Rat Control in winter *edited with pictures

[Egghead_Jr]

A rat can have up to five liters a year with each liter up to fourteen young and those young being sexual mature in five weeks.

Extreme conservative number of one pregnant female having 3 liters of 8 with 50/50 gender, first litter having 2 litters and second litter only one at years end would yield- 225 rats total. Of those you've 112 pregnant rats at start of year two.

Traps wouldn't even put a dent in the number of rats and generations left out of the equation.

 

[lazy gardener]

Boonie, I can't see the details of your photo. Can you please give me a verbal description???

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Safe to assume there are more to catch... Or not. Tomorrow the girls get to eat the one in the trap assuming it freezes in there overnight. Does not appear to be nursing but if is new mum then the babies will die too. I've added a rat snake to get them during warmer weather.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Boonie, I can't see the details of your photo. Can you please give me a verbal description???

Is a metal trap with the door closed behind the rat when it entered to get the busted pumpkin in the other end away from the trap opening which is just next to the holes dug at the building corner. Rat is comfy.

 

[Howard E]

To OP SnowyChicken and also Bucky, can you share some pictures of your coop setup. Where you are finding rat signs and perhaps how they are getting inside?

 

[lazy gardener]

Thank you.

 

[Howard E]

Bonnie: How big are the holes on that live trap? They look to be at least 1 inch square. The rat cannot get out of it?

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Bonnie: How big are the holes on that live trap? They look to be at least 1 inch square. The rat cannot get out of it?

It is a big rat and head just a little too big. Got lucky! 1" squares.

 

[Chullicken]

Living in New Hampshire, we have identical vermin issues. A lot of folks talk about rats, mice, chipmunks..a lot of times they are the guilty party. Many forget about the elusive mole. They leave perfectly round holes about the size of a quarter as they come up and probe for wasted food and other edibles. I had a really bad issue last year when I was working a lot so I didn't have the time to thoroughly clean up after my flock as much as usual. Poor things would get brutally murdered. I learned prevention is easier than the solution with vermin. The use of Hardware Cloth and a solid custodial program go a lot way.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Fun thing with the live trap... This one also can catch squirrels. But with bird leftovers from a predator loss the trap got carried away about 100 feet presumably by coon or fox with head stuck temporarily!