Pests in the duck coop

[Nyxsie]

My coop is under attack! Rats, mice, bugs, and ANTS.

I live in Florida and ants are a huge problem. Wolf spiders and roaches are going to be a huge problem soon too.

Any idea how I can kill these miniature monsters without hurting my ducks?

Going to set up traps for the rats and mice for tonight.

 

[PINOAK RIDGE]

We have had success with bucket or barrel mice/rat traps. You can even modify them for tubs, totes, trash cans and etc. Here are a couple you tube links.

Ducks will eat many bugs, including spiders and roaches. For ants, you may have to mix sugar and boric acid or etc and place outside duck pen, where they can't reach it. You can also plant peppermint around outside of pen.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your ducks.

 

[Bills vs Beaks]

Be careful with a snap trap. Dont want the duckies bills to get snapped!

I wouldnt worry about the spiders or the roaches. Ive heard ducks loooove roaches

 

[Amiga]

Wondering if some diatomaceous earth around the outside edge of the pen might be helpful.

 

[purslanegarden]

Might need to lock up food for the nights until the rodent problem is under control, or they move on ( even if they still wander around occasionally).

 

[Nyxsie]

We have had success with bucket or barrel mice/rat traps. You can even modify them for tubs, totes, trash cans and etc. Here are a couple you tube links.

Ducks will eat many bugs, including spiders and roaches. For ants, you may have to mix sugar and boric acid or etc and place outside duck pen, where they can't reach it. You can also plant peppermint around outside of pen.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your ducks.

Thank you for the youtube links! I'm going to be making something very similar to that, which I found through your links. I saw that some mice were able to jump out of that, and I don't want to add too much water because I don't want to kill them. (Don't really know what I'm gunna do with them lol, I'll figure it out. I'd rather them die in the forest or something instead of by my creation. I kind of like them, but I'm worried for my ducks. I don't want them to get diseases, sick, or be bothered.

This is the video I found through your links:

Be careful with a snap trap. Dont want the duckies bills to get snapped!

I wouldnt worry about the spiders or the roaches. Ive heard ducks loooove roaches

Oh no! I'm not going to use that. I don't want to kill them. </3

Wondering if some diatomaceous earth around the outside edge of the pen might be helpful.

I see it's a natural pesticide- I'll look into this more. I never heard of this and I'm glad you mentioned it because it seems like it could have many uses.

Might need to lock up food for the nights until the rodent problem is under control, or they move on ( even if they still wander around occasionally).

I have a confession. The rats and mice were already present in my yard before I set up the duck coop. I'm not sure what they are eating, maybe stealing from the garden. I have another confession. The first night after the coop was finished, I saw a mouse. It was on the outside sticking it's hands through the wire, fingers spread wide open, trying desperately to reach a single pellet. I may have tried to give it the pellet. It ran away anyways. It was only recently I realized how big of a problem they are and can become.

Anyways, confessions aside, I keep my feed in my house for now because I don't have a proper container for it. I believe the rats and mice scavenge for any forgotten pellets on the ground, and leftover pieces of veggies and fruits.

 

[Bills vs Beaks]

Once I went in the garage, and their was a mouse eating my sunflower seed trail to the trap. It was by the door, I opened it, went in, stepping right over him, got what I wanted, went back and he was just sitting there. I made this funny aggghh noise, and he didn't even move. Just sat there happy as you please.
AND I was barefoot...uggggh.

 

[GoldenFlight]

Well, thankfully I don't have to worry about mice with my ducks, they eat mice.

 

[Nyxsie]

Okay, this is new information to me. I didn't know that they eat mice. Do they just eat baby mice or adults as well? I think all the rodent-like creates here are 3 1/2" and up.

My traps failed. I actually decided to poison them. More like, kind of running out of options due to the fact they are chewed their way into my ceiling. Now I hear them running back and forth. It's only a matter of time before they chew and come in the house too. I also don't own the property, so I don't really have a choice since my method failed lol.

So, they do make runs into the coop but they don't live in there. They just run through and when I check up in there they all flee the same path. Before the coop,anytime I saw them they were on a different path, but heading in the same direction. So I have an idea of at least the direction they live in.

Since they don't live in there, is it safe to poison them?

Not really happy about murdering

them, but it's getting really bad now. In the coop, in the yard, in the ceiling... I don't want to add "in the house" to that list. Sometimes I hear them fighting outside too. Eeek. When I check up on the ducks at nighttime, I hear them running all around me. They have been here for months, at least, so who knows how many there is. And how many there will be in a few months.

 

[chickens really]

Okay, this is new information to me. I didn't know that they eat mice. Do they just eat baby mice or adults as well? I think all the rodent-like creates here are 3 1/2" and up.

My traps failed. I actually decided to poison them. More like, kind of running out of options due to the fact they are chewed their way into my ceiling. Now I hear them running back and forth. It's only a matter of time before they chew and come in the house too. I also don't own the property, so I don't really have a choice since my method failed lol.

So, they do make runs into the coop but they don't live in there. They just run through and when I check up in there they all flee the same path. Before the coop,anytime I saw them they were on a different path, but heading in the same direction. So I have an idea of at least the direction they live in.

Since they don't live in there, is it safe to poison them?

Not really happy about murdering

them, but it's getting really bad now. In the coop, in the yard, in the ceiling... I don't want to add "in the house" to that list. Sometimes I hear them fighting outside too. Eeek. When I check up on the ducks at nighttime, I hear them running all around me. They have been here for months, at least, so who knows how many there is. And how many there will be in a few months.

Poison is not safe.....If one should die close to the Ducks and they eat it they will be poisoned....Cats, Birds and other animals would also be poisoned......

Trapping to Kill is really the best solution.........Set traps at the runs they made.......


Cheers!