Rats, can’t seem to get rid of em

[seminolewind]

You can't get rid of rats. It's an on going maintenance . You need to cover every bit of food at night. And none on the ground. Buy a few bait stations and buy Tom Cat to put in there. Do not think this is a one time deal. It's ongoing. I always feel that I'm doing well when no bites are taken out of the bait for days. Traps and such are fine but how well does it work when you catch a few and there are 50 still there?

 

[Al Gerhart]

It is easy to get rid of rats. Stop feeding them chicken feed, they go elsewhere or starve.

Normal foraging for natural food keeps their numbers way down and rats are not a problem until a human sets up a buffet for them. It is that simple.

How you choose to pay to do this is another matter.

Pay for poison forever more. Take the risks that entails.

Spend the money once on a treadle feeder and the time to clean up around a coop and yard.

Pay for traps and your time trapping and the cost of the traps, assuming they work after you catch a few of the more stupid rats. Buy new traps, wash, rinse, repeat.

Or you pay for a rat proof coop assuming they don't free range.

Or you continue to pay far more with buying more expensive chicken feed and live with the non stop influx of pests and disease and the increased numbers of predators that love rats and love chickens too.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

It is easy to get rid of rats. Stop feeding them chicken feed, they go elsewhere or starve.

Normal foraging for natural food keeps their numbers way down and rats are not a problem until a human sets up a buffet for them. It is that simple.

How you choose to pay to do this is another matter.

Pay for poison forever more. Take the risks that entails.

Spend the money once on a treadle feeder and the time to clean up around a coop and yard.

Pay for traps and your time trapping and the cost of the traps, assuming they work after you catch a few of the more stupid rats. Buy new traps, wash, rinse, repeat.

Or you pay for a rat proof coop assuming they don't free range.

Or you continue to pay far more with buying more expensive chicken feed and live with the non stop influx of pests and disease and the increased numbers of predators that love rats and love chickens too.

hey Al, off topic but I emailed you about your feeder from your website a month ago and haven't heard back. Are they still for sale? Thanks!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Hello, I guarantee I replied the same day. Might email me again and check spam if you don't get a reply. Private message me if you don't hear back from me and I will pass along my email address. Or the main website has an email address and the shopping cart has a CRM contact module. But check spam every day! Commercial websites like mine get labeled as spam all the time.

Thanks!

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Hello, I guarantee I replied the same day. Might email me again and check spam if you don't get a reply. Private message me if you don't hear back from me and I will pass along my email address. Or the main website has an email address and the shopping cart has a CRM contact module. But check spam every day! Commercial websites like mine get labeled as spam all the time.

Thanks!

I will email again now

 

[seminolewind]

I agree with Folly's place. I had a coop that was infested. When I started to renovate it there were several rats nests and dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. I didn't want to use poison but I tried many other things to no avail. I finially bought some rat bait stations. I put the bait stations in pet carriers so that only the rats could get to the bait and put them in our barn which is right behind my coops. I had seen some rats in the barn too so I figured they were traveling between the coops and the barn. The rat bait boxes have a little window above the bait so it can be checked regularly. It did get to the point to where the baits weren't being touched. I still keep them out and loaded in case any rats want to take up residency and check them. I did not find any dead rats laying around so I assumed they went into their tunnels I found around the coops and barn and died. Even if you think your have gotten rid of them more will usually eventually try to move in. Good luck...

Really like mine!