Rats - arrgh

[DukesDucks]

Thanks for the advice. I have been removing all the food and water from the run each night. The bags of food are securely stored. Good advice about leaving the trap, live trap and snap traps, in such a way that the rats get used to them. I haven't seen any in a couple of days. I filled in any hole I could find so I could see if there is still activity. Maybe wishful thinking that I got on top of this early enough.
Do you think it would work to put up a little rat sized sign telling them that just down the road are two neighbours whom I know are set up to provide them with endless food and shelter?

 

[KaleIAm]

Thanks for the advice. I have been removing all the food and water from the run each night. The bags of food are securely stored. Good advice about leaving the trap, live trap and snap traps, in such a way that the rats get used to them. I haven't seen any in a couple of days. I filled in any hole I could find so I could see if there is still activity. Maybe wishful thinking that I got on top of this early enough.
Do you think it would work to put up a little rat sized sign telling them that just down the road are two neighbours whom I know are set up to provide them with endless food and shelter?

I think the little sign will absolutely work, if you also build a tiny school to teach rats to read.

 

[DukesDucks]

Now I can't get the theme song for the movie Ben out of my head.

 

[ReneesRanch]

So picking up the fod (which I started doing anyway) but really cleaning up any scraps and filling their holes even to where I sprinkled animal friendly deterrent down in the hole then really covered it, I haven’t seen the lil bugger in three days. I did run my rain barrel hose over the hole also and it’s rained a lot for a couple days. But it was dry in the run. I figured he’d have dug another hole but my trail cam hasn’t caught him. So I hope he is gone. It was only here making a hole just over a week. It could still be in the yard somewhere. Anyway, I am going to clean up extra yard clutter and keep up on doing all I can to never have another. Something worked! Maybe a combo of everything worked. thanks for all the advice!

 

[ReneesRanch]

Now I can't get the theme song for the movie Ben out of my head.

I was singing that yesterday to my friend about my lil buddy who I think has moved on. I named him Lex Luther though. But I was singing Ben.
“Lex, you’re always running here and there!”

 

[ReneesRanch]

So I did successfully get rid of the rat. It’s been a week now with no holes and no sight on the trail cam. Fingers crossed. I removed all scraps and specks of food at the ned of the day, daily. I poured pet safe deterrent down each hole and then covered the holes. I also let a hose from my rain barrel lay over the holes when it rained for a couple of days. Haven’t see it since. Removing their food and making their holes an unhappy place to be totally did the trick.

 

[ReneesRanch]

So picking up the fod (which I started doing anyway) but really cleaning up any scraps and filling their holes even to where I sprinkled animal friendly deterrent down in the hole then really covered it, I haven’t seen the lil bugger in three days. I did run my rain barrel hose over the hole also and it’s rained a lot for a couple days. But it was dry in the run. I figured he’d have dug another hole but my trail cam hasn’t caught him. So I hope he is gone. It was only here making a hole just over a week. It could still be in the yard somewhere. Anyway, I am going to clean up extra yard clutter and keep up on doing all I can to never have another. Something worked! Maybe a combo of everything worked. thanks for all the advice!

Food. Not fod.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

We had a rat problem in our yard before we even got chickens. Then once we got chickens the rats made a lovely nest under a stump (root system was the perfect infrastructure) and started coming to eat from the chicken dish during the afternoon. I even found one dead in the run-maybe the chickens ganged up on him but more likely he was poisoned by someone else and just came home to die. At any rate I flipped out. It was just too disgusting. I actually sold my chickens and we moved the run. Now I have no-spill feeders that get put up in the garage every night and the waterers are made unavailable. The cat does her part. We never had any luck with traps.

 

[DukesDucks]

I'm starting to feel like this has become personal - rat vs me. I had filled in all the holes I could find, and have been diligent about removing food and water at night. Thought I had won as there were no new holes for almost a week.
Two days ago a large new hole showed up under a ramp off the coop. This is not into the run but on the side of the shed. I mostly filled in the hole, and set a snap trap and live trap. This morning the hole had been enlarged, and in the process the dirt had sprung the snap trap and blocked the live trap door from fully shutting.
Tonight I'll reset a little further from the hole. I plan a semi-circle of traps filled with yummy stuff. Fingers crossed.
Where's the local fox when I need him?

 

[Aunt Angus]

I'm starting to feel like this has become personal - rat vs me. I had filled in all the holes I could find, and have been diligent about removing food and water at night. Thought I had won as there were no new holes for almost a week.
Two days ago a large new hole showed up under a ramp off the coop. This is not into the run but on the side of the shed. I mostly filled in the hole, and set a snap trap and live trap. This morning the hole had been enlarged, and in the process the dirt had sprung the snap trap and blocked the live trap door from fully shutting.
Tonight I'll reset a little further from the hole. I plan a semi-circle of traps filled with yummy stuff. Fingers crossed.
Where's the local fox when I need him?

I have rats. "Ugh" is right. The water bucket thing works for me, as do the electric traps. Thought I had it under control, but nooooooo....... I am seriously considering getting a barn cat. My birds are penned and have a covered run, bug I am running out of options, and I don't want to poison, either. And living in a wooded area doesn't help at all.

Problem I run into is that everything that kills rats also kill chickens and ducks....
Grr!