Rats!!!!!

[PhlyinPheBee]

I have a rat problem with rats in my coop at night and they are living under a storage building that is behind my house but outside the chicken yard. I am only feeding what the chickens eat in a day. I have a rat zapper and it worked for a few nights but now I think that they are way to smart. I only catch the young ones not the parents. I am looking for something natural to control them. This afternoon I will be wrapping the coop with hardware cloth. I will be locking the chickens up at night and hopfully the rats will leave!!!!

 

[rungirl]

Somebody out here used a hose from their car and ran exhaust fumes into the tunnel for a hour and gassed them out. It worked pretty well for a desperate situation. I would try that with tunnels, but be prepared to shoot anything that tries to escape from another exit!

 

[pgpoultry]

In Britain we have a product called EradiBait.
This product is placed in an area where it can only be accessed by the pests (I use a run of pipe with the bait pushed along in a tray, placed where the rats run). It essentially swells up when the rats drink water and explodes their innards. The rats almost always die in their burrows and so nothing else is damaged.The bait does not contain any poisonous chemicals. It is particularly effective if left with a sweet tasting drink e.g cola.

There's probably a similar thing available in the USA,

Sandie