Chicken-safe rat poison sought

[Howard E]

BTW, the old school solution to rats was rat proof cement floors. That did not always happen, but in any of the old poultry husbandry books, the A#1 recommended floor was cement, and repelling rats was one of the main reasons why. Interesting also that in those days, about the only predators they ever mentioned were rats and hawks. The rest had been hunted and trapped to to near extinction.

Also, back in those days, the concept of a "run" had not been invented. Fixed houses like the Woods house is where the birds stayed, or else were let out into yards. But otherwise, prevention back then was about as it is now. That plus dogs to kill rats. Without poison, it was a constant battle.

 

[Howard E]

BTW, IF you use poison, the only bait stations you should be using are the type with pins to place through the holes in the bait blocks. That prevents rats from dragging them out of the bait station into who knows where.

And as Egghead suggests, if you have a rat problem, but out the bait stations and leave them out.....all year long. If you don't have rats around......nor worries. If you do.......you get to them before the population can grow into a serious problem. Monitoring the baits will keep you informed of what is going on.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

.... Odd as it may sound- poison works. How you keep the poison to rodents only is to use chunx style bait and tamper proof bait boxes...... Never had an accidental poisoning. For animals to be poisoned they A) have to be small enough to get into bait box and B) be attracted to the bait. What this results in is mice, rats, chipmunks and squirrels are targeted. Squirrels not so much as they create cache of food stores all over the place then forget where it's buried but the other rodents bring all food back to burrow where it's eaten and they die. I'm 4 to 5 years using this system and have only found one dead chipmunk and on the lawn in all that time. Everything else died in burrows. No accidental non target species was affected.

Poison or rather what material is poisonous and what material is not poisonous is mostly dependent on the amount of the toxic agent that is consumed relative to the size or mass of the target species. In other words toxicity is relative to the dose per gram or dose per ounce of the target species. There is some very good one bite agents out there that kill quickly and the active ingredient is fully or almost fully metabolized by the target animal before it dies. It would be very difficult if not impossible for these agents to initiate secondary poisonings because of the large number of dead rats or mice that must be consumed in a short time frame for secondary poisonings to occur. A good example of this is Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. Acidic acid (vinegar) makes a very serviceable herbicide if you want to use it in place of RoundUp. You'll just need to buy 100% unnatural franken factory produced vinegar (Acidic Acid) because the natural organic kind is too weak to be effective.

 

[Vicki B.]

I bought a Ratinator multi rat -rat trap on suggestion from others here. I put it out last night with the door in the open position and I poured in a healthy amount of chick mash. They went in last night and cleaned up every speck of food they must've licked the concrete to get the floor under the trap that clean.I am hoping this solution will work maybe to at least keep the population in check. It is suggested to leave open access for 3 nights before setting the one way door. I was skeptical about my smart rats even going in at all and I am pleased they went in the first night. Fingers crossed!

 

[Below frigid]

Been dealing with rodents a long time. Used every trap known to man. The trap called JAWZ by the JT Eaton company is hands down the best trap made. Safe and easy to set, rats can't steal the bait without tripping the trap. Use sticky granola bars for bait. If you have mice get the mouse size rats get the rat size. Their bait stations are made to hold a trap inside so your birds don't get wacked .

 

[Howard E]

The Jawz, T Rex and others are nearly identical in design to some small metal mouse traps we used over 50 years ago. Very simple to set and they do catch some critters. As a farm kid tasked with running a trap line for mice, those were my go to tool! (BTW, far and away my best bait.....nothing else even close.....was fig newtons).

https://www.amazon.com/Eaton-Plasti...&qid=1516885226&sr=1-3&keywords=Jawz+rat+trap

https://www.amazon.com/Trapper-T-Re...id=1516885418&sr=1-5&keywords=t+rex+rat+traps

The problem with any trap is they do not catch them all. With rats, trapping alone won't even dent the surface. It turns out the best use for traps is to help nab some of the stragglers that get past poison baits, and also to monitor things. No traps tripped may mean they are gone, or at least vastly diminished. Tripped traps means you still have a problem.

