Rats... erghhhh

[Keltic]

Why does every rat in a five mile radius of my stable end up in my mares water bucket??

ive had one every day for the last 3 days!! Luckily this morning i looked at her bucket it had lots of hay in it i was just about to put my hand in to take it out but decided not to and when i took it outside i tipped it over you guessed it another dead rat!! Im not good with dead things so i left it there!! one of the other liveries came and took it away, the other week i had a mouse in my bucket and everytime i moved the bucket it moved!! i was freaking out so got one of the other liveries to do my bucket and she was in hysterics it wasnt a mouse just a scary looking leaf!!

Any one else have this problem??

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Our rats don't get the chance to make suicide attempts, the JRT get them!!!!

Get hanging buckets the rats can't jump hig enough to drown in them!!!

 

[Storminateacup]

You should get or borrow a Jack Russell! My JR Dicky would love to come and help you.
Seriously though, you must have many nests to be so overrun so you need to get rid of them and they can be a health hazard to you and your horses as they can carry Weils (spelling wrong - I think) disease
The ones you found are literally the "tip of the iceberg".

My horses used to stomp on them, and we used to find them flattened in the stable next day. Peeled them off the concrete -horses hate them
We had a battery farm for chickens neaby the yard which was the primary cause, but even then we did not find as many as you are getting.
Perhaps a local terrier man could help you.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Keltic2, it's not a hydrotherapy bucket is it? You know, heated with jets and bubbles and candles round the edge? He he he. Seriously, do you have a yard cat? Or if you're desperate, you could always put a shallow dish of water somewhere so the little bleeders don't try to get into your water bucket, though I doubt that would make you overly popular with the oher liveries! Take care washing your water bucket out after unwlecome rodent suicides as rats carry nasty diseases in their urine. Yerk.

 

[kerilli]

you seriously need to have a pest control person in, or at least put cage traps down, or poison if there are no yard cats/visiting dogs etc. if you see a few rats, you can guarantee there are loads, and they spread horrible diseases... they wee on hay etc if they run over it, very bad for horses.

just off to set my rat-trap again now... i have 4 jrts and i still see the odd rat!

 

[Keltic]

We have poison down in the workshop, the buggers have come up at the back of my stable, my JRT has not managed to catch them, I am very careful doing my buckets etc

 

[kibob]

This is probably the reason you are finding the pesky critters drowned in your water buckets - the poison makes them incredibly thirsty and they will seek out water

We are apparently in for a major rat epidemic in this country due to the climate over the last few seasons, I've certainly seen them on the increase - great