Rats

TelH

TelH

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What is the best way to get rid of them?
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One seems to have been going through one of our stables and into the tack room most nights for about a fortnight now. I think there is only one cos there are very few droppings. I have put poison down but it doesn't look like it has been touched and my jack russell has been scouting round but hasn't managed to find it.

Has anyone used those sonic repeller things? Are they any good? I have read mixed reviews about them.

What about glue traps? Cos I heard that they are meant to be good but don't you have to kill them after they are caught then??? Neither me or OH would be brave enough to do that
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Could we just let the dogs out to do their thing or could they get stuck on the trap too??
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I have never come across one that won't eat poison before but would like to get rid of the little b*gger
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Fill a swing bin with water and put something tasty on the lid - works brilliantly! have never had any luck with the sonic things and they kept taking food out of the snap traps without them going off.
 
I have a phobia about rats so do sympathise. Rat poison should work but it will be a few days, even a week, before the rat starts to take it. T\hey are highly intelligent and are very wary of new food sources. Use bait boxes, positioned along a wall. But remember that even if only one rat is visiting at the moment, that one rat has hundreds of friends and relatives that may well follow. Put bait boxes down around the boundaries of your stables. You'll never be completely clear of rats but you should be able to keep them under control.
 
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Fill a swing bin with water and put something tasty on the lid - works brilliantly!

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Wow! does the swing bin really work? I am going to try it, do the rats drown? I don't think I can face a live trapped rat - shiver!!!

What do you put on the lid that is tasty to rats, I have heard they like peanut butter
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mice and rats like peanut butter. I think the bin idea is brilliant actually as long as I didnt find them swimming around in the morning, not sure what i'd do then!
 
I know its a sadistic suggestion...is it wrong that im impressed! I did think what if the rat is still alive......isnt it illegal to free it once caught? what on earth would you do with it.....
 
The glue traps you do have to kill them in. They will struggle and struggle to get free, sometimes pulling their own limbs off. If you use them you have to check very regularly and be prepared to kill fast (bash on head with flat side of brick or similar). Our pest control people only use them as a last resort becasue they think they are one of the most cruel methods.

Drowning wd probably be pretty slow too as they can swim for a while.

If I really wanted to get rid I'd let the dogs do it. (Says she blessed with metal feed bins and no squeemishness abt the mouse she found living in the horses bed earlier...)
 
We have put poison down in more places but if it keeps coming back and doesn't eat it I think I will have a go with the swing bin plan
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I've never heard of it before but it sounds good. Any method that works sounds good to me
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Surely it should drown in there or if not maybe just tip it out in the direction of the dogs and hope one of them gets it. We have 4 dogs including a jack russell so hopefully between them they should do the necessary.
 
Please stick with the poison, it will work eventually, letting an animal drown out of sheer exhaustion or leaving glue traps where they'll chew through their own limbs in blind panic are totally barbaric in my opinion...you might not like the things but there are humane ways to keep them under control...where there are horses and feed there will be rats, they dont hurt!
 
obv, be v v careful with poison down if you have a dog. rats will push poison out and dogs pick it up. been there, rushed dogs to vet just in time, etc etc.
the cage traps are excellent, and the most humane imho. position it by a wall, where a rat would run, ideally hidden behind something. bait it with butter, sprinkled with with hot choc... they love the smell/taste of the choc, and because the butter is soft, they have to stay there to lick it off, not grab it and run (which they can do with cheese or a lump of choc) so much more chance of setting the trap off.
the advantage with these traps is that if something else gets in there (i've caught a lot of blackbirds!) you can easily let it out, unharmed.
if i catch a rat i shoot it with air rifle at point blank range, they usually attack the end of the barrel anyway so it's very easy to do a kill shot.
otherwise, do what i do... have 5 jrts...!
 
5 jack russells?! how cool is that
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I only have one jack russell, OH has 2 border collies and a springer spaniel. My jack russell has been trying to teach the springer to hunt but he's a bit rubbish
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We have put poison in places where we know the dogs can't reach.
 
If you use the swing bin method, which does work, please don't put water in! I hate to think of them drowning after exhaustion. Once they are caught, they can be dispatched quickly with an air rifle. Air rifles aren't too expensive and you don't need a licence.
Oh and peanut butter is great for a bait!
 
I get a circular drainage pipe, cut it into 18inch sections put poison in the middle and strategically place them around the yard but not where cats and dogs can get it and make sure that there is a bucket of water near. I have also found, thanks to the local pest man that every time I use up a tub of rat poison, bearing in mind we have a medium yard but lots of storage places, that i change brand as rats can become immune to the same poison if you don't change, we have very few rats on our yard so I don't have to renew the poison very often. If someone sees one I bait that area and keep baiting it until the posion stops going, once it stops going soon after you find the dead rat(s).
 
I have used the poison from Wilkinsons and that works a treat so far.... they have eaten a whole sachet per night..... but its working out about a pound a day to poison them....

More than it costs to feed the chickens that they are infesting
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I have now bought a couple of savage looking traps.. they cant get the choc out so hopefully they will be a gonna by the time I get to see them
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I have tried the swing bin method, but it didnt work for my canny rats!!!
 
There's a new rat/mouse trap on the market. It's just a sturdy block of wood with a razor blade embedded in it, sharp side up. No bait is used at all. The rat/mouse comes up to the trap and leans its head over the razor and then swivels its head fast from side to side as it squeaks "Where's the bloody cheese then?"
 
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