New and need rat help !

[chrissynemetz]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! We're glad you joined us!

 

[BeagleCoop]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! We're glad you joined us!

Thanks you! I just saw the link a few posts back with the article on rat info, I will take some time to read! Been so busy so probably won’t have time until this weekend.

Little Update, Husband was very sick last week, but a after a few days he mustered up some energy to work on my rat project. I pressure washed and bleached and peppermint oiled our dog kennel. Husband patched all holes we could see , there were three large openings for the dogs but we blocked those off. Rats appeared to be using the entire 10’x 8’ish kennel as a toilet. Dogs aren’t in that area often, it’s more storage. The rats were also tunneling underneath. We had prior used smoke bombs in the tunnel , but figured out we need to smoke from all sides of the kennel , so which ever way they run, it’s into smoke. So we tried one more time with that on Saturday . I’m afraid to breathe relief yet, it’s too soon, but no more holes . It’s only been couple days but usually they are back in less than 24 hours. I set up a ramp/ water trap with sunflower seeds just in case. We had two big rats in snap traps as well under the coop over the weekend. We had all the kids help dig out the run to find the holes if there were any. It was a mulch type bottom so very easy to tunnel. Got it down to hard ground , haven’t seen a new tunnel pop up. And since holes closed no more poop in coop! This entire project so far has taken hours and days. It’s been exhausting to say the least. And not even the only stressor they I’m dealing with, but moved up in priority because I’m afraid of disease for my animals.

I will definitely read more of that article posted to make more changes. Thanks to everyone for being so great!

 

[janiedoe]

Thanks you! I just saw the link a few posts back with the article on rat info, I will take some time to read! Been so busy so probably won’t have time until this weekend.

Little Update, Husband was very sick last week, but a after a few days he mustered up some energy to work on my rat project. I pressure washed and bleached and peppermint oiled our dog kennel. Husband patched all holes we could see , there were three large openings for the dogs but we blocked those off. Rats appeared to be using the entire 10’x 8’ish kennel as a toilet. Dogs aren’t in that area often, it’s more storage. The rats were also tunneling underneath. We had prior used smoke bombs in the tunnel , but figured out we need to smoke from all sides of the kennel , so which ever way they run, it’s into smoke. So we tried one more time with that on Saturday . I’m afraid to breathe relief yet, it’s too soon, but no more holes . It’s only been couple days but usually they are back in less than 24 hours. I set up a ramp/ water trap with sunflower seeds just in case. We had two big rats in snap traps as well under the coop over the weekend. We had all the kids help dig out the run to find the holes if there were any. It was a mulch type bottom so very easy to tunnel. Got it down to hard ground , haven’t seen a new tunnel pop up. And since holes closed no more poop in coop! This entire project so far has taken hours and days. It’s been exhausting to say the least. And not even the only stressor they I’m dealing with, but moved up in priority because I’m afraid of disease for my animals.

I will definitely read more of that article posted to make more changes. Thanks to everyone for being so great!

I hope you are done with them. Good luck!