Rats!!!! Rats!!! And Just Plain Rats!!!

[ilovechickens]

HELP!!! I have rats, I hate rats, they are not in the coop's yet, but if they burrow anymore runways, one of my coops will fall into a sink hole. I did have a pest control company come and put a powder in the holes, assured that it would not hurt the chickens, and the rats have just burrowed more holes!!! any suggestions!!!! I would like to go as natural as possible, but at this point I am getting desperate. Here are the steps that are already done:
1. All waters are in the coop's that are locked up at night.
2. All of the food are in metal garbage cans.
3. There is nothing around the buildings for them to hide under, all underbrush is gone as is everything that was up against the building.


We have 7 steers adjacent to the coops, we keep them cleaned, and know that not all grain is going to be eaten, and we need to have the water out for them.

Please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Well, you could stuff rags soaked in household ammonia deep into the burrows, as long as the chickens can't get to them. The smell will drive them out. Perhaps cover the holes after you put the rags in there. Not sure if there is anything else you can do. I know mice hate peppermint, but not sure about rats. Never have seen a rat here, which is surprising since I live in the woods.

 

[theoldchick]

Unfortunately, the coops we make for our chickens are also perfect for most rodents: food and water readily available. Warm and dry. Fresh hay in small boxes. Snakes and raptors not welcome! A dream house for all rodents!

If you want to try a natural approach you can purchase sticky paper made for rodents. You'll have to put it in a pet free area to keep the dogs and cats off the paper, and be willing to handle the sticky paper once it's covered with live and dead vermin. Or you can try rodent traps and releasing the rats far, far away from home.

I use rat poison to keep my population down in my barn. I place the pellets in a dog-cat proof container- a metal cash box with a lock which has a small hole for the rats/mice to get in and eat a meal.

 

[emys]

You could dig down 2 feet and run hardware cloth around pens. They can't dig through that.

I wonder if those gopher deterrent stakes would work? The ones that make noise?

(You could get a fox terrier, but you'd just end up with more holes from the terriers digging.)

 

[shaky]

You need a resident rat snake or bull snake

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
Nope but they can chew through it if they want to.

A rat can chew through metal fairly easily...it depends on what the rat wants on the other side and how bad the rat wants it.


Rats do not like peppermint....toss some peppermint down in the holes.

 

[SunChick]

We used a trap called the rat zapper. Bait it and they get shocked and that is the end of Mr. or Ms. Rat. It is battery operated, chickens can't get into it, runs about $30 I think. No need to worry about ammonia or rat poison around the chickens.

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

ask a hunter who has ratting terriers to come over and take care of the problem

 

[Debob]

Read a postt couple days ago, use coke ------sound like a plan then.