Rats, rats... & more rats!!!

R

*RedRaider*

Active Member
Joined
27 October 2011
Messages
31
Location
UK - South west
Visit site
Hi All!

I am after some advice regarding RATS!
I have my own little stable block and yard and every winter it becomes over-run with the furry little beasts.
So my question is:

How do you all cope with getting rid of rats or preventing them from wanting to move in in the first place?

They are attracted to my chickens run (behind the stables) the most because I have wired all their holes into the stables up. I wasn't too bothered by one or two knocking about but this morning I counted 6 rats and some of them are bigger than my poor bantams! Some were in the chickens run and others in the feed room now :O

We used to poison them but I'm loathed to do that because we have so many owls, rat traps never work, and personally I hate having to kill them.

My friends all have yard cats to stop rats invading but unfortunately I am very allergic to cats so that isn't an option.

Any advice would be amazing!

Thanks :)
 
You need to poison them .
It's a bad bad year for rats the worst we have had here .
We are poisoning constantly in sit stations constantly and are using buckets of poison. The agriculture merchant was saying they can't keep up with demand for poison and bait boxes this winter .
We employ people so have to take every step we can to get kid of them , they are a risk to people and to horse health as well .
We don't have hens and one the reasons is everywhere I ever worked that had awful rat infestations .
 
Keep all feed in a freezer - biggest simplest rat proof container.

Not giving them a reason to be there is the best thing (not easy)

Getting a dog in from somewhere is probably your best bet if you can't have a semi feral cat from a charity
 
really the only way is the poison, not nice I know. If you use proper bait stations which can be purchased agricultural stores then other creatures should not be able to access it. A terrier will help to a certain extent but will not be able to keep on top of the population. They are also attracted by nuts, acorns and the like.
 
On terriers it depends where the rats are living on our place they live in the rubble infill under a building and terriers can't do anything about that.
 
bakewell said:
FERRETS!
Also keep teenaged boys away from the internet. Big hob ferrets are slinky deathmachines.
Click to expand...

No way , no way I would have put my ferrets into rubble infill under building far to dangerous for my precious slinkys .
Ratting with ferrets in buildings is great but it's is hard on the Jill's ( I mainly had Jill's )
I don't have ferrets now but I have often wondered if you could get free range semi feral ferrets to stay round your buildings if provided them a warm house and food .
Rats would hate that.
 
Annie B. said:
Jrt for Christmas. Fortunately I have weasels on my yard so in twelve years I have only seen three mice but the remains of more they do a smashing job.
Click to expand...

I once saw a weasel chase two huge rats up into the top of a barn A frame and take both of them on and win .
 
Goldenstar said:
No way , no way I would have put my ferrets into rubble infill under building far to dangerous for my precious slinkys .
Ratting with ferrets in buildings is great but it's is hard on the Jill's ( I mainly had Jill's )
I don't have ferrets now but I have often wondered if you could get free range semi feral ferrets to stay round your buildings if provided them a warm house and food .
Rats would hate that.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, it probably would be harder on Jills, I've only really had hobs, and they get enormous, whilst still capable of tight spaces. Ferret trackers have made me much more confident about letting them into places.

Mhmmm..... well, might backfire for chicken protection when they eat all the eggs! OTOH it's just a polecat really; they used to be more widespread.
(Although... mink. That didn't go too well and our natural ecology is quite fragile at the moment.)
 
Poison won't work. Rats are way to clever, you'll kill a few and the rest won't touch it! Pretty much the same with traps. I agree with everyone else, you best bet is a terrier, My yard has 4 border terriers that run loose and we rarely see a rat. They also come running if they hear a squeal of a female person who has just spotted a rat.
Ferrets will do it too, as rats have a natural inbuilt fear of ferrets!
 
bakewell said:
Ah yeah, it probably would be harder on Jills, I've only really had hobs, and they get enormous, whilst still capable of tight spaces. Ferret trackers have made me much more confident about letting them into places.

Mhmmm..... well, might backfire for chicken protection when they eat all the eggs! OTOH it's just a polecat really; they used to be more widespread.
(Although... mink. That didn't go too well and our natural ecology is quite fragile at the moment.)
Click to expand...

Trackers are no help if they are caught under a large building .
I think semi feral ferrets and chickens keeping would be mission impossible .
I also the keepers might get a bit cross thinking about it .
My ferrets where very tame and you let them on the yard and call them back I had no real problem with rats when I had them .
It just put the rats off living there.
I disagree that poison does not work done right it does .
The issue is you kill off one population you then get a lull and another moves in .
 
I get that you're allergic but feral cats aren't the sit on your knee type & most don't like to be touched AT ALL. Why not speak to the charity that is in the back of H&H and see ?

The battle will be constant with chucks - we were next to a grain store and even though the dogs were effective one on one - the cats were definitely better !

(Hate poison but know it has its place.)
 
I used a bait station with poison about 2 years ago. No rats since. You need to make sure the rats cant access alternatives though, hang up chicken feeders, etc.
Rats are clever but eventually they will take the bait, they are naturally wary of anything different. Even a very big, very old top rat female took it in the end; I did feel a bit sorry when i found the body but there have been no rats since.
We also have a multitude of barn and tawny owls, so hasnt affected the food chain.
 
I bought a 5 kilo tub of bait a couple of years ago and was putting it in places out of reach of horses etc.

