Getting rid of rats without using poison

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite

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Have a mega-huge problem with rats!!

Have had a blitz on food lying around the place, its all away neatly in plastic bins, done what we can, but the real problem is there will inevitably still be bits of corn etc in the chooks pen.

I'm being overwhelmed; this year has been a very bad year for some reason; they are even eating my cats dried biscuit which is up on one of the feed bins!! Never known that happen ever before!

I cannot use poison as there are way too many things like guinea fowls, hens, and dogs, that could pick it up. I'm just not prepared to take that risk.

Have two cats here! Can't have any more cats, as that would upset my old girly (who still pulls her weight, bless her).

Any ideas folks? I've tried a home-made trap where you suspend an empty beer/coke can (which you coat with peanut butter) over a bucket - saw this suggested on another site I'm on. It didn't work!

Any ideas anyone??

I'm desperate, and frankly, it's beginning to get me down. I'm busy, and can't deal with this!
 

Pearlsasinger

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You could leave plenty of unsoaked sugar-beet lying around, if you think the birds wouldn't eat it, or not enough of it to matter. One of the garden centres near us sells something similar in expensive small boxes, labelled as 'poison' but it isn't really. However it does swell up inside them and does a similar job. I am wondering if rabbits would eat it!
 

Equi

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Or a woman with a terrier :p sorry feeling quite femisit today.

But the sentiment is the same, get some dogs in! If you're not fond of the terrier idea at least let someone with a dog walk about the area and have it pee/scent mark around. If its in anyway terrier minded it can lead you to a nest/hole/runway and you can then try to block those.
 

cremedemonthe

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We used an old chainsaw with blade removed and a pipe connected to the exhaust, enrich the mixture slightly to make it smokey, fire it up and shove the pipe down the hole.The resulting chaos brings the rats out where the terriers deal with them and a few lurchers too. The rest that stay below ground die from the smoke, very effective
 

Twohorses

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Where I grew up, an old time farm rat trap was a water barrel filled to just where the rats can't get back out, once they jump in to get all the globs of peanut butter you have spread around.

Buy a giant tub of cheap peanut butter.

Put a gang plank up for easy entry but make sure you don't fill the barrel with water close enough to the top to where the rats can get back out.

I have heard mixed reviews on how well it works.

Best of luck -- I hope you can get rid of them.
 
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Leo Walker

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I put the chicken food in a feeder on an enormous plastic tray. It gets picked up a couple of hours before bed time. That way any spillages are picked up by them, but to be honest theres almost no wastage doing it this way.
 

windand rain

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I am told wall paper paste works like the sugar beet idea as rats cannot be sick so it swells and causes colic not a very nice way to die though so would rather use poison under pallets or boards so animals cannot get it but the rats can
 

cundlegreen

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Have a mega-huge problem with rats!!

Have had a blitz on food lying around the place, its all away neatly in plastic bins, done what we can, but the real problem is there will inevitably still be bits of corn etc in the chooks pen.

I'm being overwhelmed; this year has been a very bad year for some reason; they are even eating my cats dried biscuit which is up on one of the feed bins!! Never known that happen ever before!

I cannot use poison as there are way too many things like guinea fowls, hens, and dogs, that could pick it up. I'm just not prepared to take that risk.

Have two cats here! Can't have any more cats, as that would upset my old girly (who still pulls her weight, bless her).

Any ideas folks? I've tried a home-made trap where you suspend an empty beer/coke can (which you coat with peanut butter) over a bucket - saw this suggested on another site I'm on. It didn't work!

Any ideas anyone??

I'm desperate, and frankly, it's beginning to get me down. I'm busy, and can't deal with this!
I also suffer badly from rats, and didn't want to use poison. I bought a box of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/NEW-Effect...58912739&s=gateway&sprefix=rat,aps,198&sr=8-9 and have caught 10 in 3 weeks. You don't have to worry about losing a finger when setting them, and they work very well on the young ones. The older rats are more suspicious of them. I also tried the bottle over water, and they ate all the peanut butter off the bottle without falling in!
 

mandyroberts

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Peanut butter for bait
1. Electronic rat trap works well on smallish rats, don't think current is high enough for the big ones - it must be kept dry
2. Springy rat traps - various sizes works with different rats. You need the large size for the bigger ones which are really scary to set
3. I had one huge one and ended up resorting to poison as nothing else worked. I knew the hole it was coming from and the position was such I could keep other animals away. It was living in the wooden hollow wall between stables so a dog couldn't get it and it was likely to die in the wal (it did was smelly)
 

JanetGeorge

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Mmmm yes, that would be a solution, BUT, the problem is that they've gone under places like the woodpile and straw-stack, and moving that lot would be one helluva job.........

