Rats!

[krthaymp]

So, my dog has been not wanting to come in after dark here lately, racing around the yard, circling the coop, etc. I figured the opossum was back, but never did see anything.
Well, last night he was ignoring me again, so I went back out with a flashlight to try and find the offender grabbing all of his attention, and this time he's under the back porch, circling and sniffing, nose to the ground REALLY focused.
I start shining the light around and nothing on the ground I can see, so I start moving up to the cross beams - the ones about at head level, mind you - and not three fee from my face is the biggest rat I've ever seen.
Y'all, I about went into cardiac arrest on the spot.
I think I yelled. I'm not even sure.
The rat froze. I froze. We had an intense stare off for what felt like forever as I'm trying to think of what in the heck to do about this. I have nothing to dispatch it with. Bare hands is obviously not an option here. The dog still has not figured out where it is. I have no choice but to let it go and deal with it later.
So now it's later.
Right now I have hardware cloth up the sides of the run about two feet and out about two feet. The hen house is all wood and hardware cloth. I think I will be swapping out the chicken wire that's over the rest of the run and just making everything hardware cloth. I have a gap under the walk in door in the corner where the door frame is squared but the door is curved on the edge, and that's an access point for a rat.
I'm also going to get some peppermint oil and dilute it and spray it around the outside perimeter of the coop.
I cannot and will not use poison. There are too many other things that could harm.
I can trap and dispatch. I'm a little squeamish, but I'm sure I can figure it out.
What else can I do?
What has worked for everyone else?

 

[ChickenChick46]

The trap and dispatch method works well. Do you have a pellet rifle? That's what we've used in the past. Small, not loud, but immediately fatal with one shot in our experience. Minimal mess.

Hopefully someone else will give you better advice on preventing them in the first place. Good luck!

 

[TOMTE]

Where there's one rat there's likely an entire colony. An old, established colony can consist of hundreds of rats. A younger colony might only have a dozen or so.

Getting rid of a colony is basically a war with a lot of battles and you won't win them all. Contraceptives can be employed in place of poison to keep them from successfully breeding, but it's a slow process. By slow I mean it takes years to see any meaningful difference in their numbers.

RatX is a safe poison, you can use that. It won't harm any other animals that happen to feed on the rats once they die. It works by blocking the receptors in their brain that trigger thirst. So basically they die from dehydration. The only thing is they won't touch it unless they're basically starved, so you need to take away any potential food source from them. Rats are extremely smart; when they encounter a potential food source that they haven't tried before, they'll take a few nibbles and then leave it. If it makes them feel ill in any way, they're going to never touch it again and they'll communicate to the rest of the colony that it's not good to eat. A starved rat is less likely to test the food first, so they'll get the full dose.

If you find a burrow, you can put dry ice at the entrance to suffocate the rats inside.

 

[TOMTE]

I find this article very interesting and potentially very helpful in figuring out control methods!

 

[krthaymp]

@ChickenChick46 I hadn't thought of a pellet riffle. My boyfriend has been wanting one for ages, so I guess he's got his excuse to get one now. Part of me knew rats come with the territory. We live by the woods, I'm sure they're out there, and exclusion is the best defense I've probably got. I've just never SEEN one and it took me by surprise. They are quite a bit larger than I anticipated, and even though they're not as big as an opossum, somehow I'd rather still deal with an opossum.

@TOMTE I'm online now trying to figure out how I'd go about finding the nest. I'd like to dispatch quickly if I can - I don't necessarily have a bone to pick with rats, but they CANNOT be in my coop. I will defiantly look into contraceptives. I had no idea that was a thing. Several neighbors have chickens and have had them longer than I've had mine, so it's possible the nests are on their property. I haven't seen any other evidence on my property, so I'm hoping I can get ahead of this before they really move in. I may use the RatX, if it won't hurt anything else. I just don't want a local housecat or one of my dogs to get ahold of a dead rat and be hurt.

 

[krthaymp]

I find this article very interesting and potentially very helpful in figuring out control methods!

This is great, thank you!

 

[TOMTE]

I may use the RatX, if it won't hurt anything else. I just don't want a local housecat or one of my dogs to get ahold of a dead rat and be hurt.

There is no secondary poisoning with RatX, so there's nothing to worry about there. I'd just be sure to keep the RatX itself out of reach of pets just in case they try to eat it.

 

[ChickenChick46]

@ChickenChick46 I hadn't thought of a pellet riffle. My boyfriend has been wanting one for ages, so I guess he's got his excuse to get one now. Part of me knew rats come with the territory. We live by the woods, I'm sure they're out there, and exclusion is the best defense I've probably got. I've just never SEEN one and it took me by surprise. They are quite a bit larger than I anticipated, and even though they're not as big as an opossum, somehow I'd rather still deal with an opossum.

@TOMTE I'm online now trying to figure out how I'd go about finding the nest. I'd like to dispatch quickly if I can - I don't necessarily have a bone to pick with rats, but they CANNOT be in my coop. I will defiantly look into contraceptives. I had no idea that was a thing. Several neighbors have chickens and have had them longer than I've had mine, so it's possible the nests are on their property. I haven't seen any other evidence on my property, so I'm hoping I can get ahead of this before they really move in. I may use the RatX, if it won't hurt anything else. I just don't want a local housecat or one of my dogs to get ahold of a dead rat and be hurt.

Yeah they gross me out, and I'm not really bothered by things usually. We are also surrounded by woods, and my neighbor who has poultry says they've got them right now. So I'm sure once ours are in their coop, it's just a matter of time, unfortunately. I plan to keep food and water in the run only, not the coop. And I'll clean everything regularly. But like you said, I think even with the best practices, rats are probably going to be at least an occasional part of life with chickens. We like the pellet rifle option since it's affordable, quiet, and effective enough not to be having to shoot the thing multiple times.