Rats....please help!!!!!!

[1eyejer]

I have just discovered we have a rat problem around our chicken coop..we thought we had a squirrel problem..but i saw 7 rats tonight..we kinda live in the middle of nowhere and i dont know where they could have come from..anyhow, we dont want to use poison because we have dogs. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this problem...Please and Thank you..

 

[ksalvagno]

What about rat traps? Good barn cats? Will the dogs catch them?

 

[1eyejer]

What about rat traps? Good barn cats? Will the dogs catch them?

The dogs cant get into or under the barn and as for traps..we set one and went out to check it..and the rat was caught in the trap trying to back down the hole..so i stomped on it and it still kept fighting so i used a pitchfork...and i won..so i guess i will have to set more traps

 

[freemotion]

You need to secure the trap with a bit of wire for just this reason. However, rats are smart, and you won't likely catch them all in the trap. We've battled rats for two years now, after almost seven years rat-free, after an abandoned house was knocked down nearby. Two houses, actually, someone bought the two lots and built one new house after knocking down the two old houses. I think all the rats came here!

I've tried every method known to man. The three that were most effective were a water bucket that drowned 11 rats over a couple week period, mostly inexperienced youngsters....a pair of feral cats I adopted from a rescue....and finally, desperately, poison, Just One Bite bars set where no other animal could get them.

Every time I think I have won the battle, new rat holes appear. I am on a winning streak for the past 2 days, no rat holes, and we have eggs again. Yes, rats steal eggs and hide them under the pallets where I store my hay and I get to find them in the spring.

I hate rats!!!

 

[poorboys]

we've caught alot a couple years ago with the water method. I also was told to put a swallow pan with coke in it, and place it near the hole, guessing they can't burp?????? good luck

 

[glenolam]

I found out we had a rat problem this past winter, too, in our chicken coop. I wondered for months what was causing our chicks to die - I thought the hens were pecking at the chicks but then my cat left a present for me on the door step....

Our hen house has plywood walls where there are many, many gaps allowing rodents to come and go as they please. I bought poison and put little chunks of the poison in the holes as well as underneath the hen house. I made sure none of my animals could get to the poison and it did the job. Didn't loose any of my good animals - just killed the rats. Hopefully it killed them all, but only time will tell.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Rats are notoriously hard to kill because they're so smart. They'll eat just a nibble of poison and if they get sick they'll warn the others not to eat it. Darn things!

 

[patandchickens]

Something worth trying -- probably jsut once, as it doesn't tend to work on repeats unless it's been a year or three -- is to mix peanutbutter with as much dry plaster mix as you can get into it, to make a stiff dough. Roll it into marble-sized balls and put down the ratholes or in other appropriate locations. When they eat it -- if they eat it, but I've had good luck with it for just occasional use -- the plaster heats and hardens in their innards and they die. Sucky way to die; however, frankly there is no *nice* way to kill rats but you can't just hand the place over to them.

This is not good for other animals to eat so keep it out of reach of dogs and chickens and such; however its advantage over other poisons is that rats killed by this method remain 100% nontoxic to anything that might eat them. Also the peanutbutter-and-plaster balls tend to absorb moisture from the environment and harden on their own if not eaten, around here it takes like 1-3 days for that to happen, so any that go uneaten will not remain hazardous to other critters for very long.

The other thing I do around here, which may not be doable for everyone, is when a rat gets into my chicken bldg I shut all the doors so it can't get out (it's a good tight building, there are no holes or gaps) and then I chase it around til I can stomp or shovel-blade it to death.

Pat

 

[glenolam]

I have a mental picture Pat!!!

 

[michickenwrangler]

DH has used those electronic traps with success in the past. He had a little too much fun with them.