I have a severe RAT problem.....does anyone have a solution that works well?

[Shades of Blue]

I thought I had a few rats that live in the attic of my milk house. It is attached to the side of my barn where my upstairs chicken pen is. However I have gone in at night and there is 40 plus rats fleeing from the 2 big chicken feeders. This is not a little problem.....and I have for the last 3 nights put sheet rock 45 powder in a half and half ratio with chicken food.

I have the feeder blocked off from the chickens and the rats clean it out every night. I leave lots of water in the pen so they drink lots after eating all the sheet rock 45 and chicken food.

Does anyone know....am I wasting my time or is this working and I have even more rats than I know about?

I have used bar bait when I thought I only had a few rats...however my house cat goes to the barn and he ate a rat that died from bar bait. Yes he was sick for about 2 weeks and then recovered. I don't want to use bar bait.....but I have to get this taken care of right away.

I have read on here where others have used plaster with peanut butter etc. and it worked.

Does anyone have advice......thanks....J

 

[Judy]

Bromadiolone worked for me -- a rat poison that isn't supposed to make the animal that eats a dead rat sick. I didn't have as many rats as you do, though. Also, I never saw a dead rat, just stopped seeing live ones or holes. I guess they went down their holes to die. You might have to attack them with large snap traps as well as poison. I'd say just stick with it. I have also read that plaster with peanut butter worked. Certainly you need to keep fighting it or it will only get worse; they say you always have more than you see. Maybe this thread will help:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/57525/rats-rats-and-more-rats/20_20#post_606272

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have read about mixing cayenne pepper in the chicken feed to deter rats from eating it...but you'd have to google that to see if you could find out anything on it in terms of how much to use.

It sounds like you need something more heavy duty though and I don't know what else to advise.

 

[chicken farm]

If your cat is healthy again and if he gets on well with the chickens try locking him in with the feed overnight, your cat won’t get bored that’s for sure!

 

[Jimmyjaffee]

Get snakes, LOTS of them!

If your in Canada, then I'm not sure what snakes live up there that can be helpful, but using snakes to lower the rodent population can help. Corn snakes, Rat snakes, and others will feed off of the rats and help reduce the number of rats around. As scary as some might think they are, they aren't always pests. They can be quite beneficial in lowering the rodent populations and keeping the rats away from your livestock. (They shouldn't harm your chickens, they usually keep there distance, just don't have any baby chicks around in plain site, or the snake might have a little snack and you might find your chick missing with a lump in its belly)

 

[krapnet]

you need to set up traps, lots of them also poison blocks ( the green stuff they eat) it kills them overtime. but trapping them is only best solution. solved my isssue with them.

 

[Sjisty]

We had a rat problem in our feed shed. We tried the blocks of poison, but the rats ignored them. Then we got Tom Cat, which is a liquid rat poison you mix with water. No more rat problem! We have seen dead rats on occasion, but mostly they just crawled away somewhere and died. Of course, you have to make sure your chickens and cat can't drink the water, so I'm not sure what your answer could be. Maybe you could cage your chickens and cat overnight and then put the poison out and pick it up in the morning. Or if you have a cage you could put the water in so the rats could reach it but not the chickens or cat, that might work.

Good luck!

 

[Shades of Blue]

thanks for everyone's tips.....now....I have to get me some rats!!!!!

 

[bawkbawkhens]

Google 5 gallon bucket rat trap... it works!

 

[Eggcessive]

Just One Bite brand works great. It used to be available in small packages, but now you have to buy a whole box--around $35 but is worth the price and will last for years. That is the brand name for bromodiolone that Flockwatcher recommended. I have dogs, cats, and 70 chickens and have not lost any to eating dead rats. In fact I rarely get them, and I live on a 110 year old farm. I just keep replacing bait in a locking bait container--it very seldom disappears now.