Rat problem

[cmom]

This is what I use. I haven't seen any rats in a long time. I had a coop that was infested. I renovated the coop. Prior to renovating the coop I move the birds to another coop and shut the coop up and put rat baits in the coop. I put baited bait boxes in my barn which is behind my coops because I had seen rats in there too.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

Do the rats usually live in the run? Live somewhere else and visit the run to get food? I'm trying to figure out how to solve this problem. The last few nights we have not been leaving the food out overnight. But, when I bring it in at night, there seems to be what looks like rat poop in the feeder. Which I guess means the rats are coming during the day. Does that sound right? I don't know anything about rats. We have deep litter in the run, lots of mulch, leaves, straw, etc. Could they be living in the run? No rat poop in the food that is in the coop at night, but there is usually only a little there. Since I have dogs, I can't use any type of poison.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You will need to use bait station to rid your rodent infestation. I wish chicken 101 books would be forthright about the need of rodent control plan prior to getting birds. Once you're inundated there is no way to solve it other than poison in bait stations.

I keep one right in the run and one in shed where feed is stored. Only chick size birds could get into it, completely safe to use if you don't have new hatched chicks with flock. It will take time for the rats to use the stations and if using bromide it takes two weeks or more for it to take effect on full grown rats. I like the bromide as it's slow acting. They will store the poison right in their dens underground to feed on. This wipes out the entire colony and underground so you wont see dead rats in your yard or have potential of other animals eating them.

Tamper proof (takes a key) bait station at TSC or Agway
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tomcat-rodent-station

Pail of bromide chunks bait
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tomcat-with-bromethalin-bait-chunx-4-lb-pail?cm_vc=-10005

 

[Callender Girl]

The best tip I've used is to glue down whatever bait you're using in a kill trap -- in my case, dry dog food. I had a dead rat the next morning, one who had been eluding my live trap efforts.

 

[cmom]

I had to replace my bait boxes awhile back because I found out that there is another predator that like rat bait and is immune to it that I found out about after doing some research. It destroyed a couple of my bait boxes to get the bait. My baits kept disappearing.

 

[Jammerz]

Caught one tonight. I used nuts glued to the bait pan with Nutella. First one in 2 months.

 

[Birdinhand]

with rats, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. hardware cloth, wall to wall, ceiling and floor has kept rats from being an issue for me. I've never had to use poison to control them, that's a myth. I do still trap them around our gardens because they come for our food :~(). the best advice I've gotten is to put out ten or more traps at a time, even more is better. for the first round go head and bait them with peanut butter, bird seed or as suggested, something like nuts and nutella, something that will force them to fiddle with the trigger. once you stop getting any rats with bait, stop baiting the traps and think of them more like snares. if you can see on the video where they run, place the traps perpendicular to the trail that they frequent, forcing them to run over the trigger. rats are risk adverse, they tend to dart from hide to hide, they have your coop and runs mapped out in terms of safe trails in their head, they keep track of the trails by memory but also by leaving a trail of oils/dander, particularly on the corners of things that stick out along their trail. look for dark patches where hair/oil have been rubbed off, if you can find a few spots, you will know they frequent that area and it's a good place for a trap. they may feel so safe inside the coop that they just run willy nilly, and in that case, try and find where they enter the coop and look for any signs of trails leading up to it, particularly places where they are out in the open, that is where they will be the most reckless and likely to run across a trap. there are plenty of reasons to avoid poisons, but you have to get in their head a bit to kill them with snap traps and you have to be persistent, and yes, remove all source of food at night... and then, once the ground thaws, you have to seal up the coop so there is no more than an inch gap anywhere, leading to the outside, not in the roof, not under the eves or especially along the bottom of the walls, hardware cloth needs to extend down into the ground a good 24 inches. rats can climb up the side of a building, tight rope walk power lines, laundry lines, up siding or posts, they search and search, if there's a hole anywhere, they will find it if it means an open source of food. rats have up to 21 babies at a time, they can get pregnant within 6 weeks of being born. 2 rats can replicate into a thousand rats in six months. don't let a rat problem get out of control, it's a nightmare to deal with once they have a large colony.

 

[RNPAULIE69]

Make sure she's up-to-date on her vaccinations, especially her rabies shot. And get her a booster. Once symptoms show up, rabies is not curable.

Rabies is unlikely to be transmitted, as rats have a dry bite..there are some pretty serious illnesses dogs can get from rats though.https://www.cuteness.com/article/diseases-dogs-can-catch-rats

 

[Folly's place]

Rodents are lower risk for rabies, but high risk for Leptospirosis, at least.
Mary

 

[Stacyoung13]

I need some suggestions for killing and trapping these rats. First time in years that we have had them in the coop, the last time they were here I was still too young to remember anything.
View attachment 1657026
They are very cautious, I have killed one and I have known about them being here for several months. I set lots of snap traps for them and a few live traps, after the first one was killed I did not see any or catch any on the trail cam for several weeks. Turns out they had completely switched their location to the old rabbit burrows on the other side of the coop. There is a hole underneath the straw by that one. Every time I switch something up in their environment they don't go near it. This trail cam is set on top of a feeder full of grain and they did not come within a foot of the feeder all night because they were scared of the camera! I need a suggestion besides poisoning, I can't poison because they are chilling in the rabbit burrows with the rabbits. Also I have dogs and lots of wild animals visiting and don't want to kill anything on accident. For bait I have tried scratch, whole corn grains, and peanut butter. For traps I have tried box live traps and several types of snap traps.

I had a problem with mice and rats, I set up traps and everything, and they would just walk around and wouldn’t even bother with them. I Tried the bucket trap too, but they would just walk up the plank, look at it and turn around and walk back down. After lots and lots of research, I found out that mice and rats can’t stand peppermint, or other mints, but peppermint works best for me. I have a camera set up in my run so that I can watch chicken TV, and one night ended up watching mouse TV instead. there was probably a dozen or so running around. I took the peppermint extract, 2 ounce bottle, poured it in a 12 ounce spray bottle and filled it up with water, went out there and I sprayed around the feeding areas, And around the outside of the coops. Next night on chicken TV there was only one mouse. I sprayed again that night and after that no mice, no rat, no nothing. I sprayed every night for two weeks, after not seeing anything in that two weeks, I cut it down to three times a week and then once a week and now maybe twice a month. I think I’ve seen one mouse in two months and it was only cutting through it never came back.