Rats! Argh....

[TalkALittle]

Mothballs work as a deterrent.......Put them under your Coop....Make sure pets can not get them.....



Cheers!

Sorry, but I don't think mothballs would have a great effect. If there wasn't already a nest under there, maybe. But it's not like moth balls are a rat's kryptonite. They basically just smell bad. I think the rats would just push them back out the tunnels. Or learn to live with the smell.

 

[aart]

Quote: Agrees......
....plus they evaporate pretty quick,
as I found when using them to keep mice out of the snowmobile off season.

 

[FeralPoodle]

Have you thought about seeing if you have a pest exterminator that uses terriers to kill rats? I don't know where you live but in Sonoma County (California) there is a guy with a pack of rat terriers and he does on-site extermination. He uses this sort of smoker to flush them out and then his pack dispatches them, quickly and as humanely as you can given that they are being killed.
I would like to strongly suggest you not use poisons. The secondary effects are impossible to control, really. There are so many animals who will eat weakened or dead poisoned rats and they ingest that poison. You can control your dogs and your cats and your chickens, but not the owls or raccoons that may eat those poisoned rats. I'm no fan of raccoons and I hate the rats, but I do respect the wildlife and the ripple effect of using a poison.
I set Victor brand rat traps following their online directions. You need to place the traps where the rats are traveling as they tend to travel the same path all the time. The yellow bait platform needs to be against a wall so they have to walk over it. I wear gloves when handling the traps to lessen the amount of scent I put on them. I also bait them without arming the traps until see the bait is gone for several days in a row. Then I arm the trap. It's important to not put too many too close together and to remove the trap and rat as quickly as you can. I throw away the trap if it has alot of blood on it, otherwise I wash it. I also make sure I am prepared to kill a rat who only gets a leg or nose caught in the trap. I dont really like killing them but I don't want them to suffer and there is nothing pretty about having your arm or nose caught in a trap. Rats have a tremendous sense of smell and they are also naturally suspicious of new things. I want the trap there long enough that it's old hat before trying to catch anything. If a rat sees the trap sprung I'm doubtful they will try it themselves but eventually some rat will come along that is naive about them and another one bites the dust. So far I have caught quite a few using orange-flavored jellybeans or Starburst fruit chews. I've tried peanut butter, cat food, meat, jelly, cheese, nuts and this has worked the best.

 

[Kasilofchrisn]

I like the multiple catch live traps.
You can catch several in one night.
Then dunk them in water to drown the rats.
I once used a wire minnow trap that worked well for that.
I had a ferret once and he loved killing and eating rats!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[drumstick diva]

I was going to suggest Jack Russell terriers . There are clubs where they like to keep their "terrier" instincts well honed and would be happy to have their dogs dispatch any rats they can. They are fast and extremely persistent - watch some youtube videos to see them in action. No poison, and the terriers love what they do.

 

[jancweb]

Is there a concern about eggs if you go the poison route? Just worried if I did poison and my girls get to a dead rat and ingest anything if it could be transferred to the eggs?

 

[aart]

Is there a concern about eggs if you go the poison route? Just worried if I did poison and my girls get to a dead rat and ingest anything if it could be transferred to the eggs?

Chances are that if your bird eats a poisoned rat and it doesn't kill her,
there's not enough poison that might transfer to the eggs to make you sick.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I use poison 24/7 and have been doing so for almost four years. No worries and not ever a problem. Once in all that time there was a dead chipmunk on the lawn in the morning when on route to open coop. Picked it up and put in garbage. The key to poison is to use the chunx blocks so it can't be strewn around. We use tamper proof exterior bait boxes too. This way animals can't open the box and get to bait, the bait is secured on pegs so can't be dragged out of box and the box can be put right in the run against the coop wall and along a run wall where natural pathways of rodents would be.

