Best Way To Control Rats?

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

How have you done it? I currently have a large family of rats living under my coop. They're starting to wait longer and longer to run under the coop when they see me. We have mouse traps, but my parents say those won't be big enough. Poison is an option because I have a place in the coop where the ducks couldn't get it.

So, advice, please. Should I buy some rat traps? Or will the mouse traps work? And what is your opinion of poison?

 

[HandLoad]

Poison is Uncontrollable. Use properly sized Live Traps, or an Air-Rifle or Air-Pistol. Shooting Rats is a Fun activity, and is Challenging if You use an Air-Pistol.

 

[CMV]

I have declared Rodent War this spring. We had a very mild winter, so the rodents bred like crazy and now we have a massive number of them. Between the .22, snap traps, live traps, and bucket traps I have taken out 7 squirrels, 32 chipmunks, 39 mice and 1 mole (Oops! Not a target animal, but not a great loss, either.). I have been finding the bucket trap to be by far the most effective.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2-2/3 full of water with a board leading up to the rim from the ground. Put a layer of sunflower seeds on the surface of the water. Fish out all the dead/drowned rodents each morning and top off the seeds. When the seeds all start to sink too much, dump the seeds and water out into the chicken run for a nutritious snack for the birds. Refill and re-bait.

Not the most humane way to get rid of rodents, but very effective. The risk of getting non-target animals is also minimal compared to using poison.

Good luck.

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

I really like that idea, I'll have to try it. Never though of that.

 

[ccrow]

I had a single rat living in my garage; I guess he liked getting into trash bags better than getting into chicken feed. I had no luck with snap traps; rats are more cautious and smarter than mice. And no, mousetraps won't be big enough. I ended up getting the rat by using a havahart trap(which I already had from a chipmunk-in-the-basement episode years ago) baited with bits of fruit, veg, meat, and teabags. (Teabags seemed to be something this particular rodent liked...

) I've never used the bucket method but I've heard it works pretty well.

 

[2Old2Crow]

Rat traps and peanut butter. You put some Skippy on it and POW!! I got 2 in one trap. The count is at 22 gone, and no poop to be seen. I do have to admit, however, that the pellet rifle hunt is entertaining!

 

[spoildegg]

We have used the bucket method, but ran a dowel through a pop can and put peanut butter on it so when they touch it they spin into the water. We have recently had the population explode around our animal pens. We tried the live traps and snap traps and they haven't worked well this year. Not having much patience, we are now shoving a hose in a hole and shooting the rats as they spill out. We have had good luck with that, and once we have flooded the tunnel system we choose we can crush all the ground in and they are out some space. They are definitely thinning out. Good luck!

 

[War Chicken]

Trap, neuter, and release.

 

[CMV]

The bucket trap is still working. The new tallies are 49 mice and 37 chipmunks. I had something get into the traps and flip them over last night, so a few were out of commission. I hope that's not going to be a new trend. If so, it's time for a bigger bucket.

 

[HandLoad]

Put some Rocks or Metal in the Bucket Bottom - MUCH Harder to flip over then.