Please help me kill this ermine-nothing is working!

[OhZark Biddies]

...not things like rat traps

The things like rat traps are pretty effective when used with the tried and true weasel box method... see this link for more info, and this link too:
https://heedleyshens.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/snap-goes-the-weasel/

 

[Cys chickens]

I'm wondering how it's getting in. Probably going under the bottom of the run, maybe through a tunnel. Dig 2' deep trench and SECURE 1/4" wire mesh. These little slinks can go through 1" chicken wire. Traps with aromatic cat food should coax it into your trap. Then kill it.

 

[Kris5902]

I’m liking the snake shot idea, depending on what guns you have available... good luck!

 

[mcclucker]

It has ignored these new traps - hasn’t even touched the bait. (Chicken livers)

I haven’t seen it since Wednesday when we set the traps. Chickens are all OK so it seems it can’t get into the coop now (it was clearly trying to get in the same way it had before- I saw it trying on Wednesday)

I really need to get it before I can let them outside again. Clearly it knows where dinner is.

I do not feel confident shooting it - there is no way I could actually hit it. Maybe I can ask a friend or neighbor, but I might be at the point of hiring this out.

 

[mcclucker]

Yeah this is what I made last October, with a trap like this. It didn’t go in it at all.

Also that’s a lotta dead weasels. What kind of bait? I’ve been using chicken livers but they freeze right away and probably don’t smell as much.

The things like rat traps are pretty effective when used with the tried and true weasel box method... see this link for more info, and this link too:
https://heedleyshens.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/snap-goes-the-weasel/

 

[mcclucker]

View attachment 1651381 Just to clarify @mcclucker, this is what you will be using? These work best is my opinion, not things like rat traps

Yep I have those. That’s what I just set up.

 

[mcclucker]

So to clarify - traps I have used:

Have a hart
Weasel box with a rat trap in it
Duke’s 110 weasel traps (spring)

All baited with chicken livers.

It ignores them all. This little eff is smarter than me.

 

[aart]

Chickens are all OK so it seems it can’t get into the coop now (it was clearly trying to get in the same way it had before- I saw it trying on Wednesday)

Well, that's good!
Sorry, I have nothing to add...just trying to cheer you on.
Hang in there.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

If the little jerk is not afraid of you, a pellet gun will dispatch him easily. When I was a youngin with no sense I lived in a house with 15' rats (from head to tail) running through it. Shooting them with a pellet gun was great fun. (the house was cheap; what can I say?)

 

[mcclucker]

If the little jerk is not afraid of you, a pellet gun will dispatch him easily. When I was a youngin with no sense I lived in a house with 15' rats (from head to tail) running through it. Shooting them with a pellet gun was great fun.

I have no doubt...

That I would shoot myself in the foot.

I have last Saturday’s victim in my chest freezer in case we need to use her as bait. I will ask our chicken keeper friend if he feels like hanging out with his shotgun in exchange for a nice bottle of bourbon