R-A-T-S!!

[Patch's Chickens]

I am literally checking out the window every 10 minutes and watching multiple rats breeze right in and out of our chicken enclosure. I just read quite a few tips, and though I am not in favor of poison that is our only viable option here as we are suburban chicken farmers... If someone could please tell me though about the bait stations, do they come with bait in them or do I buy that separately and add it? Also, do the rats then die inside right away or will they wander off and die - do I then have to look for dead rats around? Any advice would be helpful and appreciated. I will be at Home Depot tomorrow as soon as I take the kids to school, just very hard to find help there sometimes. Thanks!!

 

[Padre]

The rat bait is not an instant kill poison. The way it works is to weaken the blood vessels so the vermin die of internal bleeding. The make water proof bars that you can place around the outside of your run. I would also eliminate the food source. put your frrd in a covered container that will discourage them from hanging around.

 

[lleighmay]

I don't use baits or poison because I'm sure they'll crawl off and die and get picked up (or at) by my dogs, cat, wildlife, or even the chickens. Either that or with my luck they'll die in the walls..... Could you possibly get away with using an air pistol or pellet gun? No noise, good accuracy if you practice, and then you'd know you got them and could dispose of the carcass. Good luck with your problem, whichever method you choose to use.

 

[bluebirdfarm]

We had them real bad last year and we used the warfarin poision and set traps and also shot them . You REALLY have to go after them in a big way .
We kept our animals on a very short leash while we baiting them and watched them evry time we let them outside , you should be able to get rid of them in a few weeks if you go after agressivly.
this is not somehting to take lightly . You have to plan , i know keeping the animals in may be a pain , but would you rather have rats all over ? pretty soon they will head for your house , esp. if you remove the food , they will go looking for new food .
good luck.
bTW the bait stations they go in and out of and they take the poison to their nest , that is where the babies are and they take all their food to their nest.So they bite off a chunk and take it there for them to eat.
We did not have any smell from them dying inside the wall , we have the norway rats and roof rats in our walls.LOL.
and in the barn.

 

[Tn Gamebirds]

I would go with the poison and the bait stations. I also put the weather proof bars out where the dogs and other animals cant get to them.

I have never had any problem with the dogs or other animals getting anything from the dead rats. They usually make it back to there holes before they die. And if the dogs could get them in the holes we would'nt have rats in the first place.

We just keep some out about all the time and never have rat problems.

If you are seeing several rats , It would take forever to kill all of them with any kind of gun. It may also take quiet a bit of poison to get rid of them the first time. But after that it wont take much. Just keep it out and it will get rid of any new ones that move in before they get started

 

[bluebirdfarm]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=98804


here is a link to a funny story about my rat patrol.

 

[Patch's Chickens]

Thank you all for your advice and replies. I will read the link above later and also let you know the outcome. Our dog is never off leash except on our deck, but I will let my neighbor know as she lets her dog run loose. It's more I did not want my 2yr old walking out and finding a dead rat in her sand box! We need to be aggressive here, I get that, last night was really bad and I have some reworking of our enclosure / coop / storage to do as well. Thanks again so much!!

 

[sandypaws]

"rat" poison will also kill a cat or dog if they eat the dead rat.. it has a secondary kill...

i use.. snap traps.. live traps... hotwire (close to the ground around the outside of the coop,, keeps the dogs from digging in and zaps the rats dead)..
my killer poodles,, and i have been thinking about getting a few barn cats

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Mix powdered sugar with Plaster of Paris and put it where the rats can eat it but other things can't. It's not poison, but it's deadly just the same.

 

[TopCityChicken]

We had Norway rats living inside the roof/attic of our last house. We called around for a "pest exterminator," and let me tell you-- these guys LOVE their job. We finally found a guy that worked at an animal lab. He was about 183 years old (!!), but he knew his vermin. He set traps (probably bait) in the attic and then went around our house--on a two-story ladder--stapling up 1/4" pieces of mesh over every possible crack and crevice. (I just could not watch this old man swinging a hammer 20 feet off the ground!) He said rats could enter through a space the size of a dime. But it must of done the job-- no more rats.