Continuing Rat Problem

[Rietta]

Sometimes all us wonderful people wanting to help is overwhelming.. the difference of opinion the suggesting things they have already tried. Sometimes being blamed for the issue they are trying to solve or need help with. The name Permaculture to me means non toxic ways, traps are not working and population is growing. I would be frustrated to and totally check out on this thread. I checked out on after page 3.

To the OP I hope you find a solution that works for you, and share with us. I would NEVER use poison either as I also have owls and snakes, dogs and cats and so on. Its too easy to trash the environment.. dead poison rats in the ground is not something I would want on my property. It persists after the body is gone I am sure. Best of luck and I hope your persistence will pay off!

 

[Acre4Me]

As usual, @Howard E has good info on rat control. It is important to note that dealing with rats is harder than dealing with mice.

what you are up against with a colony of rats, is how to deal with them. Boils down to three things...

Sanitation (and that includes limiting access to feed and water......which this rat proof feeder excels at doing....at least for most standard chicken breeds)
Exclusion......how to rat proof your housing.....
and if those two fail......
Elimination

and if you want this thing to work, it is in that order.

 

[Acre4Me]

It persists after the body is gone I am sure.

This is merely your assumption, and I doubt you've taken the time to actually research the different rat poisons. Of course, some likely persist longer than others, as there are different rat poisons. But, chemicals break down. In addition, you are talking about a small amount of poison that was eaten and metabolized to some extend inside a rat, so it was already altered. Then this small amount that is present in the dead rat gets further decomposed by all the decomposition organisms disintegrating the dead rat. Just adding a bit of factual reality to your broad statement. Of course, I am by NO means stating that you or anyone else should set out poison for rats. As others who have successfully used poison have mentioned, it is a personal choice.

 

[JeannieNA]

I posted here a while back and utilized all of the recommendations from you kind souls. Now I am trying to tweak the new gadgets and need your help again.
1) I got an electric rat zapper. The one that got the best reviews. I have had it set with peanut butter for about 10 days. No rats were killed so far. In fact, the rats seem to be having a jolly good time moving around my zapper. In their latest escapade, they even turned off the zapper somehow as there is no red light on it anymore. Any suggestions about tricks to set up the electronic zapper? I followed the directions on the box.
2) I got a feeder that only opens up when a chicken steps on the bar and activates the weight. So far in one week none of the chickens have figured out how to step on it to get food. Can the weight be adjusted?
3) I put garbage cans over my round red and white feeders and large potting trays under them for a tight seal at night. This seems to be working.
4) I dispense all chicken pellets into large heavy duty garbage cans with lids to keep out rats. This seems to be working as well.

Yesterday night I went in the coop after dark and saw probably 30 rats! The last time I counted 12. Any suggestions for getting rid of them? I have some regular traps I can try as well. They are smart about the electric zapper, so I hope they aren't so smart about regular wooden snap traps as well. Please help!

I did have a bunch of rats show up also. I finally went on Amazon and ordered Rat poison called "One Bite" We put this out under places my Hens could not get to it. The next 2 days we were finding dead rats every where. We picked them up and bagged about 30 dead rats for the trash. This stuff works!!!

 

[HeidiZ]

I posted here a while back and utilized all of the recommendations from you kind souls. Now I am trying to tweak the new gadgets and need your help again.
1) I got an electric rat zapper. The one that got the best reviews. I have had it set with peanut butter for about 10 days. No rats were killed so far. In fact, the rats seem to be having a jolly good time moving around my zapper. In their latest escapade, they even turned off the zapper somehow as there is no red light on it anymore. Any suggestions about tricks to set up the electronic zapper? I followed the directions on the box.
2) I got a feeder that only opens up when a chicken steps on the bar and activates the weight. So far in one week none of the chickens have figured out how to step on it to get food. Can the weight be adjusted?
3) I put garbage cans over my round red and white feeders and large potting trays under them for a tight seal at night. This seems to be working.
4) I dispense all chicken pellets into large heavy duty garbage cans with lids to keep out rats. This seems to be working as well.

Yesterday night I went in the coop after dark and saw probably 30 rats! The last time I counted 12. Any suggestions for getting rid of them? I have some regular traps I can try as well. They are smart about the electric zapper, so I hope they aren't so smart about regular wooden snap traps as well. Please help!

I. Understand your frustration. I have had to deal rats for a few years now. They invade my barn when winter comes around,last week I caught 8 of them. The traps will work for a little while then you won't catch anything for weeks. I have been using scratch as bait in the traps and that seems to work pretty good. Look for the droppings and set the traps near the droppings if you have rats inside your barn. The rats have a tunnel system all over my chicken yard. I look for all the holes that I can find and block them with dirt then I put the garden hose down one of the holes and let it run. Be patient it usually takes me around 20 minutes to flood the tunnels and when they try and escape you play whack a rat. They breed so quickly and have large litters so it is pretty much impossible to totally get rid of them.

 

[JeannieNA]

Yep. It's a good rat killer. No more Big Rats. And I have even noticed my hens food is still in the pans the next morning after, because sometimes I forget to pick up the food.