Rats Rats And More Rats

[Cetawin]

Peppermint oil will stop them dead in their tracks as will peppermint plants. You can put the oil on a cotton balls or coton fabric and put it around the coop or plant the plants around it.

It is natural and it will make them go elsewhere.

 

[jjthink]

On that point, I buy a product called Mouse Magic by Bonide- it is comprised of peppermint oil and spearmint oil - and is supposed to repel mice. A friend reports good success with it.

It comes in little sealed packets that you can place wherever you want. I do not place very close to where the chickens sleep in case the smell (as pleasant as it is to most of us) would be bothersome - have no idea if it would be, but just in case. Until it's verified that the scent from these oils are okay in close proximity to chickens I would keep the packets at least far enough away that the smell is not detectable where they sleep.

I had a mouse or two - they don't really phase me in those quantities - but I didn't really want them inviting all their friends, or creating new generations in by the chickens, so I placed a packet outside their building under an eave so it wouldn't get unduly wet. Could be a total coincidence but after a couple of weeks- no more mice.

JJ

 

[Scrambled Egg]

DRAT!!!! DARN!!!! DANG IT!!!! No dead mice tonight!!!!!! I hope they are all petrified plaster of paris sculptures under my shed...tomorrow I'm gettin a flashlight and lookin under that shed!!!! I hope it is a pure rat cemetary!!!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Before dinner (mine, not theirs) there were 2 blocks left. After dinner all baits were gone.

I wonder if I should keep placing the bait until they are dead, or just let the bait work its magic since it takes 4-6 days to kill them.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Here is a link to the PDF for the "HAWK" blocks I'm using:
http://www.motomco.com/pdf/HawkBaitChunx_1oz.pdf

RATS: Place 3 to 16 HAWK BAIT CHUNX (usually at
intervals of 15 to 30 feet) per placement. Maintain an
uninterrupted supply of fresh bait for at least 10 days or until
signs of rat activity cease

I don't know if I have that much poison!

Links to the other product sheets:
http://www.motomco.com/p_supportmaterials.htm#msds​

 

[d.k]

* Nifty, sometimes the traps aren't sensitiue enough. DH usually adjusts them for me to the point that I have to put them on a piece of shoebox or something to set them down or I'm the one getting snapped!!! You do that by pushing the holding catch a little to a place where the trap springs real easy, OR smoosh the bait ball onto the BOTTOM of the trigger, not the top.

 

[S0rcy]

I got a cat that has bobcat ancestry. That sucker is regularly clearing out every mouse in the barn and is now sitting in the kitchen waiting for one to come within snapping distance. It took him awhile to grow into himself and realize that making noise was inhibiting his abilities, but once he grew out of kittenhood, the massacre was on. He drops things at our doorstep every once in awhile just to let us know he's "on the job"

I have always held by good mousers as the best organic mousetrap. Because of my childrens reactions, I cannot use dispersal chemicals and traps don't hunt down the nest. The cat has hunted down 5 nests for me. Granted, the cat cannot go into the walls of the house. For this I would have to use poison, except that the cat may also get poisoned by eating the bait OR the mice that eat the bait. I may have to just live with the few that survive in the house. Luckily theres no where in the barn to hide. No closed walls in there! The cat is looking decidedly well fed heh heh

 

[d.k]

* Our cat, "D", was on the job last night, too and he was cracking me up because he was rearing up on his back legs on a very thin ledge and holding that pose, then lunging down on top of whatever the mouse hiding under-- trying to run it out, I guess. Looked just like a PBS segment I saw of polar bears driving themselves into seal dens in the bottom of the ice floes. . . .

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Quote:
and this cat leaves the chickens alone?

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Before I remodeled our house, there were lots of little ways for mice to get into the walls. Once after hearing mice scampering across the ceiling (sounds like a pack of dogs!), I put the cat up into the attic. She waited for a minute, and then slowly disappeared into the darkness. Didn't come down for two hours.
No more mice were heard after that.

Many rodents will disappear if they even catch a whiff of the cat's scent.

Carla