Rats

C

Cloud9

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We have a bit of a rat problem at the moment - finding fresh rat droppings all over our hay and the pesky things are getting very brave and coming in and out of the barn while we are there. I know its a common thing and we have put a poison bait trap down. However Iam a little worried about it contaminating the hay - it is well out the way but if the rats walk on the poison then over the hay! Should we move it outside the barn? Or am I just being paranoid!!!
 
Personally I dont use poison as you never quite know where it will end up or what it will affect, also think its a horrible way for any animal to die.

Instead use stable cats plus very cheap (50p-£1ish) snap traps baited with chocolate raisins, they cant resist them. One snap and theyre dead, much better than miserable lingering end. The traps go where the cats cant get to. The cats came from Cats protection and are feral ones they couldnt tame, they just get food once a day and sleep in the hay barn and are as happy as larry, they catch some but also deter any from taking up residence in the first place.
 
find yourself a nice length of drain pipe about a foot long and put your bait down in that. My rats were eating through my apples and carrots and moved onto my sack of hi-fi lite after I moved them out of the way so I used to mix chopped up apple and carrots with the bait to get em! result... two dead rats and no-more problems!!
 
Agree with CB put poison in cut down drainpipes, you need to watch and see where they come from and put the drainpipe and poison near the beginning of their run and keep topping it up until it stops disappearing.
 
Thanks for this - we honesly can't see where they are getting in - we have walked round the exterior of the barn and can see no obvious holes or runs - and the barn is on a concrete pad. However on the inside we have one wall lined with pallets for our hay which, is cleaned out on a regular basis when we get new deliveries. Little blighters.
 
I'm on a farm and have rats at mo too. We put poison just outside the stables in a drain pipe - if there's "food" around the blighters will find it so it doesn't have to be right where you see evidence of them. Also warfarin is the usual rat poison - blue stuff that looks like grain. It's actually given to humans sometimes for heart conditions so thins the blood. When rats eat it they have to consume it continually for a few days for it to "work". My point is a horse being so large would probably have to consume a fair amount to cause a problem, nevertheless i'd stick it outside of your stables, top it up daily and you'll soon be rat free!!
 
Get yourself a terrier
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Failing that suitably placed traps worked for us...we appeared to only have one and it took us a while to get the little b*gger but we caught it in the end
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However beware of mice in rat traps if you are squeamish, we caught a mouse in a rat trap and it sliced it clean in half
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Urgh!!! nce .............. Speaking of terriers - am trying to convince by OH's dad to let us rescue one cause seen one I want at the dogs trust however we would need to bring it to work with us. We are out too long in the day to leave it on its own.
 
Got a bit of a rat problem myself! they are buggers, they are in my barn chewing up all the bailer twine, i have a few straw bales that have been completely demolished by them!
They arent scared of me in the slightest, just carry on while im there lol.

am going to get my brother up there with an air-rifle, failing that rat posion im affraid, althou i do not like the stuff, would love a feral cat but its not really a yard, just land with a barn lol.
Perhaps working ferrets might be a good solution? they love eating rodents..just wonder how good they are at climbing bales!?
 
I can imagine a ferret would do the job really well - agile and can get to all the same places the rats could!!

Bought a coupel of traps today too - set one tonight on my hay and and disguised it - just hope I remember its there tommorow - its so strong I would lose my hand
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Get yourself a terrier

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I was about to suggest this. We have an amazing jrt called Dolly. She is the best ratter i have ever known she just grabs them and there dead. We also have cats who kill alot of them so there numbers are kept pritty low. I never use poison as it is a horrid way to die and often end up finishing them off with a shovel as i can't bare to see any animal suffer. (yes even rats) So if i didn't have jrt or cats i would use traps.
 
See I knew the best advice would be a Terrier - now all I can think of is I REALLY WANT A DOG!! This means there is another tick in the pros of getting a dog column
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Re. Terriers - mine's just a pup at the mo' so needs to grow up a bit before we let him loose in the yard, BUT apparently someone said to me that if you're gonna use your dog/terrier for ratting then you need to make sure they've been innoculated against Leptospirosis coz they can get it from rats.

