Dealing with rats

[DiYMama540]

Hopefully not long...what a nightmare!
If we were close I would bring my terrier over...she lives for this sort of thing! Keep us posted on the body count... I'm interested to see!

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have neighbors which are pretty close, I'm on only like 0.22 acres.

So should I just go ahead and order some of the bromethalin based poison?

Your lot is similar size to mine.

The stronger poison. not sure with neighbors so close.

I would call a few local pest control agencies and ask a lot of questions.
Yes there will be ones that try hard to sell you their service.
Use carefully worded questions to avoid some of that.
"Can you tell me the active ingredient in the rat poison your company uses?"
"I have other pets as do my neighbors. What are the risks of secondary poisoning?"
Yes they will still try to sell you their service.
All you would be out is a bit of time by calling around.

James I have only ever seen ONE rat here. I got the warfarin poison. 2+ months later I found 1 rat dead in front of my big coop door.

 

[Manhen]

However, we have BOTH rats and mice in our barn every year. We have more rats than mice. I not only see their droppings, I see them running about.

I have a barn without rats or mice. I don't wear my glasses....

 

[Howard E]

If rats are still present, and bait is out and they are not eating it.....it means they are still able to find and eat something else.....like the chicken's feed. If they were starving, they would eat the bait and die or else move on to somewhere else.

Sanitation, exclusion and elimination........and in that order.

So sanitation (eliminate food for them to survive on), exclusion..........and when those are in place, you can focus on elimination of the stragglers.

Mistake most folks make is to go straight to elimination. That is a tough one and almost never effective on it's own.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-control-the-video-series.1337456/

 

[Duck_life]

I have the same problem, but my rats are huge and are stealing my chickens eggs. Mine hide under the chickens coops so I'll be using rat poison under their. I don't really know how to deal with rats but that's my plan. Good luck with your rat problem.

 

[NHMountainMan]

Rats tend to be an urban problem so I'm starting with the assumption that your neighbors are nearby. Which likely means that no matter what your do, there is another rat colony nearby.
Most cities and suburbs have feral cat problems that are managed through TNR (trap, neuter,release) programs. Got may want check with animal control and your vet to see if there are cats available for release. They aren't pets - they're hunters.
You may want to look at treadle feeder as an option as well to require weight to have access to the feed.
Good luck

 

[CarpCharacin]

The more powerful poison came today, so I went out and checked the bait boxes, and there was still quite a bit of the old poison. They had eaten a little bit of it, but not a lot, so I think they might be dying off. If they finish eating the remaining anticoagulant poison in the boat boxes now, I'll put out some of the stronger stuff, even though I haven't used put out the remaining anticoagulant poison.

 

[Jammerz]

I don't have time today to read through the whole thread but I will relate my experience and successes.

We have 'roof rats' they aren't nearly as big as Norway rats or sewer rats. When they were getting in my coop, I would put a Havahart box trap along the wall and bait it with nuts-usually a pecan have glued to the bait pan with Nutella. I caught 6 in 6 days and that was the end of them.

They occasionally get in my shed where I keep my food. I don't know how they get in there but they do. I have my chicken feed in 5 gallon buckets and they try to chew the lids off. I tried a lot of stuff. I had some success with a diving board trap but many of the rats were too big and could reach the bait from the edge of the bucket (comfirmed by a game camera)

I found a snap trap, similar to the common Victors, called a Big foot. It has a hair trigger so to speak. I put a 1x6 over the top of my buckets and put a few cherios or nuts on it and GLUE some cherioes or nut halves to the bait pan with Nutella. I recently caught 6 rats in 5 days. I still have the trap on the board (not set) and bait out. No more rats. Next year they will be back- only seem to come during the cooler time of the year.

I don't like poison because the rats tend to die inside and STINK. IF you use poison, buy a bait station from a commercial pest control supply, They have a concrete base and are heavy. Put them along a runway and keep them FULL. You will kill lots of rats this way.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I freaking HATE rats. Seeing what damage they do, how cunning they are, and the disease they have the potential to carry and transmit. I remember living in NYC as a child, watching rats, big rats, push open a metal trash can by pressing on the lid until it would drop to the floor and expose all the goodies they were looking for. I concur rat boxes are the way to go if you don't want to risk your chickens getting to the poison.
There are a few models out there that you can check out.
Sorry for the image but just to illustrate how they look inside. One showing the desired result. I don't agree with live capture because if your release it somewhere else, that animal will now be someone else's problem.

 

[chrissynemetz]

@ChicKat In my experience, the mice seem to disappear as the rats show up. Idk if that's coincidence, but it's something I've noticed over the years