Oh No!!!!! Wolf Rat on the loose!

[Lazy Farmer]

My border collie will woof rats if I'm not fast enough to stop him.

 

[nminusyplusm]

Search your basement for holes or gaps they can enter through. You need to plug any you find with something they can't chew through or screw hardware cloth over them.

 

[T-Bone64]

Good idea on looking for holes and trying to seal them up but I have seen them chew through tin cans and I have also seen them put cats on the run. Best idea is move the babies and put out the poison at any holes to the out side. Good luck, We have the same problem but not getting in so I'm shooting them every day till we have no more.

 

[nminusyplusm]

Good idea on looking for holes and trying to seal them up but I have seen them chew through tin cans and I have also seen them put cats on the run. Best idea is move the babies and put out the poison at any holes to the out side. Good luck, We have the same problem but not getting in so I'm shooting them every day till we have no more.

You'll be using a lot of ammo until you plug holes. They can't chew through cans. I kept mine for years in hardware cloth cages and they never chewed through those either.

Homedepot sells a product to keep them out that's some kind of neoprene embedded with steel wool to plug gaps. Otherwise just use steel wool to stuff in gaps and holes and use silicone caulking to seal it up and call it done.

 

[nminusyplusm]

This used to be my local Taco Bell. It never reopened. LOL!:

ETA: Although I used to breed Norway rats, I am not responsible for these particular Norway rats.

 

[Howard E]

To the OP, you have a serious problem. If you are looking for a serious solution, go to this thread.....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rats-when-the-army-went-to-war-on-them.1216226/

Spend the time to go through the whole thing, including the CDC / Army videos. Do that so you know what you are up against.

A lot of folks report on BYC that none of this works. I would submit that a lot of folks who believe that have not taken the steps required to solve the problem. No half measures, half hearted attempts. You must do it all.

1. Rat proof the structure.....ALL traffic in and out has to stop. Easier said than done. DO watch the video on that so you know the extent you have to resort to and how. Its old, but still very much valid.
2. Eliminate all sources of food, water and places to live and hide.
3. If that does not move them on and out, then poison baits are used to snuff the colony. Poison baits alone will not be effective until steps 1 and 2 have been implemented. If that didn't cause an "aha moment" then read that again.
4. Single kill methods or nibbling around the edges is futile. No amount of trapping, shooting, dogs, cats, ferrets, snakes or any other method that attempts to pick off a few of them is going to work. Won't even dent the surface. Then can reproduce in far greater numbers than you can eliminate one or two at a time.

Hope this helps!!

 

[MatthewsHomestead]

Oh wow. Wealth of knowledge and different ideas. I'm handing this thread to my hunny so he can read and watch the vids. We think the one we saw last night may be the "squirrel" we sometime hear in the attic. Which I thought was strange BC I never see any squirrels at our place.... And this being an old house..... We have our work cut out for us......

 

[MatthewsHomestead]

These things are freaking huge. Grey backs, white bellies. Long fat tail.

 

[MatthewsHomestead]

We caught one last night in a rat trap. So gross. Twice the size of the trap if that gives y'all a size comparison. Hunny got rid of it before I could take a pic

 

[peckpeckpeck]

This used to be my local Taco Bell. It never reopened. LOL!:

ETA: Although I used to breed Norway rats, I am not responsible for these particular Norway rats.

We remember that Taco Bell!! Ewww
And I finally got your username.
Watching the thread... we don't have "wolf" rats but trying to deal with regular rats.