Help me get rid of my nightly visitors!!!!!

[seminolewind]

I had a nightmare with rats a few years ago. The neighbor's coop inside was always covered with loose feed. It was awful. I tried everything. I tried all the home made contraptions that kill one at a time, but when there's alot-and 50 is about the norm, they would still multiply faster than I could kill them.

What works for me is this; rats are not a one time thing. Killing rats is a maintenance and you will always be doing it.

I cover all the feed at night. 5pm or so is great if you can do it. You need a spill proof way of feeding the chickens or clean up all the feed. Then buy those bait stations. The bait is round and has a hole in it so when you load it, it stays where it is. I have 4 (yes overkill) and you need to check on them weekly to see if the bait is eaten. When you find no new bite marks on the bait, your maintenance is good. But it does not end.

 

[Mrs. K]

Do remove feed. And water.

 

[NatJ]

I’ve tried everything from putting ammonia into the tunnels, moth balls, gopher gassers. You name it I’ve tried it.

Have you tried running water down the tunnels with a hose?

If you have sandy soil it would not help, but if you have clay soil that will hold the water, it might at least drown the babies so they don't have a chance to grow up and make the problem worse.

(I have not tried this, so I'm just guessing. And I know it would not work in soil that drains quickly.)

 

[seminolewind]

I puta hose in a hole, and little rat babies floated to the top and the chickens ate them (ewww)

 

[cmom]

I had a coop that was infested with rats. When I started renovating the coop, dozens of rats of all sizes came pouring out of the ceiling and inner walls we put in that coop, which was the first coop we had built. I tried most everything to no avail. I did eventually get some poison. I'm not advocating poison but it worked for me. My personal choice. I used rat bait stations and placed them in pet carriers and put them on shelves. At first I put just the baits in places where I thought nothing but the rats could get to them and they kept disappearing night after night. That is when I bought the bait stations. Originally I left the bait stations on the floor in our barn which is behind the coops. Something demolished the bait stations so I put a camera up. It was a possum. I thought how can this creature still be alive after eating so much rat poison. After some research they have something in their system so they are immune to the poison. That is when I bought the rat bait stations which didn't last long. I bought some more bait and bait stations and put them in pet carriers on shelves in the barn and no more possums getting to the bait. I did expect to see a bunch of dead rats laying around from the poison but was surprised. I checked the bait daily as there is a little window above the bait so it can be checked often and as time went by the baits were hardly being touched then I went for quite awhile with no takers. There were tunnels around the barn and coops which I'm pretty sure the rats made so I assume they went into their tunnels and died and buried themselves and that is why I didn't find any dead rats laying around. There is a partition down the middle inside of the rat bait stations that the rats have to go around to get to the bait to help to keep them from getting any bait out. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

Here is the coop that was infested. I found several rats nests in the ceiling and in the wall cavities.

Here are a couple of tunnels next to the barn I'm assuming the rats made.

Here is a stud that the rat chewed through to get past it in the wall that was there.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

I love electronic rat traps. No poison, just dump the electrocuted rat in the trash. 50 kills on 1 set of batteries. I've also heard good things about the bucket traps over water. You could even set some up outside the coop.

 

[cmom]

I wouldn't poison because other animals/chickens could be harmed.
We had a rat we couldn't get rid of trying various traps. We finally got a live trap at TSC and it worked like a charm. Just be sure to take the rats at least 2 miles away or they will come right back.

In many places it's illegal to relocate elsewhere unless you have the property owner's permission. We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipient of others relocations. Either eliminate or contact a wildlife rescue or some type of organization or possibly a rodent removal specialist. Once someone dropped off a gosling. I did find a home for it but that didn't make it right to just drop it off.

 

[Mrs. K]

What is an electronic rat trap?

 

[cmom]

I love electronic rat traps. No poison, just dump the electrocuted rat in the trash. 50 kills on 1 set of batteries. I've also heard good things about the bucket traps over water. You could even set some up outside the coop.

There are several threads on different methods of catching rats as well as YouTube videos. I have tried several methods and they didn't work for me. I did try the bucket with the sunflower seeds and made a ramp but no takers.