Also, when you watch the videos and read the reviews, you find that what rat traps mostly work on are the smaller black rats (roof rats, etc). The larger brown rats (norway, etc) are often large enough to steal the bait and avoid the trap, or if it does fire, it may only boink them on the nose. So often times, it doesn't kill them and they may escape.....wiser to the ways of the traps in this world. They won't make that mistake again. Worse......they may tell their friends all about it.

Still, trapping can be a helpful tool in places where you don't want or can't set poisons. You get what you can and each one you nab is one less.

 

[Howard E]

Looking forward to hearing about success from the Ratinator.......this review came with some concerns, but that is one person's experience.

Also curious to know what becomes of the live rats after they are caught.

As for the other live traps, "too small for a rat"? Again, which rat? Black rat or brown rat? The smaller live traps are probably sized for smaller black rats.

As an aside, the stuff used to make the Ratinator cage looks to be 1/2" x 1" x 16 gauge welded wire, and is often sold and labeled as "cage wire". That is what I use for open areas I want to protect vs. the much lighter 1/2" hardware cloth vs. even lighter still poultry netting (aka, chicken wire).

In my experience, cage wire will stop anything short of a bear.

 

[Vicki B.]

I didn't wait the 3 nights as suggested and went ahead and set the trap last night. I caught 17!! I put the trap in the plastic tray/box it came with and took them out to a field on my way to work 5 miles from the house. It is really cold and wet outside and we are picking up all feeders at dusk so hopefully I can catch a good amount of them before spring and they find other food sources. I wired the rat removal door shut as others suggested and they did not figure out how to pull down the little one way entry door that pivots open when they step on it. I have a lot of cats but I have not ever had a cat that catches an adult rat. I don't really blame them, rats can really put up a fight and bite.

 

[Below frigid]

The Jawz, T Rex and others are nearly identical in design to some small metal mouse traps we used over 50 years ago. Very simple to set and they do catch some critters. As a farm kid tasked with running a trap line for mice, those were my go to tool! (BTW, far and away my best bait.....nothing else even close.....was fig newtons).

https://www.amazon.com/Eaton-Plasti...&qid=1516885226&sr=1-3&keywords=Jawz+rat+trap

Just to let you know from my experience the T-Rex are junk! Even though it's made out of metal and the JAWZ is plastic, the JAWZ catches rodents, lots of them! The T-Rex does not! Different tripping mechanism.

https://www.amazon.com/Trapper-T-Re...id=1516885418&sr=1-5&keywords=t+rex+rat+traps

The problem with any trap is they do not catch them all. With rats, trapping alone won't even dent the surface. It turns out the best use for traps is to help nab some of the stragglers that get past poison baits, and also to monitor things. No traps tripped may mean they are gone, or at least vastly diminished. Tripped traps means you still have a problem.

Also, when you watch the videos and read the reviews, you find that what rat traps mostly work on are the smaller black rats (roof rats, etc). The larger brown rats (norway, etc) are often large enough to steal the bait and avoid the trap, or if it does fire, it may only boink them on the nose. So often times, it doesn't kill them and they may escape.....wiser to the ways of the traps in this world. They won't make that mistake again. Worse......they may tell their friends all about it.

Still, trapping can be a helpful tool in places where you don't want or can't set poisons. You get what you can and each one you nab is one less.

 

[Below frigid]

Norway's here! Big uns ! We literally live in the woods. Could not believe the amount of rodents here both mice, rats,voles,gophers, ground squirrels, rabbits. I know rabbits are not rodents, not sure about squirrels. Between me trapping and some help from my Terrier we rarely catch a mouse or a rat any more. Forgot about the chipmunks! Maybe the hardest one to deal with but there are only 2-3 pestering me. Really don't like using poison except as a very last resort. If you have a true infestation it is probably the only way to get them under control. If you caught 17 in one night you have an infestation food sure! Good luck!