Rats inside my run!

[IamRainey]

I didn't have the best of luck with the bait that came with the Tomcat. I bought the Just One Bite and the rats loved it. No more rats. I do have some of the baits in the barn where I have seen rats. Last time I checked them about a week ago, they hadn't been touched.

Thanks for that thought.

I checked and the poison in Just One Bite is bromethalin, the same active ingredient as Tom Cat.

Maybe I'll rub some bacon on the Tom Cat bait and put it back in the bait stations.

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Thanks for that thought.

I checked and the poison in Just One Bite is bromethalin, the same active ingredient as Tom Cat.

Maybe I'll rub some bacon on the Tom Cat bait and put it back in the bait stations.

The active ingredient is indeed the same, but that’s what’s going to kill them, not attract them in to the bait. That attractant is the secret sauce that’s a part of the other 99.5% inactive ingredients.

I ordered that expensive pail to try - I should have it in a week or so. They haven’t hardly sniffed the stuff that came with my bait station. I have trapped 4 of them with my Victor traps though.

Hang in there, I’m sure folks can help come up with a plan. It’s a long battle for sure.

 

[redblack10]

I hate to jinx myself by saying that I have not yet had a rat problem, but I have lost 4 of my sweeties to predators this year, so I empathize with the endless task of securing coops. My neighbor used to raise dogs with pens inside her barn and access to outdoor runs. All along the interior wall, opposite the entrances to the pens, she ran a 2" PVC pipe. In a couple of places, far from the open ends, she connected 2' vertical pieces, into which she dropped bait chunks. Her one-time rat problem soon ended with no one but the rats able to get to the bait.

 

[Howard E]

All along the interior wall, opposite the entrances to the pens, she ran a 2" PVC pipe. In a couple of places, far from the open ends, she connected 2' vertical pieces, into which she dropped bait chunks. Her one-time rat problem soon ended with no one but the rats able to get to the bait.

That is the type of bait box used for roof rats, as roof rats do use fences, rafters, tree limbs, etc. Travel routes up off the ground. So you put the bait where they live. An improvement to the vertical PVC piece for the bait block is to insert a rod into the vertical piece for the bait block, and slide or stack the bait blocks on the rod (blocks come with a hole in them for this purpose). That way the rats can't carry them off to who knows where. They have to eat them there.

 

[Howard E]

Chad.......any news to report?

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Chad.......any news to report?

Hi Howard,

Funny you should ask. So I trapped one a night for four nights in a row. On my trail camera, the activity dropped way off. With the smaller sized hardware cloth along the side they were getting in, they were now blocked off. I was getting what appeared to be a single rat - though one can never tell, they seem to all look the same- that would come by and check things out, but give up after 20 minutes of running around. No holes anymore in the morning, etc.

So, things look great.

Yesterday morning, I fill my hanging feeder up. This morning, I go out and do my daily check, and I notice that my feed has gone down a lot - like probably more than what 8 birds could get through in a full day and morning of feeding. But, I can't find any holes or any tunnels. So, I start really looking around and notice that I have one gap high up on my roof line of the run. It doesn't seem likely that they were going in there, but I block it off anyway. So if that was being used, it's blocked off now. I then start looking over my gates that I use to go in and out of the run. The gaps aren't very big, but might be a bit over the 1/2" guideline. So, I grab some left over lumber that I had from the run, and I start framing in on the inside of the run where the gates close. If you're standing outside the run, the gates swing out towards you. So, I can frame the inside of the run, and make it nice and tight for the gates to close up against. I decided to do just that, and now my gate area is fully secure. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and there is no way to fit through any of the cracks around the gates with the gates closing up against solid framing lumber.

Tonight, I think I'm going to point my game camera on the inside of the run and see if I have any activity. To my knowledge, there are no more reasonable locations that they could get in. I say that understanding that I could be wrong, but I'm hopeful.

I checked the bait stations, and I don't think they've even touched the bait that came free with the stations. The recommended professional stuff arrived the other day, and I'll probably break that out in a day or two. I'm thinking that the bait hasn't been touched because they were still getting access to the run.

