Roof Rats. I can’t remove the food (citrus)

[Apache12]

So my back yard has mature citrus trees and there is nowhere I can put a coop that isn’t by citrus. plus I’m in Phx Az and they need the shade. So I’ve read the rat post and the article in it recently posted but I can’t remove the food because they eat the citrus. Then I think they are sleeping in the nesting boxes. I started finding citrus peel and rocks. The hens still lay in the box no egg problems. The feeder is high off the ground as is the water. They can’t get in there. see the pics I think they are climbing up the wood base and in the wire. Can I put a mesh wire around the. Top of the wood. Or would they climb the mesh until they get to more open wire? Should I mesh the entire coop. So ugly. I have traps. And I’ve had the traps for years and fight an ongoing battle with the rates. Never in the house thank God. Roof rates are a smaller rat. Males are a big mouse females can get good size. I rarely Get them in the traps. I can’t use poison. I have dogs

 

[ChickenLord33]

In my opinion you should hardware mesh the entire coop. The rats will for sure climb the mesh until they find an opening otherwise. It may be a little uglier but you could make it virtually rat proof with mesh, especially with that compact of an area.

 

[Folly's place]

Only hardware cloth will keep them out of your run area, and your coop, while small, may or may or may not be secure enough. Rats will chew through wood, and do eat eggs and kill chickens at night.
Sometimes poison is actually the only solution too.
Mary

 

[Suzyqschickens]

So my back yard has mature citrus trees and there is nowhere I can put a coop that isn’t by citrus. plus I’m in Phx Az and they need the shade. So I’ve read the rat post and the article in it recently posted but I can’t remove the food because they eat the citrus. Then I think they are sleeping in the nesting boxes. I started finding citrus peel and rocks. The hens still lay in the box no egg problems. The feeder is high off the ground as is the water. They can’t get in there. see the pics I think they are climbing up the wood base and in the wire. Can I put a mesh wire around the. Top of the wood. Or would they climb the mesh until they get to more open wire? Should I mesh the entire coop. So ugly. I have traps. And I’ve had the traps for years and fight an ongoing battle with the rates. Never in the house thank God. Roof rates are a smaller rat. Males are a big mouse females can get good size. I rarely Get them in the traps. I can’t use poison. I have dogs

so there is a smaller wire you can use. Tractor supply carries it. I had to use it the roof rats killed my baby chicks! These rats eat anything not just the fruit off the trees and have a litter of babies like every 3 months. Good luck

 

[cmom]

I don't think that that is what the article is getting at, It says to stop "feeding" them, meaning you need to stop giving them a free meal, of open chicken feed. They have to work quite a bit harder, to get up in a tree to eat, and will be discouraged and may leave, if they are driven out with all of the other additions mentioned in the article. Anyway, I get your point, it is funny to think about.

They are fruit rats. They don't eat the chicken feed. I had fruit rats too but I also had orange trees. The rats didn't get into the chicken feed. I just didn't want them around. I did use poison but I also used the rat bait boxes that only the rats could get into and I put them in places where nothing but the rats can get to them, including my birds. The rats will travel some and are good climbers. I put the boxes in my barn. I have a shelf next to the studs so the rat can climb up the stud to get into the rat bait boxes. Nothing else climbs them except the rats and they are high enough nothing else can get to them. My barn is made of metal and they can't climb up the metal but can on the wood studs to get to the bait boxes. I have never found a dead rat but I'm sure they go down into tunnels they make and die. I haven't found any dead ones laying around or other dead critters. While second hand poisoning is possible it is not that usual. Some poisons require the rat to eat several meals and therefore slow acting and these usually will not kill a critter that eats them. Again nothing is impossible but unusual. Possums are naturally resistant to all poisons except neuro-toxins. They have a peptide in their blood that’s capable of countering the poison without causing any damage. Rat poison does not have any neuro-toxins in them and it is not going to do any harm to the possums. If there were any dead rats they may have eaten them before saw any. Before I had my bait boxes I hid some bait in places I was sure nothing could get at them. When I went out daily to check the baits they would be gone so I put a camera up to find out what was taking the baits. It was a possum. Now the possums can't get to them and I haven't seen any more in the barn. I never actually saw the possum get the bait but have caught it with the bait. It kept coming back for more. I haven't had any more issues with the rats. I do keep my bait boxes baited but nothing has touched the baits in quite awhile and I haven't seen any evidence of rats. Before I had actually seen some rats in my nest boxes but they didn't appear interested in the eggs either.

