of rat trouble last year. Follow the trap advice everyone is giving here, but also make sure you set A LOT of traps. Rats are smart, but if you set enough you'll eventually get lucky.
On top of all the trap advice, make sure you're not feeding them. It'll take a long time to kill them with traps if they're actively reproducing.

Where do you store your feed? Are they getting into it? I keep all my feed in steel drums.
Are you overfeeding your chickens so there is leftover for the rats?
Do you feed chickens kitchen scraps? Some scraps that chickens skip are still good for rats. I make sure all my scraps go to the right animal - some go to chickens, some to rabbits, and the rest to the worms.

 

[TalkALittle]

Ding, dong the rat is dead!

Actually, 2 rats are dead. Okay, so I know that where there's two there's ten, but I'm still celebrating.

The Victor plastic rat trap with "high power kill bar" did the trick. I highly recommend it. Baited with peanut butter and a bit of hot dog, it proved irresistible and highly effective. It doesn't have a hair trigger so doesn't spring too early which was what I suspected of the other snap traps I tried. It got both rats squarely behind the head in what was clearly immediate and (I'll assume) painless death. I think it could break a small finger if one were to be careless or clumsy when setting it!

I cannot say I feel even the least bit bad. I literally did a happy dance around the coop, singing and taunting the remaining rats that I'm sure are under there (perhaps wondering why their two friends never came back from the dinner run).

The traps are reset and we'll see what morning brings. Oh, the anticipation! I might not be able to sleep.

 

[KrisCVT]

I ended up caving in and buying "Just One Bite" poison. There was just SO MUCH digging and tunneling. I was getting worried. I placed one block under my duck house where they kept tunneling under (and no other pet could get to the block) and one block fenced off behind the coop where they were also burrowing. I ended up removing that block because of the rain. Low and behold, the block under the duck house slowly got eaten away. As of Monday, it was gone. I put leaves over the burrow hole to see if there is any activity. I have not seen any signs of rats; no digging, no burrowing, nothing coming out of their tunnel for 3 solid days... and since there would be new burrows and digging every.single.night...this is promising. Is it safe to assume they are all gone?

 

[ManawaGirl]

Try peanut butter. I've always used peanut butter and have caught tons and tons of rats and mice over the years using it.
Accidentally caught a squirrel or two as well My record is 10 mice in 2hrs

You can try chocolate as bait. I was at a landlord meeting last night and the guest speaker was a pest control guy. He recommended chocolate as bait on rat traps. They love it and it's not usually put out for them so they don't know to avoid it. Obiously keep it outside the coop so the ducks/hens can't get to it but it's worth a try.

 

[FarmerTony]

I had a rat kidnap one of the babies this morning. Luckily I was nearby and saved it. It has a bite injury under one wing but seems ok. Rat traps have been moved into the crawl space of the camper im using as a coop. It was a big one too, nearly the size of the trap. I found where it has been nesting adn put the trap nearby, hopefully the chickens will get some rat meat.

 

[ManawaGirl]

I don't know why my post isn't posting, but I'll try again.
Use chocolate. Like Hershey squares on the rat trap. They love it and aren't scared of chocolate like rats are now conditioned with peanut butter. Hope this makes sense. I was at a Landlord meeting last night and the guest speaker was a pest control guy. He said that's what he uses.