Continuing Rat Problem

[Folly's place]

My dogs would just 'love' any little critters brought into the house, and it's just not happening!
Mary

 

[WthrLady]

snake shot in a .22 and a nice chair to sit in.

 

[blackandtan]

X2 on the poisons- plural. I feel like, when it comes to rats, you should use every arrow in the quiver: snap traps, drowning buckets, different poisons, shooting, the whole works.
If you can find a burrow entrance, try putting a pan of antifreeze soaked grain - well blocked from chickens, dogs, etc-, I’ve also injected trapped dead rats full of antifreeze and shoved them back down their tunnels, the little cannibals made short work of those !

 

[Folly's place]

There's nothing 'nice' about using poison, or traps, or drowning buckets, out there. It is about using the least awful options available that work. And, making the coop as rodent proof as possible for the future.
Mary

 

[WthrLady]

IF you don't, they get out of control SO fast! Two rats turn into too many too quickly!

A rat can breed at 5 weeks old. THey have 5-10 babies at a go. SO TWO rats can turn into 1200 in ONE YEAR! (babies having babies and so on)

 

[kerbotx]

I second the advice about the snap traps - bait them, but don't set them for a night or two, so the rats get comfortable around them. Then set the traps on a night when you can go out there & scare them! Do you have water in the coop? Set traps around it. Try different foods as bait - canned cat food or dog food, or place traps in a "plus sign" pattern, with chicken feed in the middle. But poison is probably your quickest, best bet. Good luck!

 

[tacothechicken]

I cant support poisen as were i live youd unintentionally kill off so many pets and wild animals by doing so our owls and dogs would be first. We have HUGE field rats that will kill birds in winter when it gets down to it! We control through A: owls as we have about 5 Gey's living on our block not counting our hawks and cats. I put out 5 gallon buckets for them to drown in, look for rat holes and clean out nests whith my dogs who enjoy the game and will checo the areas regularly preventing return, and let the cats sleep whith our chickens. Cats kill for fun and can take out multiple rodents in minutes, plus chickens and cats generally get along fine and are great at using team work to flush rodents. Hens can pulls a mouse from its hole by the tail and straight into the jaws of a cat. If you have that many rats though its become a colony and a colony uses "streets" figure out their path ways and kill off a few litters and they'll judge your flock a danger zone and work away from the coop eventually cutting them down through wild predators once more as your feed means they dont need to forage.

 

[Lizzy733]

Try bacon grease for bait. They can't seem to resist it here and it generally sticks around between trappings. Also, traps work best when set up along a path the rats are known to travel on - not where there is a food source to compete with the trap.
They are phobic of new things in their environment, so it may be a few weeks before you get a hit.
For snap traps, I would recommend wooden box tunnels with mesh on both ends - one that slides out to remove and reset the trap and one permanent side with a rat-sized hole in the bottom corner. If you have spare wood bits outdoors, use those to construct the box since they'll already be part of the environment.

 

[Sara Ranch]

For the electric zapper - use tape to keep the button "on"

 

[Shanti Permaculture Farm]

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.
Update Nov 8 The rats ate right though the electric power cord! I put 4 D batteries in it instead. Will post again about results of this method.

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.
Update Nov 8: The rats are starting to cut a hole in the upside down garbage can. I guess I need metal containers or at least thicker plastic. Will do.

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.
Update Nov 8: The heavy duty garbage cans are still working to keep rats out.

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!