RATtle Royale

[QuoVadis]

I have rats living under my pigeon loft, so yesterday I began a RATtle (rat battle) royale, that ends only in death to them. I am in the city (like really in the city, near downtown, more houses than yard in these parts) so I have no predators to speak of except hawks or loose dogs, and my whole back yard has a chain link fence around it, plus it's a small yard and my two dogs patrol it, so I have never in three years of having chickens and/or pigeons had any predator problems, except from above and thus have not worried about too much predator proofing. After I built a new pigeon loft this spring I noticed little trails under it, but I assumed it was rabbits, because we have millions of them and my cat is constantly bringing dead rabbits (and mice/voles/etc.) to my door. I realized it was rats when I came into the coop one morning and found a dead baby pigeon partly pulled through a small gap where I had attached the wire to the wood. Since the whole was too small to get the baby out (and I'm not even sure the rats got in, I think the baby was sleeping a night next to the wire) they simply chewed his wing right off and took that!

Well I should have started killing them then, but I was about to leave on a vacation so I made the wire more secure as a temporary solution, and also got an old, free chest freezer to store all my grain in... then yesterday I found a hole dug under my chicken coop on the other side of the yard and a little Dutch pullet I had just put in with the big chickens dead, with little knaw marks on her body. I am not sure if she broke her neck trying to escape or if the stress killed her, because the bites didn't look severe enough to have done her in.

So long story short, if you have signs of rats, deal with them before tragedy strikes. But now I am on the war path. I bought one of those old fashioned classic rat traps, and also a gnarly heavy duty Tomcat one and put those out last night with Peanut butter and Plaster of Paris balls. Killed a huge mom rat in the Tomcat trap and a younger one in the other, plus they took about two cups worth of PB&PoP balls. Hoping to a see a reduction in consumption tonight indicating they are DYING.

I have heard mixed things about the PB&PoP balls, but they are my first choice since they aren't poisonous to dogs or cats, so how many days should I give them to work before I try the Just One Bite poison (my next choice)?

Can't believe I am so excited about killing these buggers! I love pet rats, and even as a kid bottle fed some baby wild rats who were nice, but when they are not in cages they are just too smart and destructive to have a live and let live attitude in the way I deal with them, like I do with mice and other varmints, like the rabbits who destroy plants and trees! (It also helps that my cat kills tons of mice and rabbits, but apparently even he doesn't want to mess with rats!)

 

[0wen]

I would continue with snap traps vs poison. Snaps are safer, faster, and you're certain of the result. Poisoned rats go off, die, and then stink like hell for a while. You can just drop the trapped ones in a garbage back to haul off.

Rats can have pups every 21 days so it may take time to be 100% clear of them. Setting multiple traps per night should go through them relatively quick.

 

[QuoVadis]

Yeah, poised is not my first choice for sure, but I also want to make sure I eradicate them so if other methods don't work or are too slow I will use it. Last night I didn't catch any rats in the traps and none of the PB&PoP balls were gone - so either they cached enough balls last night and weren't hungry or the PB&PoP balls are working and they are dying. Time will tell which I guess.