Blocking up rat holes

[Widgeon]

I've not had problems other years and after hearing that others had problems with rats chewing through the bottle of linseed oil I'm not sure about swapping to that which probably would have been my next step.

We had this at my last yard. If the lid of the big metal feed bin wasn't perfectly shut, they would wriggle in and shred the cap of the big 25L oil drum to get at the linseed oil. Yuck. It was worse after the yard's best mouser died.

 

[Widgeon]

My preferred method is horrible rat snap traps, the only things that seem to do the job. otherwise a decent shot or terriers.

How big are the snap traps you use? I bought some but they only catch mice. They're good traps but frankly don't look man enough* for the size of rat I've seen about!

*poor choice of term for this forum but you know what I mean....

 

[Miss_Millie]

Well, this thread has been enlightening for sure. I appreciate everyone sharing their knowledge.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

How big are the snap traps you use? I bought some but they only catch mice. They're good traps but frankly don't look man enough* for the size of rat I've seen about!

*poor choice of term for this forum but you know what I mean....

Rat sized traps, same as the mouse ones but twice as long and 3x the width.
Got them from local ag store but they are bu88ers to set!

 

[Esmae]

I blocked 2 holes in a wall last year using postcrete (I had some) The rat hasn't tried again. I keep the place permanently baited with bait boxes and check them every month or more often if the bait goes. They do far too much damage to tolerate them. Tried the traps before and found them useless to be honest.

 

[Exasperated]

So my new stable camera has been both a blessing and a curse as I’ve seen Mr Rat in there twice tonight and am now wide awake.

My boy doesn’t seem bothered but the sight of him running underneath him and then scurrying away now has me wide awake. I’ve heard all the horror stories about them chewing coronet bands etc and I’m terrified! I’m sure the rats been going there for a long time but it’s worse now I can see.

Anyway. We have a pest control man who has started baiting boxes for us around the house currently but we are doing on area of the property at a time as it’s quite big and we have dogs so I am also terrified the dog will get in and eat it. When the horses are out I’ll happily put bait stations in the stables but that doesn’t help me right now. I can see where he is coming in and out and he’s right now at midnight ordered some wire wool and some expanding foam. I know they will chew through this but it will help for a while.

If I was to chuck a few poison blocks down the hole and then seal it would this be safe? I’ve heard if put them down and don’t seal the en the rats tend to throw them back out!

I’m sure seeing the odd rat is common in stables but it’s still freaked me out.

Hate to tell you, rats can climb! Straight up an 8 feet high breezeblock wall, over a stable door....

 

[Exasperated]

I am having a problem with rats. I really do not want to put poison down both because its a horrible way for them to die, also other animals may get it and /or eat the rats after death so its really not good. As well as that they will go off to die and cause horrible smells where you cant get to get them out. I am trying to find a humane way to get rid but so far have not found anything effective. Any ideas?

Posse of feral cats!
You can actually obtain these, neutered and vaccinated, from charities rehoming them from condemned industrial buildings, factories etc. Silent but deadly stalkers!
Obviously don’t use poison around cats because ferals usually eat their kill, get horribly ill or die. Trip to the vet if you can even catch them; lots of milk to drink, vitamin k, and fingers x’d, if you can’t.
But, you will have to do a Poisons course and certificate to get hold of effective rat poison, or employ a professional who has, anyway.
Terriers are usually keen, but make a terrific noise and don’t access the nooks, crannies and heights which cats manage.
If shooting with an air rifle and night sight, horses are often distressed at the strange noise it makes, so safest if they’re not stabled when you do. Sorry, but there’s no such thing as ‘humane’ removal, even if you trap them in a little box that is insanely stressful for anything wild, and they still need killing, then....

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Hate to tell you, rats can climb! Straight up an 8 feet high breezeblock wall, over a stable door....

Like a rat up a drainpipe.....

 

[Honey08]

Any mammal (inc humans) can contract it.

