Rats!

NH homesteader

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Alright... I have a problem. My entire neighborhood has rats. Everywhere. OK I live in the sticks so it's hardly a neighborhood... But still. About a mile down the road is the town's old fairgrounds, which then turned into a poorly kept racetrack. Lately the racetrack has been cleaned up and the resident rodents have moved on out... To the farms in the area. So they've decided my pigs and poultry are fantastic miracle workers who spill grain everywhere. They don't bother the goats, they eat all their grain within about 30 seconds lol!

My husband has been shooting them, which works but slowly. Traps havent worked. I'm afraid to use poison with our animals...

What do I do? How do you deal with rodents? I'm allergic to cats so that's not going to work. Help!
 

babsbag

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I use traps. Why do the traps not work?

http://www.lowes.com/pd/TOMCAT-Indo..._clickID=2dc8ea3a-3ca1-478a-ac17-24e962b8e663

They say these are disposable but I reuse them. Bait of choice is Peanut Butter or cheese that comes in the can. It may take a few tries but I always get my rat after a few days.

I used to use and swear by the Victor electronic ones but the last two I bought died after a month or less. The original two lasted for about 3 years and the puppy chewed up one of those that had dead batteries.
 

NH homesteader

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We occasionally get one in a trap but I think they are smart enough to avoid them.

I actually figured you would say to get a rat dog @Southern by choice because I know you love your working dogs!

So, do they need to be trained much or is it mostly instinct? And can Boston terriers do the job? My husband does work for a guy that breeds them...
 

lalabugs

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CATS! We have the same issue out here. The rats are so bad! You can see them running through the fields/in the roads when driving home at night. The traps did not work fast enough. After a month of killing with traps, we stopped getting them in traps. Seriously would avoid all the traps. We went to the local shelter and got cats. It was not a fast fix but I rarely see them now. We have 3 outside cats that keep the problem away from here.
 

Southern by choice

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I actually figured you would say to get a rat dog @Southern by choice because I know you love your working dogs!

So, do they need to be trained much or is it mostly instinct? And can Boston terriers do the job? My husband does work for a guy that breeds them...
There are other breeds I would pick first. Honestly- any breeder that breeds for show or super pet quality may have less chance of being a good terrier.
If I get time today I will try to pm you a list.:)
CATS! We have the same issue out here. The rats are so bad! You can see them running through the fields/in the roads when driving home at night. The traps did not work fast enough. After a month of killing with traps, we stopped getting them in traps. Seriously would avoid all the traps. We went to the local shelter and got cats. It was not a fast fix but I rarely see them now. We have 3 outside cats that keep the problem away from here.
The problem with cats are they do not typically kill rats they drive them off with their urine. Marking everything til the rats run off. This is kind of a funny story... some years ago CA was having severe rat problems so they brought in cats to solve the problem... I think it was LA. Anyway the cats drove the rats out - to BEVERLY HILLS! :lol: But then they had a horrific cat problem and that became a nightmare!
Leave it to CA.

Anyway a good rat terrier will not drive them but will ferret them out and kill them.

And yes, I am a big fan of keeping the integrity of the dog. All dogs were developed for purpose and sadly we keep wanting to take those wonderful traits that they were developed for and breed it out of them so we can have millions of pets that are anxious, stressed and psycho because of it.
A great dog is the best! :D
 

lalabugs

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I understand what you're saying. Another dog for us is not an option. Because we got the cats from the shelter, they are fixed. No breeding possibility for them. We already dealt with feral cats. When we moved out here, we had to catch them. Take them to the city shelter. Where they do a fix and release program.
Our cats do kill them. One only uses them as toys until it's dead. The other two eat them. If the urine drives them away, hey added bonus. It's miles and miles of rats out here. Even people on the other side of our town have the same issue. They're just bad here.
I am from CA. CA is just bad all around. Plus add in that we no longer have police in force here during night. Crime has already gone up in our town. Plan is to move, just a matter of when. Plus the where. I personally love back east. I fell in love with Missouri when I went back east. My husband wants mountains though. Trying to find middle ground that we'll both love. Also can't be anywhere that has BSL.
 

NH homesteader

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Thanks! I would love to see that. I am allergic to cats plus we don't have a barn per se, we have a bunch of outbuildings so really nowhere for a cat to live. I could get another dog but it would have to be the right one because my dogs are... Well... Special.

I agree that people have messed up their dogs! We have a mutt whose chow instincts make him perfectly happy to lounge on the couch with his family, or play in the snow but man don't mess with his family! My Spanish Alano is nuts but fortunately no one has messed with that breed too much, it's so rare.
 

greybeard

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BSL=Breed-specific legislation

My old tomcat kills insects, mice, rats, crows, snakes, squirrels and rabbits, and deposits them on the porch to show me how to hunt. He was feral, till I tamed him. Saw him at the edge of the woods for months, till I finally coaxed him up to the porch and then to my chair. He's spoiled now, with dry catfood and cat treats, but about every 3-4th night, he goes back to the woods hunting--sometimes stays gone a couple days, but always brings us a trophy, probaly so we won't think he's just out 'cattin' around'.
 
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