Rats!!!!!!!

[Vamvakas]

Omg don't get me started with rats... They ate some of my chicks last summer and ripped my dads doves heads off... Use rat poison pellets put them poison boxes. If you have racoons in your area they will try to eat the pellets and throw your box like 10 feet away from were it was...

 

[Tsehey]

I have just found a rat running around the run. Quite frankly it appears to chase the chickens and they are all spooked by it. I have put poison in a bait box but how long will it take to kill it?

 

[ChickChickChicky]

I have just found a rat running around the run. Quite frankly it appears to chase the chickens and they are all spooked by it. I have put poison in a bait box but how long will it take to kill it?

I used the Just One Bite bars. The rats wouldn't eat it for the first several days, but once they started eating it (with gusto) it took exactly 5 days for dead rats to appear. The first one to die was the largest, it was inside my chicken coop sprawled on the floor (and no my "I'll eat anything" chickens didn't touch it). The 2nd rat was a bit smaller and I found it in the run, still barely alive (again the chickens ignored it). When I grabbed the 2nd one by the tail to throw it over the fence, it jumped a little and scared the pee-waddin's out of me, so I threw it down and dropped a large rock on it several times. There may have been more rats but I didn't find their bodies anywhere. All rat activity has ceased, no new burrowing, the chicken feed isn't disappearing, and nothing is eating on the Just One Bite bar anymore. Between the RatZapper and the poison I wiped out almosr a couple dozen mice and at least 2 rats.

I put the poison bar inside of a large wire animal cage I have, set on the ground just outside the chicken run. I left the poison pretty much inside it's plastic wrapper, just tore the wrapper open so the rats could get to it easily. When a couple days went by without anyone eating on the bar, I sprinkled some cracked corn and Calf Manna on top of the poison, The next day you could tell thet SOMETHING had really torn into that bar, about 1/4 of it was gone and it was moved about a foot away from where it had originally been (but still inside the cage)/ Over the next several days they finished off the one bar, so I set another one out for them. They didn't eat much of the 2nd bar before they died.

 

[Haunted55]

I am new to chickens, and I was really hoping I'd avoid the rat problem, but no such luck. Right now there is something chewing holes in my coop-- 3+ inch perfectly round holes, as well as leaving lots of telltale droppings. I keep boarding up the holes with sheet metal but they'll appear somewhere else overnight. If it was just a rat stealing food, I wouldn't be so upset, but a hole that big can let in rats, weasels and who knows what else.
OK, so I'm wondering what you guys think about this idea that I have ...

I know that mice are scared of the smell of cat urine ... so (I know this is weird, stay with me) what if I spread used cat litter around the outside of the coop and in the holes?

What do you think? Has anyone ever tried this? Maybe I'll cover all the bases and use peppermint, moth balls and cat litter.

It will keep the smaller critters away, [I know someone who did use the old clay kind] but it might not work on the big grey rats. You will need to figure out how to keep the chickens from eating it though. Where I am, I have the red Norway rats. Nowhere as big as some of the greys I have seen but they can still be a problem. Have you thought about a feeding station for the rats away from the henhouse? Maybe under a covered pallet so the chickens couldn't get to it? Then you could set out the poison and a handy bucket of water for them. Just a thought.

 

[shadust1]

I know this sounds inhumane..but they r rats..they r a nusiance to my animals and they carry all sorts of diseases..eww....i put rat traps in my barn and kill them...but just the other day i got a kitten...when it gets older and able to live outside..it will be my barn cat....will keep the rats at bay for me...I HATE RATS...EWWWW....LOL...

 

[mowgli]

We live way out in the country and the land we purchased was infested with mice.What I have learned is no matter what method you use they will adjust and start avoiding it.You have to change quite frequently whatever you choose to use.Above all my favorite method is my rescued shelter cats.Not only are you doing something kind for a caged abused animal you can gaurantee the best rat/mice control with them.Hope this helps.

 

[AngryScotsman]

they brought the plague and killed thousands of people because of it i say they need to die but not left on a trap for days and days just what you do it first you check the traps a couple times a day when you find one you shoot it in the head with a pellet gun then bury it i don't drown because they mess themselves and pee in whatever water source you drown them in snap traps don't work with me they always find a way to get out of them electric traps work good too and poisons but i don't use those because I'm afraid the chickens might eat the stuff

Do humans need to die because of monsters like Hitler and Stalin whose policies created genocide, and killed millions?

We kill mice and rats to protect ourselves from possible disease and crop shortages, not because they "deserve it". You can't make a logical claim for a particular kind of species "deserving" to die just because their ancestors were involved in spreading disease which killed people, otherwise you could use the same logic with human beings who've done far far worse throughout history. It's silly. Nothing "deserves" to die, that is merely a personal construct that has no logical basis. Animals die as a *necessity*, not because they "deserve" it.

 

[Tsehey]

Well, my little flock have all gone off to stay (probably permantly if I can't sell this house and get a bigger garden) at a friend's who has a nice run for them. The rat is still running around the garden as bold as brass! He has terrified the life out of my little bantams and they stopped laying pretty well altogether and were really nervous and not eating so well. So, I hope they have a full recovery but the garden feels empty and I am sad!
But just a word about the rat. It was quite interesting to watch how it problemed solved every plan I actioned to out wit him. He avoids the humane traps and appears to be none the worse for the poison he consumed! Tomorrow I am off to get some peanut butter but I hope I can catch it soon because I have stress aches across my shoulders!
Thanks for all your comments.

 

[Birdgirl99]

i did not say they deserve to die but they do need to and it's a rat not a dog or a cat all things bring sickness to people but rats are a pest they eat chickens they do i mean it they eat thier eggs and cause bad things to happen they set houses on fire by chewing the cords just like thier cousin the squirrel and if you see any they need to die not saying that they deserve it but they cause A LOT more trouble than they are worth

and for Tsehey i'm glad the birds are happy but i hope you get the rats gone so they can come back to your garden

 

[gabrielle1976]

Actually it was fleas and human filth and ignorance that made the pluage such a horrible mess. I will not get into a debate about it but for most pests includeing rats its easyer , and safer to remove food and water and nesting / hideing places then it is to try to kill them all , they are pests for a reason and after hundreds of years of us trying to kill them off it should be obvious this aproch dosnt work as well as changeing the enviorment to soemthing they would rather not live in.