Rat dropping from poisoned rats.

[Al Gerhart]

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!!!

Plastic totes just give them more to chew on. And a mouse or rat can make that 12" jump. Get rid of their food source, get rid of the rats and mice. Make them scatter and scrounge hard for a living in the wild where the predators will make short work of them.

 

[hayley3]

Also sick mice do not go out into the open fields. From my experience they go hide someplace to die. I found many skeletons in my garage.
I think most people on this forum care about their birds and also the environment. If someone has a better alternative I'm all ears. I did everything before choosing the poison route. I no longer live in the same in environment so can use safer methods because I only have the occasional mouse.

 

[hayley3]

Plastic totes just give them more to chew on. And a mouse or rat can make that 12" jump. Get rid of their food source, get rid of the rats and mice. Make them scatter and scrounge hard for a living in the wild where the predators will make short work of them.

The mice did NOT get into the feeders after I raised them up.

 

[BDutch]

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!!!

12 inches is probably not enough because
the brown rat is able to jump 77 centimeters / 30 inch high and 120 centimeters /47 inch far.

The rats usually com to eat in the 2 hours after sunset and 2 hours before sunrise. It really helps if you take away the food at night. Or make the coop a fort Knox with good hwc all around the coop (bottom too).

Source: wikipedia.nl

Sorry, OP was about rats, not about mice.

I am probably lucky all my neighbors have cats.

 

[hayley3]

I don't have rats...sheesh
Actually I don't have mice either but I'll keep my feeder at 12 inches.

 

[Al Gerhart]

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.

Yeah, it is easily preventable. Your post makes that clear, when you have turkeys, the rats appear, they are eating the turkey's food. Rats and mice will eat droppings if they are starving but given a choice, would you eat poop or would you find a better food source.

You didn't have a good treadle feeder if it didn't stop the rats. Grandpa feeders won't stop rats, none of the overpriced plastic and Chinese made feeders will stop rats. One with a spring loaded door, heavy counterweight, properly installed and with the flock properly trained from day one will stop the rats. If you leave it propped open for a week so the rats learn where the feed is, maybe not. But if you have the right treadle feeder and follow the instructions you will no longer have rats unless you are feeding them in other ways.

 

[Oolala]

We just purchased a house that had an infestation of mice. That 1st winter we killed 43 in traps and the cat caught 11 (why do we have the cat again? ) last year it was 23 and this year it has been 0 knock on wood. The difference for us has been cleanliness. The last owners were not good housekeepers.
But they did their damage. I have had to rewire much of the house as the mice love to chew the insulation off of electrical wires. They were so numerous in the attic that everywhere they had a nest we had urine stains coming through the ceiling. Holes were chewed everywhere in the garage.
We could not use poison first because of the cat, then the chickens, and now the dog. So we started keeping foods in plastic containers, cleaning up after the kids thoroughly, all animal feed is in rodent proof containers, etc.

After our first infestation of mice, which started with the cats bringing then IN, that was a very long time ago I too put everything in plastic containers but last year was the worst, every morning we had three traps in the pantry plus orhers under the kitchen cupboards. We took the whole pantry apart and they had chewed their way down behind the insulated plaster boards from the attic then into the house. After catching so many in the live traps I was letting them go again in the garden, we even took up patio slabs ourside the kitchen, filled evry hole with expanding foam, but in the end it was the poison that got rid of them, I hated doing it as the little field mice are so cute but the attice was full of droppings and everything felt so dirty. We also put an electruc sonic device in the attic. Its been two months now of peace, fingers crossed, but I still inspect the pantry every day just in case

 

[Al Gerhart]

Rats will feed all day if you remove the food at night. Seen it happen in my own coop which is why I started working on a real rat proof feeder.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Rats will feed all day if you remove the food at night. Seen it happen in my own coop which is why I started working on a real rat proof feeder.

My hens have pecked and killrd mice they found in the yard and ate oarts of them. Knock on wood, i have never seen a hint of mouse or rat issue in any of my coops.

 

[Mtnboomer]

After our first infestation of mice, which started with the cats bringing then IN, that was a very long time ago I too put everything in plastic containers but last year was the worst, every morning we had three traps in the pantry plus orhers under the kitchen cupboards. We took the whole pantry apart and they had chewed their way down behind the insulated plaster boards from the attic then into the house. After catching so many in the live traps I was letting them go again in the garden, we even took up patio slabs ourside the kitchen, filled evry hole with expanding foam, but in the end it was the poison that got rid of them, I hated doing it as the little field mice are so cute but the attice was full of droppings and everything felt so dirty. We also put an electruc sonic device in the attic. Its been two months now of peace, fingers crossed, but I still inspect the pantry every day just in case

Live traps? Letting go? It is an unpleasant business but its a death sentence to any vermin caught in my house or garage.