We'll see what I find in the morning on the camera.

 

[Folly's place]

Good work so far! Winning takes persistence, and motivation, and this sounds good.
Mary

 

[quackersthemallard]

I went out to shoo my 5wo chicks into the coop tonight because they don't follow the hens up there. They just hunker together down in the darkness.

So I'm out there in the run and I sense some movement. Up in the framing for the roof there are 3 small rats just waiting for their moment!

I got the chicks up in the coop. I put down the door and wedged it closed. In the morning I'll put their food and water up there with them until I get the rats out and the perimeter secured.

I don't know how they got in. And, worse, I don't know how I'm going to get them out!

Has anyone dealt with small predators inside their runs? How did you get rid of them? I don't want to put down poison that the hens or chicks could get to. And I don't really even have any other ideas.

Thanks in advance!

Try buy rat poison, it is bait that they eat. It causes them to look for water cause the bait makes them thirsty. And later they’ll die. Hope this helps !

 

[cmom]

Hi Howard,

Funny you should ask. So I trapped one a night for four nights in a row. On my trail camera, the activity dropped way off. With the smaller sized hardware cloth along the side they were getting in, they were now blocked off. I was getting what appeared to be a single rat - though one can never tell, they seem to all look the same- that would come by and check things out, but give up after 20 minutes of running around. No holes anymore in the morning, etc.

So, things look great.

Yesterday morning, I fill my hanging feeder up. This morning, I go out and do my daily check, and I notice that my feed has gone down a lot - like probably more than what 8 birds could get through in a full day and morning of feeding. But, I can't find any holes or any tunnels. So, I start really looking around and notice that I have one gap high up on my roof line of the run. It doesn't seem likely that they were going in there, but I block it off anyway. So if that was being used, it's blocked off now. I then start looking over my gates that I use to go in and out of the run. The gaps aren't very big, but might be a bit over the 1/2" guideline. So, I grab some left over lumber that I had from the run, and I start framing in on the inside of the run where the gates close. If you're standing outside the run, the gates swing out towards you. So, I can frame the inside of the run, and make it nice and tight for the gates to close up against. I decided to do just that, and now my gate area is fully secure. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and there is no way to fit through any of the cracks around the gates with the gates closing up against solid framing lumber.

Tonight, I think I'm going to point my game camera on the inside of the run and see if I have any activity. To my knowledge, there are no more reasonable locations that they could get in. I say that understanding that I could be wrong, but I'm hopeful.

I checked the bait stations, and I don't think they've even touched the bait that came free with the stations. The recommended professional stuff arrived the other day, and I'll probably break that out in a day or two. I'm thinking that the bait hasn't been touched because they were still getting access to the run.

We'll see what I find in the morning on the camera.

The rats didn't touch the bait that came with my bait stations but loved the other bait I put in it. Curious about what your camera saw.

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Well, picked up the card this morning, and no activity at all. I had the camera pointed at the feeder, and it triggered only one time during night, about 1:30 am. It looks to have been a slight breeze or something just enough to generate a false positive. I have it snap a picture and take 15 seconds of video, and in that span, nothing around the feeder. Other than that, lots of chicken butts as they fed this morning after their door opened and let them out. I didn't have time to inspect the entire perimeter around the run, but I didn't see any new digging in the areas that have had activity before.

I did work from home last Friday, and I'm trying really hard to remember if it wasn't actually Friday morning that I filled the feeder and not Saturday morning. I can't believe I'm not positive what day it was, but that would make it two full days/3 mornings of feeding, and that might be enough time for the girls to have eaten the food down. I just get hyper-sensitive thinking that rats were getting in there - and that could still have been the case. The very first night I ever got them on camera, and when they were able to dig under, the camera had 5 1/2 hours of rats going in and out. It was a party for sure! It used up 25% of my batteries just recording all those photos and videos.

Maybe it was just a lucky night - I'm going to keep the camera recording for a while yet, but at least we have one clean night to build on.