Rats Rats And More Rats

[d.k]

* When you start feeling that way, Scrambled, think about this: 1 momma mouse= 6-8 babies. If 4 are female, 4 momma mice = 24 to 32 babies. If 16 are female, 16 momma mice = 92-128 babies. If 64 are female, 64 momma mice = 384-512 babies. . . . . OR!!! Skip the math and go o/l and look for video of mouse plagues in Australia and other places. . . .You'll snap out of it pretty fast, trust me on this!!!!!!

 

[arlee453]

Nifty - keep replacing the bait blocks daily until they are no longer eaten.

Sometimes with big, well fed, we just ate all your chickens food-type rats it takes more than one meal to do them in.

I had major rat problems out in my kennel buiding at one point - they were tunneling in under neath, etc. I tried traps and caught probably 100+ using traps (3 in one snap trap once) but still couldn't keep up with their reproductive prowess. I'd catch the young stupid babies, but the adults just kept on breeding.

Anyway I finally resigned myself to use rat poison - had avoided it because i didn't want my dogs to eat a dead/dying rat and get second-hand poisoning. I put out block after block after block for about 2 weeks until they stopped eating the bait.

And then had to deal with the dang awfulest smell of probably more than a few dozen dead rats under the building (concrete floor).

And then they were gone. I mean gone, gone. Bye bye, don't ever come back gone.

I have gotten the occasional rat since then, but I'm quick to put out the poision and they are quickly knocked out before they get a breeding population going.

I dont like the idea of poision, but it sure worked better than anything else I tried. If you can put it out where your other animals can't get to it, then it can work quite well.

happy rat hunting!

Oh, and scrambled & JJ....rats can chew through steel pipes. If they get really hungry they will chew right through hardware cloth. I had rats chew through steel garbage cans and through the steel outer walls of my building to gain entry.

If there is an easier meal, then they will probably go find it, but if they are determined to get into a coop, they will find a way.

Rats can jump several feet up vertically. They can chew through almost anything. They are amazing swimmers and can hold their breath for an astounding length of time (ever hear of rats coming up through the sewer pipes and into a home through a toilet - they can do that)

Now i've done given myself the heebie jeebies...

 

[Scrambled Egg]

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.

Those are all the things I thought of..made me so sad..then I try to think about what d.k. said too..

* When you start feeling that way, Scrambled, think about this: 1 momma mouse= 6-8 babies. If 4 are female, 4 momma mice = 24 to 32 babies. If 16 are female, 16 momma mice = 92-128 babies. If 64 are female, 64 momma mice = 384-512 babies. . . . . OR!!! Skip the math and go o/l and look for video of mouse plagues in Australia and other places. . . .You'll snap out of it pretty fast, trust me on this!!!!!!

and that salmonella issue...geez....hope I don't have to SEE anymore of the dead ones!!​

 

[jjthink]

Quote:
Wow - you've got some Olympic athlete rats there! Mine gave up as soon as the hardware cloth was in place and they didn't jump up to try to get in at higher "elevations" at all. Perhaps they were couch potato rats. Tho when I caught one of their babies in a hav-a-hart (pre-hardware cloth) they must have spent half the night handing it straw because in the morning the baby was curled up sleeping in a perfect nest inside the trap.

JJ

 

[Miltonchix]

When I was a young teenager I worked on a dairy farm. Naturally we had rats due to all the grain. About once a month the boss would have me and one of the other kids hunt rats. By accident we found that if you can find a nest with babies you can kill every adult rat around. We would hold a baby by the tail, give it a little shake to make it sqeal and guarateed an adult rat would run out to investigate. WHACK! with a board and repeat until no more rats would appear. We never used poison and kept the rat population somewhat in check.

 

[chicknmania]

Our neighbor doesn't believe in spaying his barn cats, so his cats and ALL the neighborhood cats are coming to our barn for all night rat-catching parties, and sometimes daytime parties, too! Our doofus male cat, Inky, will OCCASIONALLy kill a rat if it's not too big...but his main thing is to keep all the other cats from encroaching on his domain and killing HIS rats!

And Tippit, Inky's half sister, is afraid of big rats. Period. Her thing is to kill baby snakes...who would grow up to eat the rats, if they could!

The other night Inky quickly came in the house and went under the table, where I thought he was playing with a catnip mouse, til I went to pick it up to throw it for him...EWWWW,GROSS! You guessed it, he had a baby rat, it was raining outside, he wanted to bring his gross, slobbery, wet, bloody rat inside to play with.

We have had very bad luck with traps; live traps work the best, and even then it took us a few weeks to catch just two rats. I once talked to someone who said her parents would keep ferrets in the barn to kill rats, but I think that would be cruel to the ferrets.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Quote:

Me too.

The squirrels and rats just figured out they could steal (and eat) the chicken eggs!!!! And right when my new pullets have started laying!!!

So far I have used humane traps, snap traps, bait, AND shooting them, all at the same time (and still do) but we STILL have a problem.

 

[bluetrain]

Dang......and I thought I had issues.........I first came here today with my "rat" issue and found that for what 2-3 pages of predator and pest posts (of everything from foxes, hawks, dogs, etc) I ran across this and another post about mice/rats.........anyway, seems I have at least 1 adult and possibly 2-3 babes.....8x8 coop with 6 hens...so not real big but disconcerting to say the least......tried the snap traps with peanut butter last night.....no luck....seems they have taken up residence under a secondary floor I put in almost 2 years ago....long story, not going there....but decided if I can get rid of these I will rework the floor.....anyway, not crazy about poison because of the hens and dog.....the plaster of paris and sugar peaked my interest, but I have not decided from the pages of posts if it has worked for any of you........I am still looking for suggestions......

......anyone used anything like the Rat Zapper? ( http://www.ratzapper.com/index.cfm )

 

[snaphu]

I HATE RATS!!! we have been "dealing" with them for a few months now! I've got them pretty much under control now, but one huge ugly fat sucker has been eluding my preventative measures! UNTIL TONIGHT!!! HAHA my female chocolate lab caught one!!! a HUGE UGLY UBER SIZED one!!! she caught it, gave it the *death shake* and DONE!!! DEAD!!!

I put the beer can in the photo just to show the relative size of this f&cKer!!! and it is in the background!!! notice the smile on my lab

 

[EweSheep]

Yep that is ONE HAPPY DOG!