Rat dropping from poisoned rats.

[Oolala]

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

I suppose living in the country you get used to the idea of the odd mouse coming in so I like to give them a second chance when they start to bring in their entire extended families, well thats a different matter

 

[Mtnboomer]

I suppose living in the country you get used to the idea of the odd mouse coming in so I like to give them a second chance when they start to bring in their entire extended families, well thats a different matter

You are a nicer person than I. I rabbit hunted our back pasture 2 Novembers ago and it was almost like the ground was moving there were so many mice. Im sure all the owls, hawks, foxes, bobcats, etc ate good that year!

 

[Melodychick]

I don’t know if any of you ever watch the SWFL eagle cam. Recently one of the baby eaglets died and upon autopsy it was discovered that he had bled to death from ingesting rat poison. Please exhaust all other methods before resorting to poisons.
https://www.winknews.com/2020/02/19...yeK-xAWk6mPsA3sUsjreMvrC57xrVbCNubW7RjrUpHYiY

 

[Oolala]

I don’t know if any of you ever watch the SWFL eagle cam. Recently one of the baby eaglets died and upon autopsy it was discovered that he had bled to death from ingesting rat poison. Please exhaust all other methods before resorting to poisons.
https://www.winknews.com/2020/02/19...yeK-xAWk6mPsA3sUsjreMvrC57xrVbCNubW7RjrUpHYiY

That is so sad and it really was a last resort as I hate to kill anything, and very much aware of the wild life and how it can affect them. I dont even use slug pellets in the summer for that reason or spray insecticides. if the traps had worked it would obviously have been a better situation. After poisoning the last lot I have not seen any droppings or dead rats around so I hope they died in their burrows

 

[The Dapper Duck]

There is a little confusion here about secondary poisoning. It is true that most rat poisons on the market contain anti-coagulants (e.g., warfarin, bromethalin) which absolutely will cause secondary poisoning. But there are alternatives that act on being metabolized and rendered inert. Terad3 is a cholecalciferol based "poison" that, when digested, results in the calcification of organs and subsequent organ (usually kidney) failure. If any of you take joint supplements, you might recognize the ingredient because it's commonly prescribed for joint and bone health. Once it is digested though, it can't affect scavengers. The only chance is if the rat had some undigested product in its stomach or if the rat was caching the product somewhere and a critter found the cache.

A second point on this, to back what some others have said, is that leaving food out definitely will make your rodenticide less effective simply because the rat is used to eating that food and will likely just keep eating that instead of the rodenticide. So if you use poison, take the food away at night at the very least and make poison the only food option for the rats.

I have a rat issue right now, but it's mainly my compost keeping them around. Time for an overhaul and relocation/reconstruction of the compost for me.

 

[Oolala]

There is a little confusion here about secondary poisoning. It is true that most rat poisons on the market contain anti-coagulants (e.g., warfarin, bromethalin) which absolutely will cause secondary poisoning. But there are alternatives that act on being metabolized and rendered inert. Terad3 is a cholecalciferol based "poison" that, when digested, results in the calcification of organs and subsequent organ (usually kidney) failure. If any of you take joint supplements, you might recognize the ingredient because it's commonly prescribed for joint and bone health. Once it is digested though, it can't affect scavengers. The only chance is if the rat had some undigested product in its stomach or if the rat was caching the product somewhere and a critter found the cache.

A second point on this, to back what some others have said, is that leaving food out definitely will make your rodenticide less effective simply because the rat is used to eating that food and will likely just keep eating that instead of the rodenticide. So if you use poison, take the food away at night at the very least and make poison the only food option for the rats.

I have a rat issue right now, but it's mainly my compost keeping them around. Time for an overhaul and relocation/reconstruction of the compost for me.

I have also stopped putting food scraps in the compost heap and no longer leave food out overnight, so far so good and still have a live trap out with a poison bait in but nothing yet apart from a little field mouse which I let go.

 

[Sunshine_Chick]

I didn't know I had rat(s) until I tried to go to the store Wednesday. My car wouldn't start. While on the phone with my mechanic trying to diagnose the issue I discovered a nest & the darn thing has eaten the wiring harness to the computer of my vehicle. Mechanic can't even look at it till the end of next week. My next door neighbor took everything out of their garage last weekend & bet I know why now. I have no idea how much it is going to cost IF he can even fix it. To think it happened in just a couple of days. I had 2 packets of rat poison I bought at the feed store when I saw someone else buy them for $1.00 each BUT I was hesitant to place them around & not seeing rats, but so cheap I felt compelled to buy them. All the boxes of stuff in my garage they could have made a nest & they chose my car. When I have wheels again next month I will be buying more. Mechanic told me to put moth balls under the hood because they will be back he said. A friend brought me moth balls as I am incarcerated in my own house without wheels.

 

[Naser]

Poison is a problem in the beginning but after most of the rats are dead very few if any droppings will be around