Rat dropping from poisoned rats.

[theharve01]

Good for you. I don't mind rabbits either. I've never eaten any even though my dh was a hunter at one time. They aren't a pest here as they can be in other places.

people introduced myxomatosis here to try get rid of them. what a stupid idea that was. rabbits were a staple part of the Irish diet, until the meat chicken came along. now its very rarely eaten. its a shame. why not eat both.

 

[hayley3]

So birds of prey eat mice, so why did I have so many mice. I could hear hawks calling constantly around me. I lived in a clearing with acres of woods around me but plenty of dead trees for the birds to perch on but I hardly saw any hawks. I can't think of what would keep them from eating the mice unless there was just too many and maybe that's why they never bothered my chickens they had too many mice to feed on.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Haley I am going to show my dh the traps you posted and see what he thinks of carting them off somewhere. I just want them away from here. I bought metal cans to store all my feed in now because I was worried they would get into the plastic cans since I leave the pop doors open for the birds. But I hate the thoughts of Rats running around out there at night. Their poop is toxic. Long time ago I knew a person who lost a whole litter of Irish setters because she kept mom and puppies in her garage and rats got into their food and pooped and then the pups ate it.. I don't want my dogs or birds pecking at rat poop or mice poop. We have hawks too but if they come around here it's to try and get a tasty chicken or duck meal.

 

[hayley3]

I hung my feeders from the ceiling because of the mice, I didn't want my birds eating their poo either. Ewwww I made it high enough and away from any objects so they could not jump up.
I kept the chicken feed containers inside the garage and they never got into the rubbermaid containers that I used for the feed. They chewed on the handles but no more than that. I feel lucky I'm only dealing with mice.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We’re going to go with electrocution dh says it’s best I’m sure we have mice too got poultry got mice. My birds will take care of them. As long as they haven’t been into poison I guess mice won’t hurt them if they eat them.

 

[Al Gerhart]

All this trouble over an easily prevented problem.

Some basic facts that will never change.

Rats and mice will live within a few dozen feet of their food source.

Natural environments will not be able to support more than one mouse or rat per a few thousand square yards.

Which is why most wild critters are territorial, to protect their turf and their food supply.

Any rat or mouse that has to travel to find food will quickly become dinner for a predator.

You are dealing with rats or mice because you are not practicing feed sanitation. Get a proper treadle feeder, put the bulk feed in metal trash cans or barrels.

Clean up the area so the rodents don't have cover as they are traveling.

Problem solved in the chicken coop, 100% of the time. No poisons, no shooting, no killing, no continual problem and expense. Less disease and pests like lice and mites coming in contract with your flock.

 

[theharve01]

All this trouble over an easily prevented problem.

Some basic facts that will never change.

Rats and mice will live within a few dozen feet of their food source.

Natural environments will not be able to support more than one mouse or rat per a few thousand square yards.

Which is why most wild critters are territorial, to protect their turf and their food supply.

Any rat or mouse that has to travel to find food will quickly become dinner for a predator.

You are dealing with rats or mice because you are not practicing feed sanitation. Get a proper treadle feeder, put the bulk feed in metal trash cans or barrels.

Clean up the area so the rodents don't have cover as they are traveling.

Problem solved in the chicken coop, 100% of the time. No poisons, no shooting, no killing, no continual problem and expense. Less disease and pests like lice and mites coming in contract with your flock.

i dont think you can say this is an easily preventable problem. If that was the case pest control products would not be sold in every store. I keep all my feed in large metal cobtainers on wheels. These containers are used to store tools on a building site. Pests cant access them. I feed my birds 90% of their food at 5.45 am. They have that all eaten up quite quickly. Then its up to then yo forage for the day. I then feed a small bit in the early evening. Again all the food gets consumed.

My hen house is on wheels with no floor and gets moved three times a week. Throughout their pen, That is very large.

I do agree with you about them living near their food. And having ruble or trash to hode in for cover. But im not sure what its like were you live. But were i live rats are not living a few ghousand yards apart. They live in every hedgerow. Along all roads with hedgerows.

I dont have an issue with rats having a natural population in my area. But when i have turkeys. Rats just seem to apear. And their popluation explodes. I think they are feeding on the turkey droppings. Unless i follow the turkeys aroubd with a pooper scooper. I can not remove the food source for the rats. Hence the need for poison.

Also i had a treadle feeder a few years back. The rats didnt take long to figure out how to work it.

Thank you though. Some of them points you made are good.

 

[hayley3]

You are dealing with rats or mice because you are not practicing feed sanitation. Get a proper treadle feeder, put the bulk feed in metal trash cans or barrels.

Clean up the area so the rodents don't have cover as they are traveling.

I put everything into a container. I mean everything..tarps...tools, anything plastic, anything they could chew on or pee on, because they would chew and pee on anything, even the plastic tote I put my stuff in. They ate my life jackets before I could save them. And I stated this earlier, my feeder was hanging 12 inches off the ground!!!

 

[BDutch]

Terrified of poisoning something else, I researched "secondary poisoning" before using it and the research I read said that the poison was no longer viable after ingestion by the primary recipient, or I would not have used it. So intentional poisoning of the mountain lions or accidental access to the poison makes more sense. Of course the accidental would be negligence.

It is not true that rat poison only works on the primary eater (rat / mouse). There was a research in the Netherlands in the death of predators that were found around farms where rat poison was used. They found so much poison in the animals that they must have died from the rat poison.

Rat poison is deadly for predators that eat sick and dead rats and mice. After the elimination of the predators , a new population of rats will have every opportunity to multiply. This way there will never be a natural balance.

I try to find the document I read and post it here if I found it (edit).

Edit: didn't find the article I read before, but here is a similar one from Belgium: https://www.inbo.be/nl/impact-van-rattenvergif-op-bunzing-en-steenmarter-marternieuws-19

This is in Dutch, I translated 2 parts with google translate:
However, with the development of second-generation products - which remain in the body for longer and are therefore more toxic - it also became clear that predators and scavengers had an increased risk of secondary intoxication.
.....
In 96 animals - i.e., 56% of specimens with residues and 43% of all specimens examined - values of more than 0.2 µg / g were recovered. Based on literature, we can assume that from this concentration the chance of survival decreases and there is an increased risk of sub-lethal effects and death from intoxication with AC residues. Several ACs were found in different animals, especially second-generation products - some of which may in principle only be used indoors due to their higher toxicity. Both for polecat and for marten, the maximum number of recovered AC in one and the same animal was six, indicating a multiple intake of prey that had ingested poison.

 

[hayley3]

It is not true that rat poison only works on the primary eater (rat / mouse). There was a research in the Netherlands in the death of predators that were found around farms where rat poison was used. They found so much poison in the animals that they must have died from the rat poison.

I didn't write the article I just read it. Studies sometimes disprove the theories of other studies. I did not keep the research articles I read at the time.