rats and lots of them and I need to kill them!

[newbiechickenowner]

so lure them out with the traps? I have heard that peanut butter is the best for the traps and several people here have commented about the peanut butter balls etc, so I am thinking peanut butter? on anything?

 

[purpletree23]

Bait the traps, staple twine to them with a staple gun tie twine to something and push the traps into the hole with a stick. It's just like fishing. OOOPPS first staple twine then bait then put under coop.

 

[jjthink]

The ONLY thing that works long term is to rat-proof your chicken accommodations (hardware cloth, hardware cloth, hardware cloth) and to consistently make sure there are no food supplies accessible at night. (I keep food supplies in metal cans with weights on top)

I don't intentionally kill anything (except mosquitos, fleas and ticks) but even if I wanted to I would under no circumstances use poison due both to its indiscriminate nature (unintended victims) and the slow, painful deaths.

JJ

 

[llaaadyel]

I would attach the traps to twine and stick them under the duck house. I worked for a pest control company and peanut butter is by far the best bait for them. They even make the sticky traps that smell like it to catch mice and rats. If you can, you have to take the source away at night. As hard as it is, pick up the food and try to sweep some of it up at night to discourage them. If you don't more will just come in the place of the ones that are already killed. And they breed like crazy on top of it. I had woodland rats at my food and I had to do this for a month to solve my problem. I wouldn't use poison in fear of the birds getting anywhere near it. It really is a terrible death for any creature. Once you have the problem solved, I agree 100% with the hardware cloth poster. This will prevent them from going under the house again.

Good luck with everything.

 

[shelleyd2008]

The quickest, easiest, and most effective way to get rid of a huge rat population is poison.

Last year we had rats so bad that I would see the BIG ones (12" long bodies) out during the day. They say the rats only come out during the day when there is a large population. Usually it's the smaller ones you see during the day because, being smaller, they can't compete for food at night. So you know if you see the adult (humongous, nasty!) rats during the day, you've got them bad!


I tried setting traps, I tried using the 'natural' solutions (peanut butter and plaster of paris, soda, cement or P of P mix around their holes) and NOTHING worked. Heck, I even tried poison and that didn't work at first. I lost adult bantams to the rats, numerous chicks and quail, adult and young pigeons, and even a few LF hens who decided to go broody in the wrong place

When we first started putting poison out we would use the bait bars and tie them down. That worked for the bigger ones but not for the young ones still in the nest. The young ones would come out after their parents stopped coming back to them, and the process would start all over again. Finally, the guy at the feed store told me that the delivery person that brought them the poison bait bars said that the poison is most effective if you DON'T tie it down. If they can, the rats will carry it off and back to their nest. This way you get the adults and the younger ones who haven't started coming out yet.

After months and months of fighting with the nasty things, it took all of about a week to be totally rid of them by putting out the poison. Don't waste your time/money on anything else, if you have outside pets you're worried about, tie or pen them up until you get rid of the rats and put out as much poison as you can. The stuff I bought comes in a small pail...I bought 4 of them. It took almost 3 full pails to finally get rid of them but they ARE gone!

 

[shelleyd2008]

After reading the thread I'll add some to my last comment based on my experiences.

The peanut butter and plaster of paris balls DO NOT WORK. Don't waste your time.

Rat traps only work if you have a small problem; if you have a huge problem with them you would need literally hundreds of traps to even make a dent in the population.

Just like traps, shooting is not going to work with a large population unless you have a LOT of time and ammo.

Removing the feed source might work if you are 100% certain the rats cannot get into your pens! I tried removing the feed from my quails' pens at night and THAT'S when the rats started eating the birds!

Put the poison in the rats' holes and on their 'runs', if you have them that bad you can see the paths they make going to and from your buildings. You can tie down the poison but ridding yourself of the rats will take longer than if you just put it out.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

I have not read this entire thread but I assure you that the only practical method of getting rid of all of them will include poison.

Remember that a rat populqation must have food & water and shelter to survive. Around chickens the easiest one to eliminate is often time the shelter.

Now for the unplesant part. With severe infestations it is quite possible that your chickens are now contaminated with salmonella. I would cook their eggs and the meat from them carefully and completely. And yes, I would eat it - if I cooked it.

Mice are actually a more troublesome vector in the introduction of salmonella in eggs than are rats.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

I believe that there are a LOT, but, the shelter is actually coming from the fields. The only one that I know is a problem where we are giving them shelter is one of the duck houses and I am going to raise that up in the spring when we can and be able to get after them hopefully. I have found a tunnel into the "compound" for the first time. Should I stuff the poison down in those holes and cover them with a rock? .

 

[aggie9296]

I had rats get into my squirrel and bird seed and they started living under my shed. I used a combination of traps, poison, and securing the food to get rid of them.

The rat snap traps can be put under things to keep other animals from getting to them. Cardboard 12 pack soda boxes work great and you can toss them with the traps if you don't reuse them. I tried the glue traps and after 1 got stuck, I didn't know what to do with him. I guess you either release them or let them starve to death.

The poison works great, but you just have to watch where you put it so pets, etc don't get to it. Also, the dead rats can be poisonous to anything that eats them. I think I inadvertantly culled some of the feral cat population with the dead rats. And after seeing a rat die from the poison, it didn't really look that painful or inhumane. They basically bleed internally until they go into shock and die. Seemed more humane than the glue traps.

Eliminating the food source kept new ones from coming back.

Good luck.

 

[newbiechickenowner]

The hard thing with eliminating the food is that some drops down through their house floors. All food is kept in the shed in metal containers and the like, but, they say to not let your ducks and chickens get to food that has been wasted and so there runs are raised up and the ducks can't get to that area so they can't eat stale food. Don't others have their food fall through the hardware and end up on the ground?