Rats! I have rats.

[Howard E]

BTW, where are the tunnels the rats are living in? Can you provide pictures of your setup?

 

[Hope Hughes]

A .22 or Bebe gun

 

[rehsanipoor]

SO, the original "nest" was under an air conditioning unit that was near the run. The coop is completely enclosed in the run. At this point I'm not sure where their main "hidey holes" are because in spite of not preventing them from getting in, we have disturbed their routine. I have seen them running around searching for new ways in. I don't have a good camera, but am thinking of using my baby monitor to figure out where their main nest is...

I'm only seeing babies in the run now which makes me think the millions I spent on hardware cloth was effective in keeping out the big suckers. At this point I want to figure out where to put the bait boxes. Does it need to be in their home/tunnels?

Unfortunately I can't move the chickens. We are in a residential area and are limited on space. I'll try to get some pictures/video to give you a better idea of what we have here.

They are driving me crazy... probably short putt these days... sigh.

 

[Acre4Me]

SO, the original "nest" was under an air conditioning unit that was near the run. The coop is completely enclosed in the run. At this point I'm not sure where their main "hidey holes" are because in spite of not preventing them from getting in, we have disturbed their routine. I have seen them running around searching for new ways in. I don't have a good camera, but am thinking of using my baby monitor to figure out where their main nest is...

I'm only seeing babies in the run now which makes me think the millions I spent on hardware cloth was effective in keeping out the big suckers. At this point I want to figure out where to put the bait boxes. Does it need to be in their home/tunnels?

Unfortunately I can't move the chickens. We are in a residential area and are limited on space. I'll try to get some pictures/video to give you a better idea of what we have here.

They are driving me crazy... probably short putt these days... sigh.

HWC is pricey...but as you found, it is effective! I do not have a game camera yet, but according to others on here, there are some very good cameras at an affordable price. If you search on this "predator pest" forum, you should get some ideas on brands that are useful and inexpensive.

Bait boxes will be utilized once the rats are hungry and get used to this new thing in their environment. It should be around their usual locations, but does not need to be in their home/tunnels. They will typically go back to their home/tunnels to die.

I'm glad you are seeing fewer of the rats, and only babies. But seeing babies coming out for food, in the open still means there are a lot of rats most likely. Actually surprised your chickens have not eaten the babies. Maybe too many babies and they ate some, but can't address all of them.


Good Luck!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thanks for all the advice. I will try wetting the food and look into a new rodent proof feeder. @oldhenlikesdogs I have a bait station that came with the bricks I bought. I just wasn't sure where to put it. It's this one:

Is it safe to put in the same area as the chickens? The box says "dog" proof.
@Acre4Me I'm not exactly sure when they arrived. We started seeing one around 6 weeks ago, but now we are seeing babies. We have worked a lot on covering holes and tunnels but it's a "whack-a-mole" situation and every time I think I've taken care of it they find a new way in.

Not sure I have the stomach for it, but I've begun to consider purchasing a bee bee gun... a new hobby???

We use the black bait station with 2 access holes. We use block poison because generally they can't drag that off. We put the bait station out of reach, often husband will cover it with boards or bricks.

Every fall we generally need to deal with rats as they are coming in from the fields to find a nice spot to spend the winter. I haven't any problems with secondary poisoning. I have only found one rat and one chipmunk dead in the open, all others die in their holes.

Rats and mice are a maintenance thing. You can never be totally rid of them. Here our climate makes them mostly a seasonal problem. In warmer climates they are probably a year round thing.

Using a BB gun can be a fun hobby but will take forever, so get a few bait stations set up around the area for a more efficient way to manage them.

 

[cmom]

This is what I use. I had a rat infestation in one of my coops. I rectified the problem with the coop and have these now in my barn which is behind my coops. In the past I have seen rats in the barn so I'm sure they traveled between the coops and the barn. I haven't seen a rat in quite awhile.

 

[andreanar]

I waged a rat war over the summer. It was horrible. Put the bait stations in the coop, along the wall. Put some more out in the run, along edges. I also resorted to using those big glue boards. I cleaned away all pallets, straw and other places they could hide, covered ALL gaps with hardware cloth. Stopped all feeding and snacks inside the coop, and I had my infestation under control within a few weeks. Good luck. Stay with the poisons and you will get them under control. If they don't seem to be going for the bait stations, add the glue boards and snap traps too.

 

[Howard E]

As for the what and how to of using bait blocks...........I asked a professional pest exterminator what he used and it was this........

https://www.belllabs.com/bell-labs/product/us/pest-control/contrac-all-weather-blox

And would be served up from this........

https://www.belllabs.com/bell-labs/product/us/pest-control/protecta-bait-station

You may be able to find this locally, but won't be found at the box stores, etc. You can find them on Amazon, ebay, etc. They make smaller 4 pound pails and 1 pound bags, but I can't find an online source for the smaller amounts.

As for the "how to", my pal John told me what he does is lure the rats away from where they are now by setting up rat feeding stations way out yonder. Not bait, but feed. Best choice is what they are eating now. But move it at least 100 feet or more...100 yards or more would be better if you have the room...... from their existing tunnels. In doing so, he moves the colony out there. After a week or so when there is clear evidence they are taking in the feed out there, he takes that up and replaces it with an abundance of bait blocks.....out there. They get hungry, eat the blocks, then die in their tunnels.....out there.

Once those blocks are no longer being eaten, switch to something else to see if there is more activity. Or even put the feed out again to see if there is any activity. You want to get them all.

 

[rebrascora]

What type of feed are you using that the birds are spilling it..... in my experience it is the grain mix feeds that encourage the birds to bill out the food so that they can find their favourite bits..... or people mix corn or scratch into the feed and that causes the same problem. With a pelleted feed there is never any spillage from my hanging feeders. I have had rats come and jump onto the feeder though even during the day. In those situations I stop using the feeder and give them a wet mash or fermented feed twice a day. That way, they are hungry when the food is put down and eat it all whilst I am supervising. I use a combination of snap traps placed where other creatures can't get caught and poison blocks. I also have a live trap but never caught anything in it since I bought it over a year ago. A good snap trap baited with peanut butter located in the right place (rats like to follow the line of buildings so channelling them along the side of a building with a board leaned against it to the snap trap usually helps) and it will usually catch one or two before they get wise and then I put the snap trap somewhere else and set up the bait stations. You can buy them or use homemade ones. What works for me is a length of 4inch pipe about a yard long. I nail the wax poison blocks to the middle of a length of wooden slat and slide that inside the pipe and place the pipe along the side of the building, so that the rats run along inside the pipe and chew on the wax blocks.

It is a constant battle with rodents but the first thing to do is stop the spillage of food (swilling it away with a hose is just moving it) and prevent them from accessing the feeder. Once they are hungry, they have to start eating the poison or taking the bait on the snap traps. I have two snap traps, an old wooden one and a modern plastic one. The wooden one has caught 5 x as many rats as the plastic one, to the point that I reckon it is no longer worth my time to set it, so try a few different types before you give up on them.

 

[rehsanipoor]

Wow. That's a ton of info and help. Thank you so much to all. I think I'll start by feeding them twice per day with wet food. Can I just get the food I'm using wet? This is what we've been using:

I will buy more bait stations and place them around the perimeter of the areas where we see the rats. Are the bait stations safe to place in the same space as the chickens? They won't try to get into them?