Rat problem

[Al Gerhart]

that quickly though?

Up until recently we fed them a whole mix of things thinking mixing our own feed would be cheaper it wasn't.

Our last batch of feed we fed them was 2 50 lb bags cracked corn, 2 50 lbs layer feed (crumble), 1 bag scratch grains

As I took advice from other posters we have now switched to 4 50 lbs bags of all flock (pellets) with 1 bag of scratch grains

This is our new feeder I just made and installed today

Was there supposed to be a picture of your new feeder you installed?

 

[rivardda]

I came up with something and I feel like I should post it for what it's worth.

We live in New Hampshire and over the past few months rats have moved in. We have a rabbit hutch and 6 hens in their coop. The rabbits dug a tunnel network and the rats moved in. Then the rats dug their own network under the chicken coop. We had countless (10+) rats running around every night in each place.

I tried traps and they did nothing. The rats are too smart. My wife won't let me use poison or shoot or burn. So I had an idea.

We had a real hard cold snap for 4 days. Once the ground was super frozen I filled up 2 5 gallon buckets with water and put them outside on the porch. Every 20 minutes I would go break the top ice and stir them to get the water the very closest I could to freezing. When the ice crystals were forming throughout the water column in the buckets I dumped them on the rat tunnels at the tunnel's highest point.

Apparently the combination of almost-freezing water, frozen ground and gravity was pretty lethal. We have only seen one rat since then.

If anyone wants to duplicate the experiment I'd like to know the results. I hate the idea of using poison and killing predators. We had a very well fed owl that helped with the problem but it could only eat so many rats.

Apparently for us a frozen flood took them out. Hope it works for others. Its a solution available to those of us who still get winter.

 

[tlcmurphy]

I came up with something and I feel like I should post it for what it's worth.

We live in New Hampshire and over the past few months rats have moved in. We have a rabbit hutch and 6 hens in their coop. The rabbits dug a tunnel network and the rats moved in. Then the rats dug their own network under the chicken coop. We had countless (10+) rats running around every night in each place.

I tried traps and they did nothing. The rats are too smart. My wife won't let me use poison or shoot or burn. So I had an idea.

We had a real hard cold snap for 4 days. Once the ground was super frozen I filled up 2 5 gallon buckets with water and put them outside on the porch. Every 20 minutes I would go break the top ice and stir them to get the water the very closest I could to freezing. When the ice crystals were forming throughout the water column in the buckets I dumped them on the rat tunnels at the tunnel's highest point.

Apparently the combination of almost-freezing water, frozen ground and gravity was pretty lethal. We have only seen one rat since then.

If anyone wants to duplicate the experiment I'd like to know the results. I hate the idea of using poison and killing predators. We had a very well fed owl that helped with the problem but it could only eat so many rats.

Apparently for us a frozen flood took them out. Hope it works for others. Its a solution available to those of us who still get winter.

Brilliant!
Unfortunately I, and the rats, live in GA. I think we missed this year’s cold snap.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I came up with something and I feel like I should post it for what it's worth.

We live in New Hampshire and over the past few months rats have moved in. We have a rabbit hutch and 6 hens in their coop. The rabbits dug a tunnel network and the rats moved in. Then the rats dug their own network under the chicken coop. We had countless (10+) rats running around every night in each place.

I tried traps and they did nothing. The rats are too smart. My wife won't let me use poison or shoot or burn. So I had an idea.

We had a real hard cold snap for 4 days. Once the ground was super frozen I filled up 2 5 gallon buckets with water and put them outside on the porch. Every 20 minutes I would go break the top ice and stir them to get the water the very closest I could to freezing. When the ice crystals were forming throughout the water column in the buckets I dumped them on the rat tunnels at the tunnel's highest point.

Apparently the combination of almost-freezing water, frozen ground and gravity was pretty lethal. We have only seen one rat since then.

If anyone wants to duplicate the experiment I'd like to know the results. I hate the idea of using poison and killing predators. We had a very well fed owl that helped with the problem but it could only eat so many rats.

Apparently for us a frozen flood took them out. Hope it works for others. Its a solution available to those of us who still get winter.

The rats will form a religion that speaks of the great flood that wiped out the sinners and allowed only the chosen ones to repopulate the earth. LOL

But, the territory is still there, a new population will come back if you don't start practicing sanitation. Bulk feed in metal barrels, treadle feeder, clean up the access points the rodents use to get to and from the feed to their dens. Might be impossible with the tunnels existing. But once you control the feed you control the rats.

A++ for thinking out of the box.

 

[rivardda]

Later update, there was one rat that survived but it has a distinct grey color, unlike the others. The Sole Survivor.

I really want to know if someone else tries this if it works as effectively as it did for us. Its so simple and non-toxic. If I knew that one survived I would have done it again.

Now things are warming up and the weapon is gone.

 

[rivardda]

Another update. My wife didn't let me kill the remaining rat while we still had winter. Now there are (from what we can tell) a new brood of babies.

Time to get some dry ice....

Anyone using this icy water weapon: Repeat the process after a couple days. Get them all.