Anyone have a problem with RATS?

[chicken ridl]

Wow I love BYC.
I am going to try the peppermint. I have tried everything to keep the mice out of my camper.
I will try the oil.

Thanks geebs

 

[SportTees]

I feed my birds out of metal dog feeders and have not had any problems with rats until this winter! They got in the feeder and well one of my birds mysteriously died so be careful! I still dont know how they got in it the top is sealed and the bottom where feed comes out is sealed except about a 2 inch opening where the feed comes out. They would have had to swim thru feed to get in the feeder

 

[LizFM]

Ferret poop. Seriously. Find someone with a pet ferret and get the contents of their litter box. Scatter liberally around the outside of your coop and pen.

 

[Ibicella]

Rats are an unfortunate inevitability where I am. Ikve dealt with some pretty hefty rat infestations. Do a thorough cleanup of the area, check over the coop and buildings with a fine tooth comb for holes. Then you may have visitors but you won't have a PROBLEM.

If you need to use traps, use snap traps. They learn to avoid poison pretty quick.

 

[lighthawk]

QuailHollowP&P :

Quote:
Really?? I did not know that...

One of the many herb books that I have on the shelf talks about peppermint in medevil times. They used to scatter leaves and stalks on the floor and walk on it to grind the oils into the flooring as a way to keep rodents out of their homes and castles.​

 

[M@M@2four]

We had a horrible problem in our barm last spring and we used, "Just one bite." It's in cake form. Tuck it up under your barn where the chickens can't get to it and in about 3-5 days, you'll have dead rats!! It cleared out our whole rat population and we had a bunch! Good luck!

 

[FortWorthChicks]

PEPPERMINT OIL!! I am dumbstruck! How simple is that!! Thanks for that tid bit! I have alot of beastly kitty hunters that are always busy hunting. We do have them though and I will be purchasing some peppermint oil with the quickness!!!

 

[Koolduck]

Every fall we have a field mouse problem(this year was bad!). My house is on a crawl space and the little buggers climb in next to pipes and wires. They nest in the walls and the smell of their pee/musk is horrendous! Peppermint oil on slips of corragated card board slipped behind outlet/switch boxes works like a charm. I even did it in the coop and had sucess. We have and abundence of coyotes/foxes/hawks/owls that I have never seen a rat here in 11yrs.....I just jinked myself i know! LOL PS. I have the world's best mouser Lab...she has dug up every pasture I have!

 

[Lady Catrina]

We had rats (well, we think it was a rat) when we first cut our peeps loose in their coop (they were indoors until then). One literally ripped the head off our baby blind boy

. Our solution was to re-concrete the bases of the walls, were there were holes, and have not had rats in the coop since.

The best solution I can think of is to have barn cats that can keep the area safe. We don't use poison, as our roosters before had eaten rats. Blood thinners (warfarin) is what the poisons are, and if the dead animal is eaten, the eater also can die.

Another solution is to purchase coyote urine and soak cotton balls and place them around your feed. As an aromatherapist, I cannot honestly say that I have heard of using peppermint, but I do know that clove, lavender and lemon are insect repellents

Good luck!!!

 

[chicknmania]

Quote:
I know someone who said her parents kept ferrets in their barn, for the same reason. I would not want to do that, but ferret poop is a good idea too and I bet pet stores would be happy to give some away! I'm definitely going to try both of those. Last year I had suspicions (but could never prove it) that rats were stealing developing eggs from under our broody hens at night.