R-A-T-S!!

[jhm47]

We live within several blocks of a large grain elevator. They are baiting their whole property with large amounts of rat poison all the time. I know that there are many rats there, even with the poison. We have never seen a dead rat, and our dog has never brought one home. He visits (and scent marks) the entire property each day. I also use bait traps around our poultry yard, and have never had a problem. In my opinion, using commercially available rat poison is far less dangerous to birds and humans than allowing the rats to spread disease and destroy property. They also chew on electric wires, and can cause fires, which is another danger.

 

[Patch's Chickens]

Well, Yesterday we put pallets in our run and I put a roof on most of the run, b/c we are having just torrential rain and the run is truly flooded. I had not seen a rat in a few days, though I had seen some of the "evidence" they'd eaten some poison on the side of the house where one of the bait stations is. I was hopeful not to see any more, but I just did. I let the ladies out of the coop and while in there, I saw a rat walking away on the outside of the run, behind the coop. He was not running, not scurrying, more of a fast lumbering and he looked very plump. As I put the pattets in, put the roof on and then locked the ladies up last night and the food, I thought wow - what a perfect rat haven I've created - they can now run "through" the pallets and eat all the food that dropped down. Just feeling like by trying to solve one problem, I'm going to make the other worse, atleast until we have a break in the weather.

 

[Mom 2em All]

I have a suggestion for natural rat elimination.

Get a miniature weiner dog. Mine will even dig up their burrows/tunnels and kills all she can get to. They are bred for it- and its second-nature.

I think the little terrier breeds also. Like the jack russels.

The other suggestion about the big fiftyfive gallon drum with a wire and a center plate would probably work great, also. At my brother in laws, I often will reach into a barrel to get a scoop of food, and find myself with a scoop of live rat that happen to fall into the barrel of feed.

 

[HappyHatch'en]

Use an empty barrel with about 10" of water in it, on the top, place a wooden dowel in the middle with a string tied to it hanging into the center of the barrel....bait the end of the hanging string with peanut butter....this string and bait should be approx. 18" from the dowel....long enough for rat or mice to have to stretch for the bait, they fall and drown.

 

[Akane]

One of the most important things is to clear out where they live. Once you remove that the population drops drastically. If you also remove all their food source you will have no more rats with no effort on your part. The only times we get rats is when we have something like oat straw bales or broken bags of feed sitting around. Take those away and the rats leave or at least fail to reproduce and get eaten by things.

If you want to kill them my suggestion is an electric rat trap. They kill the rats with a jolt of voltage as they enter the trap. I will never ever use poison again. It has too many risks and a forgotten bag nearly claimed my puppy's life. No idea how she found it but it went unnoticed until she went in for spay surgery. Afterward she started bleeding out and after further testing it was found her blood was not clotting normally. A week of worry, searching the property, having various sources tested including her dog food because everyone swore they had not put down any poison, and $2500 of vet bills later a small piece of a several year old bag of poison was found as the only possible cause. Despite being very careful where we put it that is not the only incident and this happened years after we decided to quit and never use poison again.

 

[kees]

Patch's Chickens :

I am CRACKING UP at KristenM expecting to find the exploded rats after the mashed potatoes - I did the same thing! Also just waiting for our yard to be littered with dead rats from the bait boxes too but that has not happened yet either. I have seen evidence though that the rats are finally going in and out of the bait boxes - if nothing else to keep dry. It has rained so much I would not be surprised to see rats in a row boat - my poor ladies run is a sea of mud, I sunk up to my ankles tonight and we will be getting rain 4-5 days, with over 4" in the next 2 days alone. I was going to hold off on gravel and sand but I just can't - it just does not seem safe for the ladies right now. Need to just get through the next week.

This is sooo funny! I'm having a problem right now with a rat trying to get in through the corner of my house right now. Now I can hear a nest of little ones and it's freaking me out. I'm afraid to use bait because I afraid that it'll hurt the chickens. I'm definitely going to clean up any scattered hay. Just tried filling an inside gap near the wood floor with spray foam. Reeaaalllyy scared about going outside, clearing any hay and finding a mama rat defending her babies. Shoot...I'm even scared of spiders. (Pacing back and forth...pacing back and forth...fingers still pacing back and forth over the keys on the computer keyboard)

Suzy

 

[kees]

Quote:
Can I borrow him? The people across the street have a loose cat that meanders by every so often but the darn rat lives on. I've got two indoor cats but after seeing what they did to a mouse, I'm still scared of a big rat breaching the "moat". (Not that there is a moat, but it still sounded good.)

Suzy