I raise rats (I know, I can hear it now...BOO HISS!!!), but I also have Pythons and Boa's so, the rats are food. However, I know how smart the little beggars are..rats can and will outsmart you. And they will grow accustomed to traps, and learn to avoid them. It is best to not put a trap in the same place continually-move it around a bit.
Someone mentioned earlier that they had hoped that they killed the 'breeding pair'...maybe, but doubtful. Rats have litters of roughly 14, but commonly 24 babies every 20 or so days. They are sexually mature at about 5 weeks old. And you can be sure that Momma Rat is already pregnant again before she has weaned her last litter. Rats do not hesitate to inbreed, nor are they selective...so, you don't really have to do the math here. If you've seen a rat, you should expect that there's a dozen more you haven't seen.
The best thing is to remove the food source, which in this case isn't really possible. The second best thing is a cat. Most any cat will mouse, if for nothing other than fun. Even if your cat does not mouse, if you have your cat hang around the coop- maybe feed the cat outside of the coop- it's smell will be there and the mice and rats DO avoid the smell of cat.
This may sound a little crazy, but you may be able to place your cats bed or really anything the cat lays on a lot in the coop near where you suspect the mice are gaining entry and see if the smell from the item deters the rats at all. Just a thought there.
If traps are your choice, I can recommend chocolate for bait, it is toxic to rats and mice, but they love it. Probably also bad for chickens, though. However, they do 'hoard' food, so allowing them to take chocolate back to their nest will kill any other rats (i.e. the babies) that eat from the stash.
Mice love dog and cat food. Too much protien will kill them.
Steel wool works to fill gaps until the mice chew holes next to the filled holes..
The only other thing I can think of is to possibly provide a food source away from the coop. Might not be feasible, but it could work...a handful of dog food dumped a ways away might get them going in the opposite direction??
What I DO know for sure is that if you have mice/rats, the snakes won't be far behind. And they'll stick around as long as the rodents are plentiful.
Someone mentioned earlier that they had hoped that they killed the 'breeding pair'...maybe, but doubtful. Rats have litters of roughly 14, but commonly 24 babies every 20 or so days. They are sexually mature at about 5 weeks old. And you can be sure that Momma Rat is already pregnant again before she has weaned her last litter. Rats do not hesitate to inbreed, nor are they selective...so, you don't really have to do the math here. If you've seen a rat, you should expect that there's a dozen more you haven't seen.
The best thing is to remove the food source, which in this case isn't really possible. The second best thing is a cat. Most any cat will mouse, if for nothing other than fun. Even if your cat does not mouse, if you have your cat hang around the coop- maybe feed the cat outside of the coop- it's smell will be there and the mice and rats DO avoid the smell of cat.
This may sound a little crazy, but you may be able to place your cats bed or really anything the cat lays on a lot in the coop near where you suspect the mice are gaining entry and see if the smell from the item deters the rats at all. Just a thought there.
If traps are your choice, I can recommend chocolate for bait, it is toxic to rats and mice, but they love it. Probably also bad for chickens, though. However, they do 'hoard' food, so allowing them to take chocolate back to their nest will kill any other rats (i.e. the babies) that eat from the stash.
Mice love dog and cat food. Too much protien will kill them.
Steel wool works to fill gaps until the mice chew holes next to the filled holes..
The only other thing I can think of is to possibly provide a food source away from the coop. Might not be feasible, but it could work...a handful of dog food dumped a ways away might get them going in the opposite direction??
What I DO know for sure is that if you have mice/rats, the snakes won't be far behind. And they'll stick around as long as the rodents are plentiful.
