rats as predators

[rhs7111]

Quote:

I'm sorry, but it just isn't true. The ONLY way to kill rats without a secondary posioning risk is to use traps. Yes, traps are time-consuming, nasty to "dispose" of, and rats to smarten up to the traps so you need to keep revising the bait and placement strategy, but they do work.

 

[rhs7111]

Quote:
My info did not come from ehow.com, but from several vets.

Well then I think you should query better vets, or contact a top veterinary school to ask them....try Cornell, Tufts, OSU, etc. If your vets really told you that a cat or dog would need to eat many poisoned rats in order to be killed or critically injured, you need to get new vets. That is absolutely and inarguably wrong information. Again, understanding both physiology and rat feeding behaviors will support this.
Traps, as yucky as trapping can be, really are the only genuinely safe method of killing rats (assuming you don't have hungry kittens, wandering chickens or other small animals able to get into the traps---careful trap placement is still important).

 

[Katy]

Quote:
My info did not come from ehow.com, but from several vets.

Well then I think you should query better vets, or contact a top veterinary school to ask them....try Cornell, Tufts, OSU, etc. If your vets really told you that a cat or dog would need to eat many poisoned rats in order to be killed or critically injured, you need to get new vets. That is absolutely and inarguably wrong information. Again, understanding both physiology and rat feeding behaviors will support this.
Traps, as yucky as trapping can be, really are the only genuinely safe method of killing rats (assuming you don't have hungry kittens, wandering chickens or other small animals able to get into the traps---careful trap placement is still important).

Actually I did contact top level vets at more than one vet school....not just my local vet. No one said it is 100% safe, but that the odds of it happening are not high. I'm sure it probably depends also on what type of poison you chose to use.

I'd never put the bait where anything else can get to it.....the reason I spent $80 bucks on the locking bait stations. Everyone has to decide what works in their situation and there was a time I would have argued against using poison, but not anymore. Traps did not work for me and believe me, I tried several different ones. As soon as a trap caught one they avoided that trap like the plague......I think they can smell the death on it. I also tried many "safe" methods which were a total waste of time and money.

And for what it's worth I found half eaten rats on more than one occasion and no dead cats and that's been over a month ago now.

I'm not going to get into a p*ssing match with you to decide who's right or wrong. I just know what I was told by people who do know what they're talking about and I'm just passing on my personal experience with the problem.

 

[calista]

Katy, did you ever try rat bucket traps? My grandmother used a version of these everywhere around her farm with great success:

Here's a description from another site:

Nick Dexter has reported a simple and effective rattrap widely adopted by the Zimbabwe farmers for control of rats. Nick Dexter says that he caught 934 rats with 9 traps in 21 days. Mr. Shekhon, who worked in Namibia and now with the Punjab Agro Industries, says that he tried the trap in Sangrur and it works very well. It is very simple to make the rat trap.

To make the trap you need a 20-litre bucket or large clay pot, which holds water. Bury this in the ground near known rat holes or leading sites.

Take a dry maize cob and cut off the ends. Push through it a thick wire, which is one metre long. Make sure the cob can spin freely. Fasten the cob in position in the center of the wire.

Bend the wire as shown and push firmly into the ground on either side of the bucket. Put a depth of 15cm of water in the bucket.

Each evening, coat the corn cob with peanut butter, wetted flour or some other kind of food which will stick to the cob.

Remove drowned rats each morning. The trap works best during the new moon.

http://www.journeytoforever.org/at_rattrap3.html

 

[Katy]

I did something similar with a trash can, water and sunflower seeds flaoting and covering the surface the water. I drowned a few that way, but not very many. Rats are very smart creatures and it doesn't take long for them to catch on to how traps work. The thing with slow acting poisons is that they don't associate being sick with something they ate 3 or 4 days before.

 

[Slotred]

Here's an idea I picked up at the feed store last week: Get a piece of PVC pipe--at least 4-inches in diameter and at least 3-feet long. Cap both ends, one permanently and the other removable. Drill a hole in the side of the PVC big enough for the rat to get in. Put D-con or other rat poison in the tube and close both ends. Place the tube near a woodpile or other location where rats hang out. Rats like to crawl into small hiding places, so they will find the bait, and you won't have to worry about kids, dogs, or other animals getting into the D-con. Check the trap by removing the removable end of the PVC. Replace D-con as needed.

 

[chickened]

You are right there is risk with poison all poisons your pet can eat alot of stuff that can kill it like salmon blood, coffee grounds and chocolate but what is worse the risk of poison or bubonic plague ? or one of many diseases carried by rodents. Modern rat bait has enough labeling and warnings that anyone with half a brain can tell the risk is low and the ones that cannot well maybe they should not even own a dog? Some cases simply require poison and that is on a case by case basis. I have used it responsible for 30 plus years and have never knowingly killed an unintended target.
Quote:

I'm sorry, but it just isn't true. The ONLY way to kill rats without a secondary posioning risk is to use traps. Yes, traps are time-consuming, nasty to "dispose" of, and rats to smarten up to the traps so you need to keep revising the bait and placement strategy, but they do work.

 

[musikate]

2 words: Rat Terriors!

 

[youngchooklover]

Never had a problen with rats
but I have had a poblen with cats.

 

[Zalf]

I use rat poison, the blood thinning kind, I watch their routes that they follow to get into the chicken house and place a matchbox high up or in place inaccessible to the hens outside the coop. Then I rush out early in the morning to pick up any possible stray pellets that might have fallen. So far only found one pellet. I have to do this every 6-8 months.