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

[schmedlap]

Poison. Put it in some sort of bait box that nothing else can get into. We have a wooden box with a small hole in the end that we put the bait under, and weight it down with a rock. Rats are the only thing that can get into the bait. We have never seen dead or dying rats, nor have I ever had a chicken, cat or dog kill or eat a poisoned rat.

ditto. solved my problem. don't know where they went, never saw any bodies, but they're gone and that's what counts

 

[saysfaa]

You have no right to do this.

If it is not YOUR LAND PERSONALLY it is immoral -- and possibly illegal -- to release vermin there..

To some degree, this is irrelevant for the exceedingly vast majority of us. Only a miniscule percentage of us live within a reasonable drive of anyplace with the nearest house miles away. Closest I've been is probably the Flint Hills of Kansas, Some of the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies in Wyoming or Montana or the Upper Pennisula of Michigan, or the White Sands in New Mexico. The Flint Hills, Eastern Slopes, and the UP look deserted enough as you drive down the highway and you can plot a course where you go miles upon miles with never seeing a house in any of them but they are surprisingly close. I'm sure more deserted places do exist far out of reach of most of us.

In general, though, I agree it is likely illegal, and immoral, for many good reasons.

I worked with animal control officers who said quite often the same animals are trapped over and over and over. They learned the traps were easy sources of food and some where known to travel back and forth across the county as one set of residents trapped them and released them in the wildlife area of the other end where another set of residents trapped them and released them back in the wildlife area of the other end.. more than two miles away, incidently.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

In general, though, I agree it is likely illegal, and immoral, for many good reasons.

.... and possibly a little dangerous for you (depending on the state maybe) if caught by the property owner dumping animals on their property. Some folks get really upset over such things.

 

[MellyRae]

Hi, I have had chickens for over 15 years and live on a farm, so rats can be a problem, however with bait boxes and rotation of rst poisons you will keep them under control.
Vermin poison comes in different types and different products. I use blocks, gel pads and poison grain in each bait box and have several around the chickens run, they are placed under old wheel barrows, tin, and areas the chickens couldn't get to but rats would. Even though they are bait boxes I am wary of them.
Keep checking on them and top up or refresh the poison. Rotate what you use every three months.
you know when you have successfully got them all when bait is still in the boxes. Also pick up any chicken feed stations every night.
Good luck.

 

[PianoTheSilkie]

If you want a long term/super adorable form of pest control, get a livestock guardian dog! They will not only fight the rats, but also raccoons, coyotes, some will warn the flock when hawks are around! that way, you won't have to deal with the worry of having poison that your birds or some other innocent creature could get into, and have a good companion for chicks (my boy will snuggle with new babies all night long)! consider an Anatolian or a Great Pyr!

 

[3KillerBs]

.... and possibly a little dangerous for you (depending on the state maybe) if caught by the property owner dumping animals on their property. Some folks get really upset over such things.

Indeed.

It's no different than dumping trash.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

There are people who have ferrets and terriers and such and who will come out for a few hours and literally kill almost all the rats for you. The dogs are bred for that, and they are GOOD at it. See if you can google anyone local who does this; it's a one-evening-fix. Then, follow up with poison for any new rats that move in.
We have a pair of collie-type dogs; one is probably australian shepherd/lab/border/something, the other is a scotch collie. They are death on four feet to the rats. The very few times we had a rat come in, the dogs went out at night, found it, and, well, no more rat. They've taken out three, and then we put out poison, and no more rats.
Our ONLY concern is that the chickens will absolutely eat mice and small young rats, so we have to check for rodent bodies just-in-case. Haven't found one But the dogs go and check and will absolutely destroy any that show up, and they aren't even terriers. A collie-type dog (border, aussie, heeler, kelpie, corgi, scotch, rough, mcnab) should also be a very good vermin dog, they're bred to it. And we can attest to their effectiveness, too!

Just my luck, I have 2 rat terriers and a Queensland heeler, sadly my heeler is up there in years and is totally blind. But in his younger years he got everything from birds too slow to get away from him (he doesn’t like doves) to gophers and moles.

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

If you want a long term/super adorable form of pest control, get a livestock guardian dog! They will not only fight the rats, but also raccoons, coyotes, some will warn the flock when hawks are around! that way, you won't have to deal with the worry of having poison that your birds or some other innocent creature could get into, and have a good companion for chicks (my boy will snuggle with new babies all night long)! consider an Anatolian or a Great Pyr!

The neighbor behind us has a great pyr. Nicest dog. Hmmmmm, maybe they’d rent him to me

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

We had our huge infestation last year. I'd go out in the evening and sometimes see 18 rats running in the coops, and that was after I thought I had every hole plugged, added small mesh wire over all the other wire, and added wire mesh dug down into the perimeter. This year, I rarely see one anywhere, and one every now and then in a trap. About the only bait that I found that worked around a coop is the TomCat Bromethalin Meal Bait, which I placed in short sections of 4" corrugated drain pipe in a tuna or cat food can. I tried four different types of commercial baits in bait stations, and all were left but this type. It doesn't have secondary poison issues [critters eating poisoned rats]. But, it got way too expensive. Then I started mixing up my own bait, with ~45% chicken scratch ~45% powdered wall texture [big bag from HD or Lowes] [it works same as plaster of Paris] ~10% sugar, plus a bit of cocoa powder, all mixed up. I put that in containers where other critters can't get it. Non toxic, but kills rats really well, and is cheap. The plaster of Paris clogs up there digestive tract. Also use traps. The best trap design I've tried [and I've tried them all] is four of the commercial Victor rat traps places in a homemade box, in a row, with no place for the rat to jump. No bait on traps, but a little peanut butter and chicken scratch placed in the middle of the box. I've caught up to 3 at a time in this, and it's cheap and deadly. Plus, I'll also place a rat trap under a milk crate at night in the coop, baited with a tiny bit of peanut butter mixed with cocoa. For rats, it's consistency, and multiple methods, since none are effective alone. Also keep all your feed away, preferably in metal drum, so rats can't get to it at night. And of course, learn that rat shooting with a pellet gun is very satisfying. We tried a Yorkie, which were originally bred as ratters, but pets are too lazy to do what they were bred for anymore. I'll add some pics later of the traps...

Funny you should mention about the pellet gun. I told my hubby we need to get one or he runs the risk I’ll be out there in my camping chair in the dark with my 9 mm handgun picking them off 1 by 1

 

[Grannysfuturefarm]

I finally hired an exterminator, becasue I had rats, mice, hornets, stink bugs and carpenter ants. I am 82 and widowed, my results were always temporary at the best. Iknow it is expensive, $125 a quarter, but all problems solved after only 3 visits, so worth the cost.
Not just the rats, but the carpenter ants were eating the big 2 by 10s that were the foundation of the barn. In order to take care of this I ahd to get up a ladder at least 12 feet or hire someone to do this. So, like I said, money spent very worthwhile. Have not seen one rat or mouse dropping for a year. Hornets controled and stink bugs gone for good. The bait stations are large black boxes and the they pomise that if one of my animals chews on a rodent tht got the bait, it will not harm them. Good luck, so far.

Thank you for the info. I had read in various places that an exterminator was very costly to get rid of rats. The price you quoted was less than the last he came out to get rid of ants for me. I do believe tues morning I’ll be in the phone with Martin to get a price. I’ve put out bait boxes and the rats we have apparently aren’t interested. Traps haven’t worked and my rat terrier is exhausting himself trying to get a handle on the situation. I sure hope he is reasonably priced. Heck, I think even paying up to $200 is doable for us. But I won’t tell him that in case his price is less!!!