I've got rats in the yard, the damn things go under the fence into the chicken pen - they've been awful this year I think because of the cold. Plus I've got a blinking mouse in the house and the cat just sits there cleaning her precious paws and doing sweet FA about it, so I've got into desperation mode and put down some traps. When you've had a flippin mouse all in your kitchen cupboard and all through your thiings there, your thoughts of being nice to the poor little things just fly out the window I'm afraid. I tried the terrier pup plus the older dog but they just went through the place like a tornado and made a hell of a mess.

Blimmin vermin.
 
We have a problem rat at the moment, it has got under the rubber mats in our barn stable (the only one with an earth floor) When i lift them the run goes under the mats and through to the next barn where i have pallets with haylage on. I have a rat box down with poison in but its not been touched in 2 weeks so it is a clever rat!!! Worst thing though is this morning we had a mouse in a trap in the garage (dead) and the rat had pulled it through a hole still in the trap where it stuck and it had eaten half of the dead mouse !!!! DISGUSTING So it is our mission this weekend to get this rat. We have 3 JRT's so they will be on stand by as we lift the pallets.
 
I've posted this before but worth repeating as it's a very effective solution. It's the amazing Bait-less Mousetrap. You can get them for rats too. You push a sharp razor blade into a lump of wood, sharp side up. No bait. Put the wood on the floor. The mouse/rat comes along, leans its head over the razor blade then looks to the left and right and left and right and left and right, saying "Where's the bloody cheese then".

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GET A BORDER TERRIER! WE GOT A YOUNG DOG AND BREEDER TOLD US TO CATCH A RAT - PUT IT IN A BARREL, DROP PUP IN AND LET HIM GET ON WITH IT. HE DIDN'T MAKE A FUSS - JUST BIT IT'S NECK, KILLED IT, THEN LOOKED AT US AS THOUGH TO SAY 'WHAT'S NEXT?' HE'S THE BEST RATTER EVER. HE IS OBSESSED ON THE YARD - SNIFFS THEM OUT AND DEALS WITH THEM.

ALSO HAVE A FANTASTIC FARM CAT WHO IS FEARLESS.

IF USING POISON, KEEP IT IN PIPES THAT THE TERRIER AND CATS CAN'T GET AT (I'VE HAD A CAT DIE FROM RAT POISON AND IT'S NOT PRETTY)
 
LOL!!!!!!!!! Well we set the traps with a mix of mix and kevin bacon hoof dressing to bind it together as we were told they love it - well its true they do love it - eat the whole bloody lot and still did not trigger the trap - got images of rats lowering themselves from the ceiling mission impossible style to foil us! Trap triggered immediately when i poked it with a piece of straw this morning
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I would use Eradirat bait - it's a modified corn product that does NOT affect other animals or those that might consume a dead rat.

Rats (and mice) tend to run round the edges of a building and suss out what's there, so you're best leaving your bait containers round the edges. You must also remove all other food sources - so ensure your horse feed is either elsewhere or sealed in metal/ratproof containers, so that the bait is the most desirable thing and thus is eaten.
 
Re Feral Cats.

We got a young cat from the RSPCA who'd been caught from a wild colony and he lives very happily indeed alone at our stables. He's about six years old now and not only friendly but a damned good chief of rodenticide! Rats haven't settled at all since he got there.
Each morning when we arrive to do the animals the cat's happy enough to see us (inc my dogs) yet he's remained a basically semi-wild animal so doesn't mind being alone all night. He's cheap to keep, okay to worm/deflea and so on, tough as they come and healthy as a horse.

He's so cool we named him Nobby Numbnuts Depp.
 
Got to say either the ferral cats or the dogs are great!

I have a dobie who will dig you a 5 foot long and 4 foot deep trench to dig out his rattie! Our farm looks like a lunar moon landing site with all these huge holes everywhere

Could loan him to you! He has special boots now to dig in as he would dig until his claws bled to get his roland!

Moles too he loves!
 
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