RATS!! too smart to get caught, help!

[technodoll]

We have a rat issue in & around the coop.

I know, because I caught one red-handed IN the coop, stealing food - tried to whack it with a piece of wood but it escaped. They are digging enormous holes everywhere, trying to burrough their way into the coop.

I bought two of those big Victor Rat Traps, baited and set them out near the holes they travel in to get near the coop.

Day one: a trap went off but no rat, just a big pool of gelatinous blood nearby. No rat in sight.

Day two: traps intact.

Day three: one trap intact but devoid of bait, 2nd trap went off but no signs of rats or bait.

Then I bought some rat poison (pellets), four days in a row of setting it out to no avail, they don't touch it.

However they are still digging and crapping all over the place.

We cannot have cats here, as our dogs are cat killers and I'm allergic to cats, I don't want an extra burden or mess on my hands.

PLEASE HELP!!

 

[Shiningfeather]

I wired a piece of raw bacon to my trap and smeared it with peanut butter to finally get one I had in my greenhouse that took my bait for two weeks straight and didn't get caught. He was smart but I was smarter! Good Luck

 

[lilcrow]

This is not the time of year for this to be of any use to you at all, but when I had my farm I tried to encourage snakes, black and corn specifically. I don't know if you're to far north for that or not, plus of course they're all hibernating now. But, in the spring you might tell your friends you're looking for a few nice black snakes and if they find any that they would part with to give you a call.
As far as right now, rats are VERY difficult. I empathize with you. I'm extremely lucky right now that I haven't seen any signs of rats, I've got field mice and I kind of don't mind them TOO much, as long as it's not an infestation, because theoretically as long as I've got a mouse population it's unlikely that I've got a rat infestation. I've heard that mice move out when the rats move in. (Don't know if that's true, but it sounds logical)
My only thought about trapping your rats, is a bizarre one. Because they are so smart and weary, you'll have to get very creative. I was trying to capture a rat that had escaped in my basement years ago and all the usual methods were pointless. I finally used a female and a tricky maze with no escape at the end to capture the little A-hole. I don't know if you could use a white rat female and or pair, (I don't know, again get creative here, start thinking like a rat) but use it/them to ease the way either into a trap of your creation or eating something that is poison. Maybe you could poison the food that is laying around the cage of the white rats that are eating non-poisoned feed. I think that will only work once, but you might get a few of them. I was able to get about a half dozen rats with poison the first time I put it out. Then as you know, nothing. They walked over it, around it, etc., but would never take a nibble. Whatever you do, try the best that you can to keep the bodies picked up. If there was anyway that you could keep the others from seeing the ones that died that would be perfect. That's how they figure it out. You also might try carbon monoxide in their tunnels. If you can get your chickens out and run a flex hose into one of the openings, maybe try to cover as many of the other openings that you can find. You'll have to let that run for a L.....O.....N.....G time. CM takes a really long time to kill. You'll probably come closer to running them out temporarily than killing them, but you might be able to get a bunch of babies that they can't move.
I don't envy you one little bit. They are difficult, no they're much worse than that, they're just so darn smart and distrusting of everything. That makes them almost impossible to catch.

 

[technodoll]

I'll keep putting out the poison pellets AND re-engineered rat traps with "irresistable" bait and hope to catch a few...

They drive me crazy!

Next week we start work on updating, insulating and rat-proofing our 2nd chicken coop which has been used as a storage shed for decades, hopefully with enough security systems in place the little bastids will leave us alone...

We will have to dig 12" deep all around the outside of the coop and put in wire mesh (it's about 14' x 12'), add some missing wood boards, the dirt floor inside the coop will be laid with crushed stone and patio cement tiles, insulated with thermax and we're nailing barker board over that, flush to the patio tiles. If that doesn't work then I don't know what will, besides being creative as you say!!

please eat the yummy bait off the traps, you horrible vermin

 

[feathersnuggles]

You could try putting wire mesh over that dirt floor before adding the crushed rock and stuff. If you have a large rat population, you may need that extra help in keeping them outta the 2nd coop floor. At least until their population collapses.

 

[technodoll]

That's a good point - thank you!

I have to buy a few rolls of chicken wire anyways, what's one more...

*shakes fist at stupid expensive vermin*

 

[lilcrow]

Well now I'd say that's being pretty creative, plus heavily armoured.

It's got to at least slow 'em down.
Good luck.

 

[bantamsrus]

You know what work good for us--and we found this out by accident when we left the cover off a grain barrel:

Get a large trashcan (the outside size) and fill the bottom w/ a couple of inches of corn. Place the trash can next to something that the rats can climb up onto and then jump down into the trash can. But they can't jump out!!!!

I caught lots and lots this way (note: this was at an old farm house we were renting out).

How do you get rid of rats in the trash can? That might not be for an open forum discussion.

 

[technodoll]

I have a tall slippery trash can... and chicken scratch... I'll have to give that a try!!

Thank you!

So poison, traps and the garbage can... and then fill the garbage can with water, hold their heads under water with a net until they drown??

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
I don't think that's going to get it. Check with feathersnuggles about what they actually had in mind, but I'm afraid it may have been more along the lines of hardware cloth or 1/2 or 1 inch welded wire. They'll chew through chicken wire in one bite. Sorry, I don't really mean to be the harbinger of doom.