Rodents are the seedy underbelly problem of keeping livestock. It's not addressed enough to new chicken keepers and leads to a lot of grief. Take feed away at night, check. Store feed in metal can, check. These little things I did when first having birds but still was overrun with chipmunks and rats. Went to tamper proof bait boxes and have never had a problem since. We have other pets and I use to live with neighbors that had dogs and would come onto property. Never a poisoning to unintended target- rodents. I keep one bait box in run and one side of house closest to run.

Boxes like this, 2 combo-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Protecta-LP...hash=item1e58206b5e:m:mhhVWTpsee-S-WWdtWZ_Ocg

I use this chunx-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tomcat-All-...302029?hash=item54327cf1cd:g:9l8AAOSwvg9XdaPi

You'll go through a lot of bait in first few weeks and think it's going to drain your wallet. Don't sweat it. After that initial bonanza things go to a stand still until more rodents try to move in. During the off parts of year you'll not use any bait excepting a thoughtful change out due to getting old. I use only 1 chunx per box most of the year and check it once a month. In spring and fall when rodents are on the move fill the stations and check weekly. After intial cleaning up of rodents in your area a 4 lbs pail with last years.

 

[dheltzel]

I use poison 24/7 and have been doing so for almost four years. No worries and not ever a problem. Once in all that time there was a dead chipmunk on the lawn in the morning when on route to open coop. Picked it up and put in garbage. The key to poison is to use the chunx blocks so it can't be strewn around. We use tamper proof exterior bait boxes too. This way animals can't open the box and get to bait, the bait is secured on pegs so can't be dragged out of box and the box can be put right in the run against the coop wall and along a run wall where natural pathways of rodents would be.

Rodents are the seedy underbelly problem of keeping livestock. It's not addressed enough to new chicken keepers and leads to a lot of grief. Take feed away at night, check. Store feed in metal can, check. These little things I did when first having birds but still was overrun with chipmunks and rats. Went to tamper proof bait boxes and have never had a problem since. We have other pets and I use to live with neighbors that had dogs and would come onto property. Never a poisoning to unintended target- rodents. I keep one bait box in run and one side of house closest to run.

Boxes like this, 2 combo-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Protecta-LP...hash=item1e58206b5e:m:mhhVWTpsee-S-WWdtWZ_Ocg

I use this chunx-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tomcat-All-...302029?hash=item54327cf1cd:g:9l8AAOSwvg9XdaPi

You'll go through a lot of bait in first few weeks and think it's going to drain your wallet. Don't sweat it. After that initial bonanza things go to a stand still until more rodents try to move in. During the off parts of year you'll not use any bait excepting a thoughtful change out due to getting old. I use only 1 chunx per box most of the year and check it once a month. In spring and fall when rodents are on the move fill the stations and check weekly. After intial cleaning up of rodents in your area a 4 lbs pail with last years.

X2 - if you have a serious rat or mouse problem, get "Just One Bite II" bars and some good bait stations. Do not put this stuff outside the bait stations and you will not poison anything that can't get into those stations. I bought some mouse bait stations on eBay and those are "the bomb" for ridding my feed storage area of mice. I can set them on top of the bags of feed and put a tarp over the whole thing. The mice love the darkness under the tarp and will go eat the bait (instead of chewing holes in the bags of chicken feed) - at least until they crawl off and die.

I find an occasional dead mouse or rat, but I think the vast majority must die in their nests.

Just One Bite II is not listed for residential use, please use care when handling and storing it, it is really safest inside those bait stations. I get this, and the rat bait stations, from Jeffers, but eBay has good deals too.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Poisons, traps, staying up at night shooting rats....hiring exterminators, spending hundreds of dollars trying to build a mouse proof coop, none of those will work long term.


Do one simple thing, prevent the rats from eating your chicken feed. Problem solved.

Metal trash cans for the bulk feed, a 100% metal treadle feeder that will cost you $80.00 to $100.00 delivered to your house, feed scraps early in the day when the birds are hungry and will quickly clean up all of the scraps, and the rats will leave the area or spend their time searching for food instead of hanging around your coop and annoying you.