Help! RATS!!

[JAA]

Howard,
Thank you so much for all the information. It's very kind of you to take so much time to be so thorough in explaining everything. It will be a long haul. My house is lathe and plaster and cracking around the foundation. Also, If I hammer anything into walls without a stud behind the spot it just crumbles. Do rats chew through plaster even though it is used to "plug them up? " So, boards would be hard to nail on, outside too...uneven out there. Smearing cement would be ok...I did some on my roof after the rain (spanish tiles).
Steel wool is doable inside.
Btw, old septic system is underground...not accessible.

Some plaster dropped off the ceiling to expose lathe with the rains. Maybe they came through the attic and dropped down...? That needs to get repaired.

I will do as you and your friend suggest...empty and seal the house and use traps inside...I have a bazillion now.

Does a cat ever eat that outside poison you recommended? That's a problem I need to consider. Besides my cat friend, and cat pets of neighbors, there are so many wild creatures that roam around here and live in the sewers. I just need to remove all temptation to enter my house, and then distract rats with food offerings away from the house I guess. I can't poison all the creatures in this area though, even if I was uncaring.

Overwhelmed again. The amount of work is mind wiping. I can only do it little by little, and clutter is a problem you identified. Meanwhile I can only hope they won't multiply.

So let me know if your friend thinks cats won't eat poison.
Thank you again for your tremendous help.
Striving for badass mean, Dorene

Predators will eat poisoned animals and can become poisoned!
Exclusion (1/8" stainless steel hardware cloth for mice & 1/2" for rats, & concrete repair products for concrete) is the best way to keep rodents out of buildings.

 

[cmom]

Most predators around here if they are eating poison rats I don't really care. I would rather they eat the dead rats than my birds. We are rural. I use the poison in bait stations which I put in per carriers which only the rats can get to . Here they have plenty of tunnels around the coops and barn. I think they die in their tunnels because I have not found any dead rats. From my research, a critter that eats a dead poisoned rat probably won't die but will probably get sick from it but if they eat the poison directly that is another story.