Rats Rats And More Rats

[key west chick]

We have rats.Big nasty creatures that pee all over stuff in our shed.Turds are everywhere.

We have poison out, use these plastic rats traps that are sooo easy to set and my DH and son go out once a week or so after dark with their paint ball guns. I am a real animal lover but I hate rats. I have no problem killing a whole nest of babies with a shovel,even big ones if I can catch them.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

key west chick, do you still have rats even after all those things?

 

[key west chick]

Once in awhile I hear/see one run. All my goat and chicken food are stored in galvanized trash cans. My chicken pens are connected to the side of the shed so I guess they go eat the food the chickens drop. We see more in the winter, making nests out of whatever they can chew up.

 

[d.k]

* How is the "Rat Patrol" coming along, folks??? And the "How to get a Mouse Plastered" story, too, natch!!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Well, I ran out of the green "Hawk" bait poison so I'm hoping that they got their fill and by now they should be permanently asleep somewhere (takes 4 - 6 days).

I may put out a few of the red blocks of "Jaguar" bait in a day or two to see if they are still around... and if they are, they can have it!

 

[HenHaven]

I have a rat problem too. We have 2 kinds--regular rats and packrats. It got to the point that we could hear them scurrying around in the basement in the early morning. We tried bait, traps, and the powdered sugar and plaster of paris idea. Nothing was working.

I went to Lowe's and bought an electronic rodent device that emits a frequency that rats can't handle and they move on. It was under $30 and THE RATS ARE GONE!!! I want to get one more for near the coop.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I got an IM from my wife today that when she went out to the coop there were two dead rats, one big mamma one and a baby one. The baby was dead in the run where the hens were cooped up and they didn't touch it. The mom wasn't touched by the hens either... pretty cool!

I'm guessing there are probably a couple others that are dead somewhere and yet to be found.

So, I put out poison on the late evening of the 29th and had dead rats this morning, so a little over 5 days. I wonder if I had left poison out non stop if they would have died faster?

Tonight I'm going to put out a few more bait blocks and see if any of them are still hanging around.

 

[Shrader]

I'm so sick of our rats.
And the traps, though they work, don't seem to be getting enough of them.
I've been afraid to use poison,
but after what you all say, I'll give it a try.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Okay, I feel horrible, like a vicious murderer..that plaster/sugar has been under my shed since the other day...so I figured maybe they were eating it..not sure if that's what happened to the CUTE!!! but dead very small mouse I found floating in my pond just then. White undersides andtail and gray on the top of it..very cute..I figure it ate the stuff and went for water and either died and fell in or fell in and dies..either way I feel terrible for killing something so cute!!!

I am terribly tempted to take up the rest of the plaster but one of ya'll mentioned the salmonella thing and that has stuck in my head and worries me like crazy about my chickens so I guess I'll leave it..it's much better if they die someplace where you can't see them.

I also have an egg eating chicken too since I now think it must not be amouse and has been 3 different times now..grrr...I have golf balls in the nest boxes too...I just hate that...

 

[jjthink]

SE/Darlene - I'm with you on thinking mice can be cute. I once had a pet mouse (rescued it from a science lab when I was in high school) ...it was so gentle and playful... Then I got to know some little Mickey Mouse mice (great big ears for their tiny bodies, doe eyes...)when a camp counselor because they were residents in our cabins! They can be very endearing, they have friends, wash up much like a kitty cat does, play.....

When it came to my coop, the only thing I was able to live with was rat-proofing - that way I didn't have to hurt anybody. I saw what happened when my neighbors put out poison - cute little mice dead - 2 were lying there dead in a hugging position. They held onto each other at the end. Made me sad. I don't even wish this end on rats who likely feel the same pain and terror but just don't look so cute.

All that said, I know rat proofing is easier said than done for folks with large structures. My coops have been small - maybe 4 x 6 - for only 2-3 birds. So they were easy to rat proof - hardware cloth on the floor and several inches up the walls. Then covered with straw for soft landing :^) I didn't really have any other places they could breach so it was a quick and easy fix. And actually, it was the only thing that really worked anyway. The beauty of it is that it is a permanent solution - you don't have to worry about repeat incidences.... Never saw one again (and there had been quite a few that had decided to take up residence). I strongly recommend this route for those whose setup can accomodate the hardware cloth (the rats tend to eat through the floors or make entry elsewhere near ground level so that's where I put the hardware cloth and they never made entry again).

JJ