 

[Don 27]

The article says "The one and only way to get rid of rats forever is to stop feeding them" If the tree is their food source I'd recommend getting rid of it , unless that's not an option . I do use plastic roofing for shade .

 

[Weeg]

The article says "The one and only way to get rid of rats forever is to stop feeding them" If the tree is their food source I'd recommend getting rid of it unless that's not an option .

I don't think that that is what the article is getting at, It says to stop "feeding" them, meaning you need to stop giving them a free meal, of open chicken feed. They have to work quite a bit harder, to get up in a tree to eat, and will be discouraged and may leave, if they are driven out with all of the other additions mentioned in the article. Anyway, I get your point, it is funny to think about.

 

[hayley3]

They are fruit rats. They don't eat the chicken feed. I had fruit rats too but I also had orange trees. The rats didn't get into the chicken feed. I just didn't want them around. I did use poison but I also used the rat bait boxes that only the rats could get into and I put them in places where nothing but the rats can get to them, including my birds. The rats will travel some and are good climbers. I put the boxes in my barn. I have a shelf next to the studs so the rat can climb up the stud to get into the rat bait boxes. Nothing else climbs them except the rats and they are high enough nothing else can get to them. My barn is made of metal and they can't climb up the metal but can on the wood studs to get to the bait boxes. I have never found a dead rat but I'm sure they go down into tunnels they make and die. I haven't found any dead ones laying around or other dead critters. While second hand poisoning is possible it is not that usual. Some poisons require the rat to eat several meals and therefore slow acting and these usually will not kill a critter that eats them. Again nothing is impossible but unusual. Possums are naturally resistant to all poisons except neuro-toxins. They have a peptide in their blood that’s capable of countering the poison without causing any damage. Rat poison does not have any neuro-toxins in them and it is not going to do any harm to the possums. If there were any dead rats they may have eaten them before saw any. Before I had my bait boxes I hid some bait in places I was sure nothing could get at them. When I went out daily to check the baits they would be gone so I put a camera up to find out what was taking the baits. It was a possum. Now the possums can't get to them and I haven't seen any more in the barn. I never actually saw the possum get the bait but have caught it with the bait. It kept coming back for more. I haven't had any more issues with the rats. I do keep my bait boxes baited but nothing has touched the baits in quite awhile and I haven't seen any evidence of rats. Before I had actually seen some rats in my nest boxes but they didn't appear interested in the eggs either.

I completely agree, Cmom. I tried everything...there is NO food in my coop but my next door neighbor has 2 grain silos. The rats were living under my garage, digging out the dirt and rocks which eventually could cause damage. They were also mating.
You put the poison where only the rats can get it. Anything else is giving the rats time to make more babies...poison is the only thing that gets rid of them. I actually shoved a stick of poison into their hole and covered it back up. I also cut a hole in a big box and put a stick of poison in the middle and made sure nothing could get inside the box, and sure enough a rat had gotten in there and nibbled on it.
Did I like doing the poison...NO...but I had tried everything else.

 

[DouglasB]

finer wire, quarter inch or half inch hardware cloth. Cover everything and leave no holes.

 

[ackie]

I did use poison but I also used the rat bait boxes that only the rats could get into and I put them in places where nothing but the rats can get to them, including my birds.

That's my suggestion. Or just put the poison blocks strategically where rats can go but none of your other critters. I have dogs, cats and fowl so I just put the block between a heavy storage box and the wall of the coop.