Rats and Mice - Ick!

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

We are just being inundated with rodents lately. Found a huge rat in one of our silkie coops this morning. Wondered why when i opened the door, their food and water containers were knocked over. Then saw black netting on the floor. Looked up and saw a big fat rat up in the eaves. At first i thought it had dug in from the outside, but then realized it had ripped the netting off the inside of the windows to get out (there is hardware cloth on the outside). It had been in there all night!

i see now where it dug in under the door of the pen, then must have been hiding in the coop when i put the birds to bed. Very thankful those three silkies are safe. We also have a herd of baby rats zipping around the duck pen. i shot the mom a couple days ago, and have gotten one baby so far - four more to go.

Anyhow, just complaining. i have a ton of work to do to secure all the little nooks and crannies where the rats and mice are digging into our pens.

 

[ellie32526]

try making a dough using sardines and a slice of bread. Use that on a snap trap. Rats can't resist the fish smell. Place teh traps where the rats travel back and forth along a wall, Be careful to put the traps where the hens won't get snapped instead. Put out several traps. Reset as needed.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

I never thought to use sardines. I have traps (rat zapper, snap, sticky, havahart) and have baited them with peanut butter, but no luck. I've caught mice in the zapper with peanut butter before but these new kids aren't going for it. Will definitely give the sardines a try. Thanks!

 

[ellie32526]

My son worked at Wal-Mart for a time. They had a big rat problem. They used the sardine dough on the traps and caught rats in the trap before they made it out of the warehouse. Rats have a fantastic sense of smell and the fish attracts them.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

My son worked at Wal-Mart for a time. They had a big rat problem. They used the sardine dough on the traps and caught rats in the trap before they made it out of the warehouse. Rats have a fantastic sense of smell and the fish attracts them.

Thanks for the info. i ended up buying a larger rat zapper which just came the other day. It's supposed to be okay to leave outside in inclement weather. Will set that up tonight with the sardines. Fingers crossed!