Have you tried poison yet?
still curious @Shanti Permaculture Farm if you have tried poison? If so, any success? If not, why not?
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Have you tried poison yet?
No I have been advised against it because the poison gets in the rats which get eaten by our barn owls and other predators and the poison then becomes systemic. I also have four mousing cats. Do you think its OK to use it?Have you tried poison yet?
Hi Shanti permaculture farm. It looks like you bought one of my feeders off Ebay. Next time find our website and save some money. Ebay is expensive to sell on.
Howard has already asked if you followed the directions, exactly.... Good man. And it is key if you want the feeder to work.
First thing is to have it secured to a wall or post so that it doesn't move, we provide a rough wood block for that, screw the block to the wall, slip the feeder over the block and run a couple of screws in from the side to secure the feeder.
Next, that treadle HAS to bottom out on something. The ground, a block of wood buried in the ground, patio block, anything, so that the bird can stand on one leg and keep the treadle pushed down with the other leg and not be all wobbly.
Next, remove ALL feed. No free range, no snacks, clean out any deep litter if there is a ton of feed buried in the litter. You have to get the birds hungry, a few hours will do it, and one of them will figure it out if you follow our instructions to the very letter, nothing left out, nothing added. Once one bird knows how to use the feeder it will teach the others.
And most importantly, email me if you are having problems getting the birds to use the feeder. After selling many thousands of these things I know a bit about them. [email protected]. Send pictures from three sides so I can check your installation and see if the spring is installed correctly.
No I have been advised against it because the poison gets in the rats which get eaten by our barn owls and other predators and the poison then becomes systemic. I also have four mousing cats. Do you think its OK to use it?
No I have been advised against it because the poison gets in the rats which get eaten by our barn owls and other predators and the poison then becomes systemic. I also have four mousing cats. Do you think its OK to use it?
That is a risk, but it's a slight one. Typically the rats go underground and die in their burrows where it's hard for anything but other rats to get at. I would say 99% of them return to their nests to die.
Now, you're probably killing hundreds, if not thousands of rats, so that means some will still die above ground. But most birds of prey hunt through movement so it's an even more reduced risk. The most likely animals to find the rats are scavengers like other rats, raccoons, stray dogs or foxes and even then it's unlikely to cause a substantial dent in those populations. Most animals can smell something wrong with it or are big enough that the poison left won't matter.
Bait boxes secure for rats only or mice only are relatively safe and have relatively few non target deaths.