Rat

[veronicadm8]

Hello everyone!
Anyone have advice on how to get rid of a fairly large rat while keeping everyone else (bantam chickens, very curious turkeys, dogs, and a cat ) safe??

 

[Ravynscroft]

A good pellet rifle works well...

 

[pauleberly]

Im surprised your turkey and dogs and cats have not taken care of the problems. My chickens killed a small field mouse the other day

 

[eagleview123]

I'm dealing with this right now, unfortunately my barn cat isn't doing his job! I bought a live trap and I've caught 3 rats so far. Baited it with some meat and pelleted feed.

 

[Folly's place]

My barn cats always felt that rats were my problem! If you see one, you've probably got many, and traps will only get a few. Poison is the only real solution, unfortunately, and having feed in metal containers. Mary

 

[eagleview123]

Live traps are definitely more time consuming but they do work. I won't do poison because it's not just the rats you kill. If you kill the rat and then a owl eats the rat or the cat eats the rat etc etc then you poison that animal. I've done live traps in the past and caught over 30 rats!!! That was when we first bought our property and there was a huge rat problem.

Anyway, I agree keep feed in metal containers, try to keep garbage out of the area but if you live in a place like I do (lots of woods, brush etc) then rats are a constant battle.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

A good pellet rifle works well...

I built a night vision scope for my pellet rifle...OMG the most fun predator problem I ever worked on.

 

[Folly's place]

I hate using poison, but never actually say a dead or dying rodent. Hopefully they all went to their home burrows to die. It's not good , but sitting up all night trying to shoot all of them isn't going to happen here. Mary

 

[veronicadm8]

Thanks for the input everyone!! My mastiff stands guard at the sliding glass door watching for him all night and I definitely know when he's out!! Haha. He would LOVE to take care of the problem- but, being such a big dog moves just a bit too slow. I will give the live traps a try.