Mmm - not necessarily, just a bit of organisation depending on the size - and room either side (or front and back.) You'd need someone with about 4 terriers divided between sides. One released and the rats hear the threat and scuttle out the other side where terriers held back are released. Or put a big drum snug to bales or wood stack, pleny of smelly food at the bottom and smear a bit around the drums. I have 'caught' as many as 10 rats overnight that way that couldn't get out. Have terriers on stand-by and tip drum slowly (away from you, of course, lol.)
 

Pearlsasinger

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I am told wall paper paste works like the sugar beet idea as rats cannot be sick so it swells and causes colic not a very nice way to die though so would rather use poison under pallets or boards so animals cannot get it but the rats can


Not that Warfarin, or similar, is a very nice way to die, either! I would actually prefer terriers or ferrets.


ETA, I would get metal bins for the food. Rats will gnaw through plastic.
 
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Keith_Beef

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9mm Flobert "barn gun" or "garden gun".

The cartridge is filled with the starter propellant that's used in the starters for shotgun cartridges, so it has a mow muzzle velocity.

Enough to kill a rat at close range, but slow enough that there's much less risk of ricochet or of damaging wooden barn walls.
 
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AnShanDan

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We had a rat problem in the muck heap a few years ago, they were so bold, just ran out in front of you!!
I am paranoid about poison but I got a dozen of the plastic poison boxes like this one, you can lock it and the bait goes in a chamber inside so totally inaccessible to other animals.
We've no rats now.

1558948068350.png
 

DD

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I put the chicken food in a feeder on an enormous plastic tray. It gets picked up a couple of hours before bed time. That way any spillages are picked up by them, but to be honest theres almost no wastage doing it this way.
good idea
 

DD

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I caught our rat using a rat trap, looks like an old fashioned mouse trap but bigger.
 

sport horse

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We had a rat problem in the muck heap a few years ago, they were so bold, just ran out in front of you!!
I am paranoid about poison but I got a dozen of the plastic poison boxes like this one, you can lock it and the bait goes in a chamber inside so totally inaccessible to other animals.
We've no rats now.

View attachment 32860
I use these too - afraid once you see rats there are far too many of them and they spread disease
 

D66

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We shut the chickens in the hen house overnight and put down 5 rat sized snap traps in the hen run and shut the door so that only the rats can get in. In the morning empty the traps and remove while the chickens are out of the house. Repeat until the traps are all empty in the morning.
We caught 40 in 2/3 weeks. Many baby ones. We have since acquired a cat who helps with the rat situation. Unfortunately she also brings the little ones indoors where we have to get the Parsons JR to dispatch them.
We have owls, hawks, buzzards, hedgehogs, badgers etc who would eat poison bait or the poisoned rats.
 

Orangehorse

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Some very good ideas there! We had a bad problem a few years ago (I could hear them jump down on to the metal feed bin to run away as I walked towards the stable!) and the only way was with poison, with the traps carefully placed away from other animals. We now have a terrier who is excellent even though she is getting a bit older now. She never attempts to eat rats, only kill them.
 

WandaMare

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I use the snap traps around the yard as don't want to risk poison either. They do work but I find after some time they grow wise to them, so you have to take them away for awhile. I've caught 20 or so by this method, using peanut butter as bait.

I also have some of the electric sonic things dotted about which some people say have no effect but i do think we have had less since I bought them earlier this year. The experts seems to say that they won't deter rats who already have nests nearby but will stop more moving in.

Not environmental I know, but I swill my feedroom with water & lemon bleach every few weeks. Its works wonders, I don't see any rodent activity for a good few weeks and its nice and cheap.
 

JanetGeorge

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We had a rat problem in the muck heap a few years ago, they were so bold, just ran out in front of you!!
I am paranoid about poison but I got a dozen of the plastic poison boxes ...

Just a warning about these: I tried a few and kept finding the baits outside - often several feet away - it appears rats might like to take them with them - then decide they are more trouble then they're worth - or get disturbed and drop and run. TYat is a serious concern if you have a Labrador - or any other dog that is a greedy sod who'll eat anything!
 
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MiJodsR2BlinkinTite

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We had a rat problem in the muck heap a few years ago, they were so bold, just ran out in front of you!!
I am paranoid about poison but I got a dozen of the plastic poison boxes like this one, you can lock it and the bait goes in a chamber inside so totally inaccessible to other animals.
We've no rats now.

View attachment 32860

Where did you get this please??

This sounds like what I need!
 
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