Shots fired!

[quicknick]

After finding 3 rats in the coop last night i declared war on all rodents. First confirmed kill came tonight. I believe it is some type of wood rat (packrat).

I will post pics if i am allowed to the picture isnt that graphic just a dead rodent. Let me know if i can post it as i i would like to get opinions on species.

Thank you

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Yes you are more than welcome to post your pic for identification.

 

[quicknick]

Much appreciated.

 

[RWise]

You may want to secure your trap, a large rat will drag it off.
Good luck with your war.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's going to take more than traps to take care of your problem. Seeing that many at one time suggest you're overrun. Once established rodent population really takes off.

I use tamper proof bait boxes with chunx poison. No rats. Started using it after we were overrun years ago. It had gotten so bad they'd made their way into the house. Nobody want that or wishes it on neighbors. It takes a week or so for them to start eating the chunx then you use a lot of it needing to replenish the bait box every few days. It gets to the point you start to think you're only feeding them and all is hopeless then suddenly no more chunx is being eaten. There are no more rodents in the immediate area. From there you use very little as preventative of more moving in. So little that I only keep one or two blocks in each bait box. Check on them once a month or so and use three blocks checking more frequently during spring and fall when rodents are on the move looking for new housing.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

You may want to secure your trap, a large rat will drag it off.
Good luck with your war.

Hard to drag off when your brain is squished! But I know what you mean, sometimes it doesn't fully collapse on their head or vital organs. With that said, I like how the trap is called.... 'Revenge'. Hahaha.

OP..... have you looked into the bucket trap? Check it out on Youtube, I hear it works pretty well.

 

[MissChick@dee]

After finding 3 rats in the coop last night i declared war on all rodents. First confirmed kill came tonight. I believe it is some type of wood rat (packrat).

I will post pics if i am allowed to the picture isnt that graphic just a dead rodent. Let me know if i can post it as i i would like to get opinions on species.

Thank you

rock on ye ol Rat Killer! Nasty Varmit’s

 

[quicknick]

I have done the bucket traps before but not this time. I have three bait stations set up along with about 6-8 rat traps and sticky traps inside the coop where the rats are running in the rafters but the chickens cant get to.

The rats I saw were all pretty small and looked like pack rats not the big sewer rats that cause all kinds of havoc so I'm not as worried about it carrying my trap off.

 

[cmom]

This is what I use for rats and mice. Other critters can't get to the bait. It does kill the rats and I have found some dead ones which I dispatched.

 

[Howard E]

I have done the bucket traps before but not this time. I have three bait stations set up along with about 6-8 rat traps and sticky traps inside the coop where the rats are running in the rafters but the chickens cant get to.

The rats I saw were all pretty small and looked like pack rats not the big sewer rats that cause all kinds of havoc so I'm not as worried about it carrying my trap off.

The rats you describe are probably not the larger brown rats (aka, norway rats, sewer rats, etc.), your are probably the smaller black rats (aka, roof rats).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rat

Solution is the same. A regimen of rat poison served up from bait stations, except in this case, the bait stations are not the ground based stations, but are a tube type, and elevated up off the ground, as in along the top of a board privacy fence, in the rafters, up high in trees, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Replaci...3576879&sr=1-7&keywords=roof+rat+bait+station