Help! Rats!

MrsElle

MrsElle

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 November 2008
Messages
6,183
Location
Back Where My Heart Is :)
Visit site
Despite have two (bloody useless) cats we have a rather brave rat who is starting to scare me.

I hate rats and this one is so brave. This morning OH let the cats out and one of the cats comes face to face with this rat. They give each other the eye then the rat sits on his back legs and proceeds to have a wash before sauntering back off towards the field.

This evening we were late home (works thing) and we dropped the pop hole on the chickens, lifted up the flap to check they were ok and there is this rat sat in there with them. The rat didn't seem particulary bothered by us, jumped out of the coop and just walked off - no running or scurrying, it just wasn't scared or nervous at all.

Anyway, the chickens are fine but how do I get rid of this rat, and the many more that are probably lurking in the shadows?

We have got a semi ferral cat who is a great ratter but at this time of year she disappears for weeks on end as she has a plentiful supply of baby rabbit, which is her favourite.

So, what to do?

I hate, hate, hate rats!
 
I guess he was after the chicken feed rather than the chickens.

Contact your local council, they should come out. Or as CM says, shoot him? Sounds as if he'll sit still whilst you take aim.
 
Hmmm, I think a gun might be on the shopping list this week then!

We have dogs that will catch rats but the begger doesn't come out when the dogs are around - he sure isn't stupid!

I am loathe to use poison with cats, chickens and dogs around.

Thanks all!
 
Yes I hate poison. From the rats point of view as well as anything else. Nasty way to go.

One clean shot, it's got to be better hasn't it.
 
Blooming things. Hit him with a spade! Nice clean way to go and you don't need a gun that way!

I've got a nest under the concrete floor of my stable and they're eating the bricks of my wall. OH kindly filled up the hole with cement yesterday afternoon but the little sods have come straight back through. I'm seriously considering poison now but I don't like it.

Can't see any other way of getting them though as they're always safely underground when I'm about.
 
I found something that they won't chew through. MDF of all things. I've had concrete chewed through, bricks moved, stones pushed out, but they don't seem to touch this one piece of MDF. Bizarre but true!
 
Eww :S Im terrified of rats, but I hate seeing them killed!! At work theyre stabbed with forks, hit with shovels, brooms or whatever else is around, and normally stamped on just to make sure theyre dead, oh and the dogs are set on them but the dog owner doesnt like it as quite often the dogs are bitten, or one dog just wont let go of them despite having water chucked over him, one time the owner was tapping the dog on the head with a plastic shovel to try and get him to drop it, but nothing works! We have poison in every possible place and theyve even put traps down, but theyre so many of them!! There have been many times when I've been mucking out and rats that have been hiding under the banks jump out and send me screaming out of the stable until someone comes and kills them or they run away.
 
Mix pink plaster with a bit of corn as bait, put it in a tube, will kill the rat but not anything that eats the rat when it's dead (works by turning solid in the stomach when mixed with liqiid)
 
anniearab said:
Mix pink plaster with a bit of corn as bait, put it in a tube, will kill the rat but not anything that eats the rat when it's dead (works by turning solid in the stomach when mixed with liqiid)
Click to expand...

Flipping heck, that's nasty.

Get a gun op, quick and neat. Still, I kind of admire the chutzpah of the little critter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top