Help!!!! I am at the end of my rope!

[Crazy4chickens2018]

Hi everyone,
I am looking for suggestions on how to get rid of rats under my coop/potting shed. We have tried a bait trap with poison(not to worry chicken safe) and I set old fashion snap traps at night inside the run once the chickens are put in for the night. I use peanut butter and seeds on the snap traps. I also keep the chickens food in at night as well. Through the day these darn rat run from the many holes they have made under the coop over to the feeder that I put back out for the chickens during the day and they eat like kings all afternoon. It is very frustrating to say the least. I have caught about 6 rats since the fall. Things slowed down over winter and I thought we had gotten rid of them but now they are back. I usually see about 3 or 4 out at a time but I realize that doesn’t mean there isn’t more! Yesterday I caught 2. We have filled in the holes several times even with gravel but they keep making more. I have pored a mixture of DE water and essential oils meant to deter rats down into the holes and that didn’t work either. They are very smart litter critters and very bold! They are ruining my beautiful run and making my chickens unhappy. I am at he end of my rope. Help please!!! Any advice is welcome.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

You could try to hang the chicken feeder up, so that the chickens can still eat, and the rats can't. Or keep the food somewhere that the chickens can get to, but the rats can't.

 

[cmom]

What are you using for bait? I had a coop that was infested. I renovated the coop and when I was taking out the walls and ceiling I had dozens of rats of all sizes pour out. I set rat bait boxes in my barn behind the coops and put the bait in them that came with the bait boxes. The rats turned their noses up at it so I tried a different bait. No more rats. My bait boxes have a little window above the baits so I can check the baits and other critters can't get to the bait. I tried different things too. This worked for me. I didn't find any dead rats around so I think they went into their tunnels and died.

 

[kelseyk]

I have heard many people say great things about diy bucket traps. Basically a bottle or can that spins on a rod - rod is placed across the top of a bucket - bucket is filled half way with water. Bait the middle of the bottle or can and set a ramp up to one side of the rod. Rat will climb up the ramp and try to venture out onto the bottle or can and it will spin and it will fall in the water.

 

[Vickischics]

Sticky pads are the best. But, its not a quick kill. They step on the glue pad and Boom! They're Never coming off of it unless they skinned to the bone.
Problem is: they stay alive and you have to give the rat a wack or if they actually manage to come off the Sticky pad, they are skinned alive and will bleed to death.
They work well but again, not a quick die.
Me, I've seen them work on rats the size of domestic cats but, you have to deliver the final blow. If you can do that, you'll love the sticky pad.
Good Luck ridding the rats from the Coop.

 

[Nay]

Sticky pads are the best. But, its not a quick kill. They step on the glue pad and Boom! They're Never coming off of it unless they skinned to the bone.
Problem is: they stay alive and you have to give the rat a wack or if they actually manage to come off the Sticky pad, they are skinned alive and will bleed to death.
They work well but again, not a quick die.
Me, I've seen them work on rats the size of domestic cats but, you have to deliver the final blow. If you can do that, you'll love the sticky pad.
Good Luck ridding the rats from the Coop.

I can't imagine an infestation bad enough to normalize and advocate for a method as inhumane and brutal as this slow and painful send off. They are pests but there are lots of better ways to manage it than a sticky paper.

 

[LaFleche]

With our rat infestation last autumn it worked well to block most of their holes with big stones and flood the other ones using various hoses at the same time. Our terriers helped with the kill when they tried to escape from their flooded tunnels.

 

[Vickischics]

I can't imagine an infestation bad enough to normalize and advocate for a method as inhumane and brutal as this slow and painful send off. They are pests but there are lots of better ways to manage it than a sticky paper.

You are correct. But, there is a difference between mice and rats. I've witnessed this: the rat problem was terrible enough in our clubs kitchen that it was used as the last resort with the huge rats some, the size of a cat! Or a raccoon! I've never seen rats that big before, its unbelievable. Once they are poisoned, they can fall dead anywhere by internal bleeding. The rat poison is made from Warfarin (aka: Coumadin) and they bleed to death slowly internally. So, either way its bad. After many failed attempts of the rats becoming too smart to eat the Warfarin or being trapped ect. Someone had to designed something that works and that was the glue pads.
I personally dont have rats. I have mice once in a while but, my two very long and fat black racers keep everything at bay. All is good until they eat one of my chickens. Then, I'll have to go to plan B and I dont know what that is except...secure my "Girls" better.

 

[indiefoxfarm]

We've struggled with rats in our barn and tried several things to get rid of them. At their worst they were digging holes everywhere, literally eating grain out of the horses' feed bowls as the horses were eating out of them, and even chewed a giant hole through my tack room wall (wood + insulation + drywall) and wreaked absolute havoc.

Some of the things we tried that did not work were:
- Plug-in sound deterrents (which seem to help a bit now that the rat problem is under control but didn't do anything when it was in full force)
- Barn cats (useless buggers lol)
- Bucket traps (we caught a couple at first but the rest learned to avoid them pretty quickly)
- Electric traps with bait (didn't catch a single one and these were very expensive)
- Bait bars (they'd nibble on them but they were too big to take back to their nests so while these helped some there was still a steady stream of rats)

The thing that did work was "bombing" the barn with Just One Bite poison packets. They're paper packets with individual servings of poison pellets in them. We removed all the animals from the barn (because even though they were supposedly not dangerous to the horses, dogs, cats, etc. I wanted to err on the side of caution) and put out packets all over the barn where we thought the rats would find them - in holes they'd made, in each of the horses' stalls where we'd seen them, inside the hole they'd chewed in the tack room, etc. We checked every day and replaced packets that were missing. They seemed to just take the whole packet with them back to their nest and share which I think helped kill entire families. Once the packets stopped disappearing the rats seemed to disappear as well.

Now we set out a few packets as soon as we see one rat in the barn and it seems to take care of the problem very quickly. We haven't had any real problems with them since. *knocks on wood*

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

We keep bulk cattle feed at all times and usually have a few mice around the barns, at times we do have rat infestations. When we do have rats it’s seems they are drawn to the chicken coop area too. We have had pretty good success with the Just One Bite bars and a product called Ramik Green it’s green round balls a little bigger than dry dog food pieces. With it you can put it in a secure area that pets or livestock can’t get to and also put some down in the rat holes. With the Just One. Bite bars, I usually put them in a secure area that no pets or livestock can get to and I break up the bars into smaller pieces. It takes 4-5 days befor you see any results. The last time I used either of those, I put out a large amount and the next morning it was all gone, the next two days the same then finally it was untouched and would see an occasional dead rat which I disposed of so nothing would eat it. It must have gotten most of them inside their holes because I know there
were many more than what I found yet saw no more evidence of their presence.