Rats

[musk]

Don't know how true this is but apparently putting sweet potato out is meant to kill them Could be a load of rubbish though??
I have a formidable cat that nothing gets past, controls the rabbit population too! only problem is she likes to gift us her prey by leaving it outside our bedroom doors to be discovered in the morning

 

[Sprogladite01]

Oddly enough after moving loads of stuff (mostly packing away clutter and sorting haynets out so they aren't nice ladders for the mice), plus re-baiting the rat traps, there's been no sign of them today. Maybe shuffling things around disturbed them/made them a bit wary but I'm sure they will be back!
Hay delivery tomorrow so will be pulling all the pallets out of the back of the tack room and sweeping up the hay that's fallen through - I peered through the slats with a torch last night and let's just say the sight of what was under there made me feel a bit ill

 

[Nasicus]

We had cats that lived in the barn, which they merrily shared with the rats ?
Best results we had were unfortunately with poison, but that was prior to the cats arriving and was done by the Land Owner.
After we got the cats and they proved to be useless for anything besides scratching on the stable walls, we found some success with a humane trap placed along the wall where they would run along, with various baits used. I did however have to point out to my friend that it kind of defeats the point if she then lets the rats go a few 100m away at the bottom of the field, they'd get back to the barn before she did ?

 

[Steerpike]

I was talking to someone recently who said in New Zealand they have traps which have a captive bolt that will kill rats, I don't like using poison around my other animals so I'm going to see if they sell the traps over here.

 

[Jellymoon]

Def a feral cat. We get them from Snips charity, they arrive with a big cage and all the bits and bobs to settle them in, and then you will never see a rat again. Our current one is absolutely terrifying and we haven’t seen a rodent since the day he arrived.
You can’t get near him, so in terms of injections etc, you just have to forget it. He has an amazing life at our yard and he just has to take his chances.

 

[spotty_pony]

Don't know how true this is but apparently putting sweet potato out is meant to kill them Could be a load of rubbish though??
I have a formidable cat that nothing gets past, controls the rabbit population too! only problem is she likes to gift us her prey by leaving it outside our bedroom doors to be discovered in the morning

they LOVE sweet potato - I don’t know about it killing them but it’s good bait.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Not sure about sweet potato but I’ve just lobbed another 20 poison blocks into the attic as I can’t stand hearing the little f*cker running around above my head at 2.30 every morning. I’m sure it’s taking the pee as we have 10 cats and none have the ability to catch it ?

 

[sprytzer]

Normal snap traps are useless for rats, fine for little mice.
It’s Fen Traps you need for rats.
You can pin them down with the chain or put in a fen cage.

 

[scats]

Our cat has been a fantastic ratter. She does leave the innards for me to find though!

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Not sure about sweet potato but I’ve just lobbed another 20 poison blocks into the attic as I can’t stand hearing the little f*cker running around above my head at 2.30 every morning. I’m sure it’s taking the pee as we have 10 cats and none have the ability to catch it

Is it definitely a rat or could it be a squirrel? My sister had a squirrel in her loft.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Is it definitely a rat or could it be a squirrel? My sister had a squirrel in her loft.

Definitely a rat, the third one in recent months. I found the other two very deceased, one in the accessible part of the attic and the other by the garage door. This year has been particularly bad for them in the village and the pest man has been very busy.

 

[ycbm]

Another for cats. I made absolutely zero effort to keep my feed stores clean but always had three house cats. In 31 years the only rats I ever saw any sign of were dead.

A friend was having dustbins chewed through 2 years ago and got three ferals from a charity. Not seen a rat since.

I visited a friend once who had put the cat in the loft for the day ?
.

 

[Esmae]

Baited the trap with chicken pellets and syrup. Bang!! Ratty no more. Result! Reset it to see if he has any relations.

 

[AmyMay]

Oddly enough after moving loads of stuff (mostly packing away clutter and sorting haynets out so they aren't nice ladders for the mice), plus re-baiting the rat traps, there's been no sign of them today. Maybe shuffling things around disturbed them/made them a bit wary but I'm sure they will be back!

Rats hate things being moved around.

 

[Borderreiver]

I was talking to someone recently who said in New Zealand they have traps which have a captive bolt that will kill rats, I don't like using poison around my other animals so I'm going to see if they sell the traps over here.

We have one of these and it has been an utter waste of money. It has probably killed about four rats but also seriously injured another which dragged blood trails about. Horrible.

 

[photo_jo]

I was once first person into a local and reasonably smart feed store and garden centre and was standing by a stand when a huge fat rat came out from under one of the stands just by my feet, walked around rather unsteadily and rather robotically and then went back under. I went to the person at the check-out and told him I had seen a rat, and he thanked me, and said that they had been trying to poison it for days! I bet they were glad it was a hardened horsey person that saw the rat and not just someone who had come in to buy some gardening gloves! It did look like a very well-fed rat.

One did that in the cafe at an equestrian centre during a dressage or may have been a show jumping show, they'd put some poison down and it was looking fairly dodgy so I put a chair over it so it was out of sight!

 

[Borderreiver]

We had a really bad rat problem last winter. I could sometimes see a dozen in the chicken run at night despite taking up all food. We have a cat who has caught a few. We tried the bolt guns but the rats soon got wise to them. We got rat bait boxes and kept them topped up but honestly you would imagine I was buying rat food rather than poison. They also ate pounds of chicken food during the day. We had someone come to shoot them and got a few. It was war! No one likes using poison but when we had some come into the house it was terrifying. I contacted a professional who has treated the problem very safely with licenced products only they can obtain. Two weeks later, no rats. This is the time of year to get on top of them as they can and do come indoors.

 

[Sprogladite01]

Well, we tried re-baiting the traps over the weekend with nutella. Good news, they like it. Bad news, they cleared the traps without setting them off so they had a nice treat. Also have a delivery of hay in there waiting to be feasted on and contaminated now. I contacted a professional last week who said they can come out early this week to have a look. Honestly not all that convinced he is going to be able to help as it's the hay they are going for and not anything else, but if he can get rid of them, it's worth spending the money on. If not, I'll keep persisting. Most recently, been looking a DIY'ing a rat trap using a tall bucket/bin and filling with water, then using a floating lid with food on it to try and drown a few. Not the most humane, but tbh I'm past the point where I want them to have a "nice" end, as long as it's an end!!

 

[nikkimariet]

Electric bait boxes. Humane and they really work.