My preferred method is horrible rat snap traps, the only things that seem to do the job. otherwise a decent shot or terriers.
I'm v careful to ensure no stray cats can get in places when these are set

We’ve had most success with snap traps (always work best if in some form of tunnel). Shooting and hitting them with a shovel has also worked. I’d never, ever use poisons. I think it’s a truly disgusting things to do.

Most of all we’ve got rid of rats by removing the food source. In both cases at our yard it was down to the hens. I have seen a new hole this winter, but nothing more. We’re being vigilant.

 

[spotty_pony2]

There’s no food around at all - it’s all in metal bins in my tack/feed room. Tonight I’ve swept up the feed he dropped when he was eating his tea as it might be that. Do they eat hay? Or would they possibly eat the straw pellets in the bed?

 

[spotty_pony2]

Posse of feral cats!
You can actually obtain these, neutered and vaccinated, from charities rehoming them from condemned industrial buildings, factories etc. Silent but deadly stalkers!
Obviously don’t use poison around cats because ferals usually eat their kill, get horribly ill or die. Trip to the vet if you can even catch them; lots of milk to drink, vitamin k, and fingers x’d, if you can’t.
But, you will have to do a Poisons course and certificate to get hold of effective rat poison, or employ a professional who has, anyway.
Terriers are usually keen, but make a terrific noise and don’t access the nooks, crannies and heights which cats manage.
If shooting with an air rifle and night sight, horses are often distressed at the strange noise it makes, so safest if they’re not stabled when you do. Sorry, but there’s no such thing as ‘humane’ removal, even if you trap them in a little box that is insanely stressful for anything wild, and they still need killing, then....

Unfortunately we can’t have cats because our doberman would kill them. I’d love to though and I know they definitely help!

 

[blitznbobs]

Poison or cats … nothing else will get rid of them efficiently in my experience. I’m sure it’s mainly the smell that keeps them away if you have cats but they definitely hunt out the nests and eat the babies… isn’t nature charming!

 

[Exasperated]

There’s no food around at all - it’s all in metal bins in my tack/feed room. Tonight I’ve swept up the feed he dropped when he was eating his tea as it might be that. Do they eat hay? Or would they possibly eat the straw pellets in the bed?

They nest in both hay and straw, but like to eat straw, the cereals in whatever bits of straw ears are left.
But rats are super scavengers, thrive in sewers....

 

[Exasperated]

Poison or cats … nothing else will get rid of them efficiently in my experience. I’m sure it’s mainly the smell that keeps them away if you have cats but they definitely hunt out the nests and eat the babies… isn’t nature charming!

They way they eat them is - head first, tails disappearing last - so delicate!

 

[HopOnTrot]

Just be a bit careful with the dogs if they are finishing the poisoned rats off that they don't eat them at all!

I feel like rats are an impossible battle. This place is baited up to the hilt. Its all done properly and safely. (It wasn't on the yard that my daughters dog ate some recently!) We still see them around though. I supposed with full grain stores to supply ad lib food they just keep coming.

Luckily she was a total pro, killed them swiftly and left the bodies as soon as I called her out. I’m actually quite proud of her!

 

[McGrools]

I have some rat holes appearing in my stables again at the minute.
I used poison last year and felt really really awful when it worked and the rat was dying. I would much prefer terrier or cat method of quick despatch. I would rehome a feral but have whippets so not sure it would be fair x

 

[Titchy Pony]

