Rats Rats And More Rats

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I think I need to edit my title: Rats Mice Rats and Mice

Well, that's at least what I thought I saw when I just went out to close the coop door.

Man, it must be like a perfect buffet for them out there! I think I caught the mouse and the rat in the middle of their late dinner. They were discussing how funny it was that I was setting traps for them when they were obviously WAY too smart for that.

BTW, do mice and rats get along? Any chance the "mouse" was just a tiny rat?
 
* Alot of chance your mouse was a young rat. As competators(sp) for the same food, they don't get along terribly well. I've had mice and I've had rats-- never had them in tandem. Course, if something chased off the rats, the mice could be there in a hurry for whatever's left!! So. . More traps??. . .
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I use a combination of live traps, snap traps and my daughter hunts them with her pellet rifle.

For bait I prefer peanut butter and Calf mana pellets mixed in. A smell they love. The snap traps are housed in an enclosed box with holes for the rats but not escaped rabbits or a curious duck or chicken.

I hate rats.
 
I use a rat poison called One Bite, its in a big bar that they have to nibble to get anything off of, hence the poison kills them quicker than pellets that they store in their nests. I place it where my other animals can't get it....rats can get anywhere! It is very quick acting and cat and dogs will not eat the dead rats....they barely consume the moles and mice that THEY kill! I had rats when I moved here, within a week of putting out the poison, I found 3 dead rats and haven't found evidence of anymore.
 
What I've been doing:

1. Find the path the rodents use - usually leading from the nearest brush to the food source.

2. Lock up the chickens in the coop for the night.

3. Set snap traps inside the run directly in the rodent path. Rodents tend to use the same pathway once they develop a routine. Baits have not worked for me, as the rats want the chicken feed. It's hard to bait a trap with chicken feed. I just set the trap without bait. When the rodents run across the trap, of course, it springs.
Sometimes it only catches a foot, and you'll have to club the rat (terrible! Makes you wonder if it's worth it).
I usually put the traps as near the chicken food as I can.

4. If you catch nothing during the night, make certain you remove the trap before you release the chickens in the morning.
 
I made a few calls and talked to the Tech Director at motomco. I purchased two types of bait from them at a fair last year and haven't used it yet. I wanted to get some details and Craig was very helpful.

Here are their baits: http://www.motomco.com/h_rodentbaits.htm

From what I understand, the anticoagulant baits that have bromadiolone aren't really a problem for secondary animals because of the sizes of secondary animals (cats dogs chickens) and because it would require an animal to eat a LOT of dead rats to be any problem. I've got the blue/green blocks (Hawk) and the reg ones (Jaguar). The blue/green are first generation and "less toxic" so I'll try those first.

Their Rampage product is a non-anticoagulant and there is no secondary poisoning, but it is really powerful and acts fast and can be a problem if chickens eat it directly (primary) and there is no "antidote".

He also said that while he wishes the myths and rumors about drying up, where they die, etc. were true, none of them are.

So, I'm off to put some poison out where we keep seeing the little buggers (since they avoid the traps like the plague). I'll keep you posted.
 
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