Rats! If they eat poison and the hens eat them..

[Baymule]

I just read this: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183374
I have fought rats in the attic with traps (what a laugh) and finally resorted to Just One Bite. Cut down dramatically. I LOVE this idea!!! (turns off computer and heads to Lowes for plaster of paris...........)

 

[bel]

For the sake of your birds and your nose I would avoid poisons. Nothing like the odor of dead rats hiding in some wall cavity you can't access

and death by warfarin poisoning is not a nice way to go, its a blood thinner and the animal ingesting it suffers drowning in their own blood as it fills their lungs, if a chicken or pet eats the poisoned animal they can be poisoned as well.

A friend has luck with a repeating live trap baited with a banana and peanut butter, they also make electric kill traps that will kill them in the trap so you wont have them crawl off and die in your ceiling (like my other friend experienced

) If you go with a shock trap be sure to put it where your birds can't get at it.

 

[kimntep]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183374

Love the idea of the Rat Rock, but won't I still have the rotting rat smell if they go back under the coop to die?? Then what??

 

[sadies chicks]

Last night I saw a monster rat running along the porch of the coop and I freaked. The girls are not outside yet, so there is no fear of the rats being too close to the birds, but it all makes sense now as to what those holes in the yard belong to. We will try the humane thing first with trapping and releasing and hopefully it works

but rats are pretty smart at times.... oh well, we will give it a shot. Best of luck to everyone!!

 

[cafarmgirl]

There was recently a large, front page, article in our local paper about the secondary effects of rat poison. Yes it can kill your chickens and other animals who consume a dead or dying rodent. It usually takes a rodent 4 -5 days to die and as it gets sicker and more careless there is greater chance of it being found and eaten by something. At some point they hemorrage to the point of dropping dead, maybe in their burrow, maybe anyplace at all, so it's common to find them lying around. Even after it is dead it is a danger to other animals until the body has decomposed.

The active ingredient in the worst ones is Brodifacoum, Bromadiolone, or Difethialone. Commonly known as D-Con, Just One Bite and others.

I was using the Just One Bite because we had a mouse population explosion here this spring, in spite of keeping feed put away etc. etc. Went thru quite a bit of it too so I'm sure we knocked down the population quite a bit. But this last week I'd found a few dead mice and a dead rat near the chicken pens and after reading that article I was concerned for my chickens, cats, and dogs. Not to mention owls and whatever else may find those poisoned critters. Nasty stuff. So now I'm going back to plain ole' traps I guess.

 

[Moonkit]

What about the ultimate rat deterrent? Get a dog!

Like a hyper border collie who chases out fuzzy things from the yard (we haven't seen a rabbit, rat, or squirrel in our yard in years) I think it was a nasty surprise that instead of having to evade a lazy sheltie that they had gotten used to and even started to tease.. suddenly this speedy border collie was there

 

[Baymule]

Quote:
We came home tonight to the smell of dead rat wafting through the house. DH went on a rant, griping about the smell. (it really wasn't very strong) I told him it smelled like victory. I won. The rat is DEAD!