I currently have a bit of a rat problem.They normally live down the bottom of the orchard in the drains by the stream and in my neighbours' empty house. But with two very soggy winters they've moved up to my house and yard where they are NOT welcome. As others have said they spread diseases and cause damage. A puppy that went to puppy class with mine died of Leptospirosis (Weil's disease) at only 8 months old. I have a couple of snap rat traps that are very well designed inside their own little tube and can be set from the outside by simply squeezing the handles together, no risk to fingers or other animals (puppy merrily carried one round the garden once) and as humane as possible I think. This year the rats also moved into the house, which is a definite NO. So I got a professional exterminator out. I wasn't impressed, it cost me a fortune for him to tell me to dispose of poisoned bodies in the bin (not allowed) or in a hedge, because "nobody will mind, it's the country side". I flatly refused so he installed snap traps in bait boxes with "highly attractive" non-poisonous bait. So far the score board is TP: 2 rats; professional exterminator : 1 mouse. What a waste of money!
I will add that I've done my best to make no food available to them. Horse and chicken feed stored in bins and an old chest freezer. The chickens have a pedal opened feeder for their gain that rats aren't heavy enough to open (also keep small birds from the all you can eat buffet) and the chickens tend to clear up anything the horse might have dropped. However, the rats also seem to have a taste for wood, plastic and candles...

 

[Sanversera]

How big are the snap traps you use? I bought some but they only catch mice. They're good traps but frankly don't look man enough* for the size of rat I've seen about!

*poor choice of term for this forum but you know what I mean....

They look like really big mouse traps. We hammered a staple in one end and tethered it with baling string after a rat wasn't killed outright in one trap and ran about the barn with the trap until it dropped dead.

 

[Sanversera]

There’s no food around at all - it’s all in metal bins in my tack/feed room. Tonight I’ve swept up the feed he dropped when he was eating his tea as it might be that. Do they eat hay? Or would they possibly eat the straw pellets in the bed?

Rats love straw.i think the smell attracts them.they are looking for heads of grain but seem to migrate to any straw.

 

[Squeak]

There’s no food around at all - it’s all in metal bins in my tack/feed room. Tonight I’ve swept up the feed he dropped when he was eating his tea as it might be that. Do they eat hay? Or would they possibly eat the straw pellets in the bed?

I've had straw pellets for years and never noticed them going for straw pellets.

 

[Exasperated]

I currently have a bit of a rat problem.They normally live down the bottom of the orchard in the drains by the stream and in my neighbours' empty house. But with two very soggy winters they've moved up to my house and yard where they are NOT welcome. As others have said they spread diseases and cause damage. A puppy that went to puppy class with mine died of Leptospirosis (Weil's disease) at only 8 months old. I have a couple of snap rat traps that are very well designed inside their own little tube and can be set from the outside by simply squeezing the handles together, no risk to fingers or other animals (puppy merrily carried one round the garden once) and as humane as possible I think. This year the rats also moved into the house, which is a definite NO. So I got a professional exterminator out. I wasn't impressed, it cost me a fortune for him to tell me to dispose of poisoned bodies in the bin (not allowed) or in a hedge, because "nobody will mind, it's the country side". I flatly refused so he installed snap traps in bait boxes with "highly attractive" non-poisonous bait. So far the score board is TP: 2 rats; professional exterminator : 1 mouse. What a waste of money!
I will add that I've done my best to make no food available to them. Horse and chicken feed stored in bins and an old chest freezer. The chickens have a pedal opened feeder for their gain that rats aren't heavy enough to open (also keep small birds from the all you can eat buffet) and the chickens tend to clear up anything the horse might have dropped. However, the rats also seem to have a taste for wood, plastic and candles...

Feral cats.....
Teach the dog some manners, ditch the poison, bring in the felines.

 

[Titchy Pony]

Feral cats.....
Teach the dog some manners, ditch the poison, bring in the felines.

I think you might have misquoted. I use snap traps, not poison. There are several ferals around, but they don't do much for the rats in the house

 

[Burnerbee]

Intended to reassure you: horses and rats have lived in close proximity since horses and rats have existed. No, rats aren’t ideal but suggest you don’t overthink about them. All that’s changed is your stable cam.

There isn’t really a humane option - best option is finding some one with an enthusiastic terrier / get a stable cat from a charity.

Poison will end up in the ecosystem one way or other.

 

[Exasperated]

Intended to reassure you: horses and rats have lived in close proximity since horses and rats have existed. No, rats aren’t ideal but suggest you don’t overthink about them. All that’s changed is your stable cam.

