How can you be so infested with rats and have 4 cats? I am trying to understand that one.
I would take a couple of litterbox-trained cats and leave them and their litterbox in the attic for a few days while it is cool up there. Meanwhile get a ladder or whatever you need and find out how they are getting into the attic in the first place. Ditto that treatment for under the house. The coop is small potatoes, easy to inspect and seal up.
Bottom line is clean up and seal up. I live in the country 21 years now and have yet to have the first rat anywhere in any outbuildings or our home. We have never;had a cat either. Nothing for them to eat and no litter for them to nest in. Coop is so tight only flies can get in and large outbuilding is same. A very very few mice over the years ( that sneaked in thru the garage doors if open for a while) and even one that got into the attic via the conduit that brings the power line thru the attic space to the electric meter. Caulk took care of it because they cannot see that there is/was a fat crack there . You can get rid of them for good but the longer you let them multiply the worse it will get. Not to mention the health issue.
My cats are useless (they don't go outside because my dogs would eat them out there). They would panic if I put them in the attic or crawl space. Spolied brats.
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If you take it out for that long, make sure you hang it high for your chickens and not too low for the rats to get to it. They will come out anytime when they want too. It may be comfy for them now, but when they cant get any food, the rats will die off one by one.
I bought a rat zapper and tried peanut butter as recomended on the brochure, but that just melted all over the inside and pretty much dissapeared. I then tried a piece of raw bacon, and haven't caught a rat yet. I did have mine out in the rain, but that was mostly by accident. I didn't touch the thing until all the ground was dry just to be safe. I have only seen 1 rat in my yard, but they say when there is 1, there is probably a hundred! Keep trying!
One post I read said that if they are already eating the chicken feed, then to poison it since they are not afraid of it. The person who posted that said he got all of them that way. Canned corn soaked in antifreeze might work. They might go for the extra sweet taste. has to be the kind of antifreeze that has glycol in it (same stuff that is in the flu vaccines!)
Man am i so glad that i dont have rats in my area
ill take my mice and pocket gophers any day over rats
my sons cat is a pocket gopher killer only cat ive seen take out a gopher
I had rats before and used a drown trap to take care of them. I used a plastic 5-gallon pail filled halfway, floated a small shallow pan on the water and then baited it with shelled corn. The rats jump into the pail to get the corn only to sink the pan. Although rats can swim, they can't swim forever!! They usually are dead when I checked the pail in the morning when feeding the birds.
I have cats too but they won't take on a full grown rat. The drown trap was the best option that I had. No poison to deal with either. Your cats could actually eat these rats to get a taste for them too. Make sure that you make a ramp to the top of the pail to make it as easy as possible for your rats to commit suicide.
what happpens if chickens eat rat poop or mouse poop? i have noticed some in the feed in the mornings. I have started picking up their bowls but I notice there is rat or mouse poop in the coop
I have a rat zapper.......gets mce and chipmunks all the time. only ever got about a dozen rats, thats when I was innundated with them. Thanksfully I seemed to have gotter rid of the problem, but I still leave the zapper on. be careful.......it does work on chickens!