What to do when one bite isn't working anymore

[dandydoodle]

Okay well we had a family of rats move into our coop. We tried several different traps etc. This didn't work at all, rats were smart enough to snap the traps without getting killed. Lots of people suggested one bite. Okay we got one bite immediately it seemed to decrease the numbers. There was about 7 of them and I think it went down to about two. The remaining two seem to know better then to touch the one bite. I think they are starting to have babies in the coop wall again. Ugggh, what do you do if the rats won't touch the one bite.

I really need help, I don't want the numbers getting back up again. They give me the creeps not to mention a couple weeks back they attracted a rat snack. Snacks scare the begeezes out of me.


Help please

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

In your case a rat snake is not a bad thing. It will eat the rats and any other varmints you have around.

 

[bobbi-j]

Quote:
Uh, do you mean *rat snake*? Even though you don't like snakes they could be your friend if your rats won't touch the bait. We don't have rat snakes here (at least, I don't think so - I'm in western MN and have never seen one. Does anyone out there know if they live here?) but from what I've read on the forum here, they can be very effective in decreasing your rat population. You will have to pick your eggs frequently, and protect your baby chicks because apparently rat snakes will eat them, too, but then again, so will your rats. Personally, I'd rather deal with a snake than a rat population explosion, but that's because I don't mind snakes.

 

[nickie]

Leave the snake and tell him thank you, but stay out of his way, they tend to be mean.

 

[Mattemma]

The ideal for dealing with one animal is to find another that eats it.I try to do that with the bugs in my garden! Keep the snake around.Other than that I can only think of large glue traps in boxes only the rats(or mice) can enter.

 

[la dee da]

We used to have a rat problem under our shed, until a rat snake moved in. Honestly I only saw it a couple of times, never bothered us and if you see it just leave it alone or make noise and it should move elsewhere out of your site. I actually want one to move in under our coop because we have such a big mouse problem out here. This is all, of course, assuming you want to keep the snake after all. If you do end up deciding to let the snake stay, you should consider ditching the poison as it will kill the snake if it eats a poisoned rat.

I've heard of people mixing plaster of paris with peanut butter and the rats died of a blocked digestive system. Have you tried a bucket trap? Maybe a different kind of poison? Maybe a live trap for squirrels would work.

 

[la dee da]

Quote:
Really? The ones I've seen have always been really docile. Not "pick me up and I'm ok with it" docile but docile nontheless. Are you talking about the black rat snake or another specie?

 

[babalubird]

There is a poison you can buy similar to the peanut butter/plaster of paris thing. We've used it and found it far more effective than any other poison, in fact it was mentioned on this site--that's how I found out about it.

It's "Assault" by Purina, I think.

It is really an ugly hard death so be careful nothing else gets hold of it.

Connie

 

[chickiepie]

I don't know if this will help, but its what we did after a rat continued to eat the bait off the trap without snapping it. We took peanut butter and smeared it on the trap. Then, we stuck bread into the peanut butter and smashed it down. They can't get to the peanut butter easily, so they have to try harder, thus snapping the trap. We did catch the rat within an hour of setting the trap this way, and it also works for mice. Good luck!