There isn’t really a humane option - best option is finding some one with an enthusiastic terrier / get a stable cat from a charity.

Poison will end up in the ecosystem one way or other.

No there really isn’t, recount an experience:
During a sharp frost, OH and I saw a small car pull up near top of the yard, and an elderly lady semi- get out, leaning down towards the wheel. We thought she might need mechanical help, went up to check.
Holding a Perspex box, she said ‘ I’m fine, just freeing a mouse caught at home, he’s not hurt, should be alright in one of the barns’, smiled and drove off.
Speechless!
It was worth it to see the look on my husband’s face.
Mouse probably died of exposure before it got anywhere near a barn, but the concept of patting yourself on the back for exporting your problems onto someone else?
If someone’s happy to live alongside rodent risk, ok but shouldn’t expect that of others, or magnify their problems because of your approach.
Cats/ terriers etc are safer, but if using rodenticides, like horse wormers, need to change from time to time.
Also, you must attend a Poisons course and obtain the necessary Certificate, to access any poison that has any chance of working. Rodenticides have been ‘watered down’, ( bit like herbicides, under environmental legislation), so the rodents increasingly need more bait, or become tolerant.

 

[paddy555]

Intended to reassure you: horses and rats have lived in close proximity since horses and rats have existed. No, rats aren’t ideal but suggest you don’t overthink about them. All that’s changed is your stable cam.

There isn’t really a humane option - best option is finding some one with an enthusiastic terrier / get a stable cat from a charity.

Poison will end up in the ecosystem one way or other.

I don't get any reassurance from knowing horses and rats have lives in close proximity etc. Rats breed, very fast. It doesn't take long to get over run. Years ago when mucking out at 5am in poor light one landed on my back. That made me overthink them and straight down to the cat shelter. I think the only way to control them is ferals and ifyou can't separate the ferals and dogs then you are stuck. I would worry about anything else eating poison or poisoned rats.

My back door is made of wood with a wooden door frame and opens out onto the stable yard next to the hay shed. A couple of weeks ago I studied the door frame to wonder why it had been shredded at the base. The horse (who is loose in the yard) couldn't have reached it, shreds too big for a mouse so only Roland was left.
Part of me wanted to leave it and let Roland break in. He would have ended up in the utility where my 2 indoor cats live. OH however decided to fill it in with metal and concrete.

your old lady and mouse made me smile Exasperated

 

[cremedemonthe]

If you have any Gorse bushes you can get access to, cut off the thorniest ones you can find and shove them down the hole. It's nasty stuff, a natural barbed wire and rats hate it.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Our first horse was a very wily gelding, we found a dead rat in his stable almost every winter. They would be absolutely flat. I'm not sure what he did because I wouldn't have thought one stamp would have flattened them in that way.
OP, ferrets are pretty good at getting rid of rats and their smell lingers for a good long time to put any more off moving in.

 

[94lunagem]

Ditto those suggesting cats. I don’t like cats, I’m allergic to cats, cats don’t like me. But about 12 years ago I found a dead rat in my feed room on a Thursday and had two feral cats by Saturday!

Mine were from a charity who advertise (or always used to, I don’t buy anymore) in the back of Horse and Hound. They came neutered, vaccinated, wormed, chipped and with a ‘starter pack’ including a big cage and baskets etc. Dropped off free. I now choose to make a small annual donation.

 

[adamntitch]

OP, ferrets are pretty good at getting rid of rats and their smell lingers for a good long time to put any more off moving in.

was going to say get ferrets or even ferret bedding the smell of them keeps rats away

 

[spotty_pony2]

Feral cats.....
Teach the dog some manners, ditch the poison, bring in the felines.

Teach her manners. she is a trained attack and protection dog. She is also a rescue. It is pure instinct and there are some things you cannot train out of them. I wouldn’t be prepared to risk the poor cat. Dog herself will catch and kill the rats but obviously she can’t be out there as much as a cat would be.