Rats... please help.

[MROO]

You may have to dig a trench around the shed and run and bury hardware cloth to keep them out. Rats dig deep tunnels so go 2 ft deep. If you don't use galvanized garbage cans with secured lids to prevent rodents from eating any pet food you put out or garbage you will never get rid of them.

Agreed - but add this - if you're using galvanized bins, leave the feed in the original bags. Galvanized steel has toxins that can leach into the feed ... and into your chickens. On the plus side ... leaving feed in the bags means you can also store a bag of scratch or a supplement in the same bin ... double duty!

 

[Al Gerhart]

While it is fine to leave feed in sacks, galavanized steel isn't going to poison your feed. Farmers have been using it for hundreds of years. We used galvanized water buckets and well pails as a kid. Heck a lot of us take zinc every day anyway and you can bet it is in the trace elements put in the pellets and crumbles.

What a lot of people get wrong about metals is that in their natural state they are rarely bio available. if the feed was wet, if there was soap or oil, maybe it would become bio available. The entire point of the galvanized is to have an oxide coating, part of the pure metal reacts with oxide where it is locked in place until heat or pH changes enough to unravel the natural oxide.

People get concerned about such silly things like galvanized water pails or feeders then they go in and run their hands across their granite countertops and wipe them down with soap and water without a clue that most granite is loaded, absolutely loaded with heavy metals of all types. And yeah, even the oil on your hands will make some heavy metals bio available and ditto on the change in pH by using soap on granite. If you want to have fun pick up a lead test at the hardware store and rub it across a granite countertop.

 

[BuffetChicken]

Super Easy Rodent trap - Non toxic, too.
You can buy a special lid:

View attachment 2806024
Or make your own for next to nothing:

Thanks, I'm going to try making one. I've seen a rat walk through midday each of the last few days. It doesn't go into the run, but I'm sure that's why it's here.

The bakery in my grocery store gives away free 5-gallon buckets. They get the cake icing in them and just toss them when they're empty otherwise. You have to ask, but they almost always have at least one or two empties to give away. That further lowers the cost.

 

[Twhi7]

Hi everyone, I know I made this post a while ago but I wanted to come back and thank everyone for sharing their knowledge!

I ended up purchasing a live trap called the ratinator from tractor supply a couple weeks ago and I’ve had success with it. I have caught 10 rats and still going at it (7 in one night!). I’m not seeing any daytime rat activity anymore so I think I caught the bulk of them. I don’t think the rat population was as large as I thought - I think I just had a couple really brave (and fat) ones coming out during the day. I store their food inside my house and bring in all food about a half hour before sunset so if they wanted food they HAD to come out during the day.

If you have any questions about my experience with the ratinator feel free to ask!

 

[MROO]

Hi everyone, I know I made this post a while ago but I wanted to come back and thank everyone for sharing their knowledge!

I ended up purchasing a live trap called the ratinator from tractor supply a couple weeks ago and I’ve had success with it. I have caught 10 rats and still going at it (7 in one night!). I’m not seeing any daytime rat activity anymore so I think I caught the bulk of them. I don’t think the rat population was as large as I thought - I think I just had a couple really brave (and fat) ones coming out during the day. I store their food inside my house and bring in all food about a half hour before sunset so if they wanted food they HAD to come out during the day.

If you have any questions about my experience with the ratinator feel free to ask!

It sounds like you found your answer. That's awesome! Still, curiosity has gotten me. Once you caught the little buggers in the live trap, what did you do with them? I'm not sure I could handle live traps for rats. I don't want them in my garage and/or coop, but I REALLY don't want to handle live ones, either.

 

[McChooky]

Unless you have a predator proof run you will not eradicate rats .Whats worse is weasels crawl thru rat tunnels to find rats and babies to eat and any tunnels leading inside your coop endangers your flock. Weasels will kill the whole flock if they get inside the coop.
I poured instant mashed potatoes down every rat hole I could find and left out a dish of fresh clean water for the rats to drink from. I haven't put out any in a while because I don't see any evidence of rats.Many of the same predators that kill chickens eat rats so keep your chickens up so the predators will eat the rats.

 

[Twhi7]

It sounds like you found your answer. That's awesome! Still, curiosity has gotten me. Once you caught the little buggers in the live trap, what did you do with them? I'm not sure I could handle live traps for rats. I don't want them in my garage and/or coop, but I REALLY don't want to handle live ones, either.

The trap comes with a drowning tank that you fill with water. So once you catch rats you place the entire trap into the drowning tank and they die quickly. Thankfully the trap has handles so you don’t have to put your hands near the rats . Then drain and dispose of them (I use some throw away tongs because YUCK). I know it sounds horrible but it’s a much quicker death than being poisoned! And I didn’t think I had the stomach to do it myself (I hate rats!), but it’s actually really quick and simple.

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Super Easy Rodent trap - Non toxic, too.
You can buy a special lid:

View attachment 2806024
Or make your own for next to nothing:

I use homemade bucket traps, in the winter i use drain oil, so it doesn’t freeze but no animals (like my dog) are likely to get into it. I have a steady supply of it and I just strain the dead mice out when i dump it into the barrel. RV antifreeze works too and is non toxic, between my own buildings and my folks house and the shop i was up around 100 mice, and one unlucky chipmunk. We are fortunate enough to not have rats but they are reported to work wonders there too, indoor traps ( heated buildings) and in summer I just use water and flush the dead ones down the toilet,
Beauty of these is no one but the pest gets hurt, it can be right in with your ducks, it is CHEAP and it keeps filling regardless of how often you empty it, though I recommend regular draining.

 

[Mariannepeeps]

I'm surprised no one mentioned it but you can poison rats with cement/plaster mixed with cornmeal. The issue with rats compared to mice is that they are super smart and if they see other rats die (like in a trap) they will avoid it. That's why poison works so well as it takes a while for the rat to die so the other rats don't associate the dead rat with the bait. You will still have the issue of the dead rat stinking up the place if it dies where you can't get it but with cement/plaster it won't second hand poison other animals if they eat the dead rat.

Please tell me more about how to do this!!

 

[Mariannepeeps]

Unless you have a predator proof run you will not eradicate rats .Whats worse is weasels crawl thru rat tunnels to find rats and babies to eat and any tunnels leading inside your coop endangers your flock. Weasels will kill the whole flock if they get inside the coop.
I poured instant mashed potatoes down every rat hole I could find and left out a dish of fresh clean water for the rats to drink from. I haven't put out any in a while because I don't see any evidence of rats.Many of the same predators that kill chickens eat rats so keep your chickens up so the predators will eat the rats.

Mashed potatoes?? Please explain. I’m intrigued.