The rats obviously decided that wasn't enough as they chewed the lid off of he tub and cleared it out - there must have been 3kilos left before they did that. Didn't see a rat for a very long time!!
 
Goldenstar said:
No way , no way I would have put my ferrets into rubble infill under building far to dangerous for my precious slinkys .
Ratting with ferrets in buildings is great but it's is hard on the Jill's ( I mainly had Jill's )
I don't have ferrets now but I have often wondered if you could get free range semi feral ferrets to stay round your buildings if provided them a warm house and food .
Rats would hate that.
Click to expand...

This is such a neat idea- the semi-feral ferrets; perfect biological control. I've also wondered if you could set up a ferret colony near a rabbit warren. Is there any reason why it wouldn't work?
 
Of course bait works-if it is done properly, the rats that have taken the bait are then poisinous to other species though.
when my ferrets were housed at the yard due to a move the rats left from just the smell of them being there-I would never put ferret against rat they are too evenly matched and the resulting injuries to the ferrets can be terrible.
dogs that like to hunt are great for keeping rat numbers right down.
the best thing is to tidy everywhere and keep it tidy, put food so they cannot get to it, keep hay and straw tidy and move it about frequently if possible, personally I would get rid of the chickens at least till the problem is sorted.

semi feral ferrets-not sure it would work due to the fact their immune system if probably not going to cope with mange,mites, lice, distemper and anything else the other wild animals may be carrying also fox and dogs would probably be an issue-every stray ferret I have taken on has been thin and had harvest mite infestations and most have had a lot of other problems-one that I was handed had been found trying to eat an apple-he was not ill just clueless.
 
Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

We did have a stoat at one point which killed the rats, and unfortunately, all of my bantams too despite being 3X smaller than them. This makes me a bit worried about the ferret idea.

My Mum has a terrier but she's terrified of rats all she ever catches are bee's and snails haha!

However, I'm sure someone round me has an efficient terrier which I'm going to try.

If not I think you're right I'll have to poison them and then keep the bodies away from the owls.

I've also thought about not putting any food down for the chickens anymore and just letting them feed out of the scoop whilst I hold it whenever I'm down the stables which is at least twice a day. That way they wont have anything to eat at all except the tiny bits of food the horses drop. But that's not a lot having 2 natives!
 
You may get a particularly high kill rate but you might find interest from someone with an airgun. Similarly if you let someone shoot rabbits on your land they may take care of the rats as a thankyou.
 
Have same problem. But yard doesn't allow dogs or allow us to do things ourselves as it's a college.
We have a 'man' who comes and puts poison down in bait boxes but even though they use a poison that is slow acting so the rats don't associate it with the deaths, they are still everywhere :(
 
soulfull said:
Have same problem. But yard doesn't allow dogs or allow us to do things ourselves as it's a college.
We have a 'man' who comes and puts poison down in bait boxes but even though they use a poison that is slow acting so the rats don't associate it with the deaths, they are still everywhere :(
Click to expand...

there needs to be no other food source for bait to be effective or some rats will take a bit of everything and immunity to the poison can build up-if there are rats everywhere and they are taking the bait then a different poison needs to be tried. slow acting poison is not used because rats are clever enough to work out that 'Fred ate the blue stuff then died' it is so they return to the nest and the other rats then eat the bodies-they will only do this if there is no other food source too though.
 
We had rats, long before my chickens arrived and my hen house and run is rat proof so they can't get any food from there but we still get the blame.In fact the rats were living in and under neighbours sheds before chickens appeared but they conveniently forget that.
I would never poison any as even if poison was not accessible to my dogs or chickens there are many raptors around who would take a dead poisoned rat as well as my dogs getting the dead poisoned rats before I have had a chance to remove them.
Terriers are the best form of rat control I have found, I have a rat trap too and those in combination with my air rifle is the best way of dealing with them here it seems.
Oz
 
Regarding ferrets, you can't just chuck a ferret down a hole and think it can/will kill rats. Some ferrets aren't cut out to be workers and before taking on rats they need at least 2 years rabbiting under their belts. Even then a rat with young can be quite a match for a domesticated ferret. A wild cousin of the ferret (EU polecat/weasel/stoat) would be different! Not sure you'd have chickens left either....

There are plenty of 'country folk' with experienced ratting terriers that would probably help you out for nothing. With regards to the rubble etc, try and find someone with a smoke machine to flush them out.

If there's that many rats I would try and get the numbers thinned by using dogs first before keeping numbers low with poison. I wouldn't fancy a lot of rats spreading poison about the place. Plus it's a very nasty way to go and hazardous to everything the poisons not intended for.
 
I bought 6 rat traps at B&Q and put them in the hen run at night when the hens were shut in their house. That way we didn't get birds or hedgehogs….or the dog. :) We caught over 35 in two weeks. Rats run round the edges so point the set trap at the wall/fence at right angles of best effect.

Have used poison in the past but am concerned about the owls - small, barn and tawny.
 
ferrets will kill the chickens

Look in to a treadle feeder for the chickens or hang all feeders from something (not foolproof but it will cut down the problem a bit)

If poisoning do bear in mind that chicken feed to some degree counteracts the poison so its worth putting accessible chicken feeders in a metal dustbin overnight and also change the chickens water regularly - I have a shed of irreplaceable show chickens and used fixed bait blocks to kill mice, they ate the poison and made a beeline for the water with bits of poison in their mouths - luckily the poison was green and so the water turned green and luckily the chickens didnt appear to have touched that water
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top