Update on the rat issue

[GSD Woman]

For everyone who gave me advice on getting rid of rats, THANK YOU! I don't know what combination worked but today no signs of any rats. I've been picking up the feed and water when I shut up the coop for the night and I think that's probably the biggest thing. I also pick up their water. I keep my chicken food in a bin in the house and I'm making a commitment tp filling the feeder in the house.
Today I stomped down soil where the tunnels were and I should be able to see any rat prints. And I raised the coop up with four buckets so the light shines under coop and there is good ventilation.
Again, thank you.

 

[PurBee]

Wow - they scarpered quickly! I guess without a nice hidden nest area and no access to water and food theyve got worried and rapidly moved on…brilliant! ? Glad it was an easy effective solution for you ?

 

[cremedemonthe]

My peanut butter and bi carb seesm to be working too, very few left

 

[GSD Woman]

I had a tunnel Monday morning. I blocked it back and there hasn't been any sign of more tunnels. I'm still going to add my peanut butter bombs to the area just in case.

 

[Abby-Lou]

My peanut butter and bi carb seesm to be working too, very few left

Could I ask so you mix peanut butter and bicarb and it kills them ? not heard of that one before ? have you had good success ?

 

[GSD Woman]

Abby-Lou, I found the recipe on line and it is 1/4 cup bicarb and 1/3 cup peanut butter to hide the taste of the bicarb. I added some brown sugar just to be sure. From my reading, the bicarb mixes with the rat's stomach acid and since rats can't belch it kills them. It has the advantage of not killing pets or wildlife that might eat the rats.

 

[cremedemonthe]

I use 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter and mix it with 2 tablespoons of bi carb in a tub. It resembles crumble mix , then I add a little water to make it in to what looks like pastry and it has the same consistency. Roll it in to balls about the size of a golf ball and wedge it in places around where the rats run. I do have less rats although not gone entirely but early days yet.
I have 2kg of bi carb
Oz

 

[ycbm]

That sounds like a very painful and, I'm sorry but I feel I have to say it, cruel, way to kill a rat. I'm surprised it's legal.
.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

That sounds like a very painful and, I'm sorry but I feel I have to say it, cruel, way to kill a rat. I'm surprised it's legal.
.

Garden centres stock rodent killer which is not poisonous (they wouldn't have a licence for poison). Rather it is something that swells inside the rat's stomach, so I assume very similar to the bi-carb solution. I can't imagine that poisoning is a pleasant death either. Warfarin makes them bleed to death internally. I would prefer to use ferrets and terriers buts sometimes needs must if you can't find a ferret.

 

[ycbm]

I think the best solution is a feral cat. We have a trapping and rehoming centre in a nearby town.
.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

yeah, would rather a cat or a terrier got them as anything else is pretty grim but, if the population has exploded you do have to act quickly as they can get pretty brazen and eat/attack poultry.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

It does sound a very painful end for a rat but then so is poison and at least this won't kill any other animal. Pity there is no way of preventing them breeding, that would sort a lot of problems.
We have cats that come from the houses next to our field and barn but they don't help with the rats unfortunately. Poison seems to have sorted ours for the moment but I hate doing it.

 

[Antw23uk]

My peanut butter and bi carb seesm to be working too, very few left

Barbaric

 

[GSD Woman]

I tried to find someone with terriers to do the job but no go. Snap traps didn't go off like they should have. My chickens are in my back yard/garden in a suburban area. That left me with the newer poison that is very toxic and if a dog ingests it can poison the people around it when vomiting is induced. The older poisons aren't much better. The alternates were a pellet made of very highly concentrated sodium chloride that would dehydrate the rat or the peanut butter bicarb mix. It is very hard to find places here that will adopt out a cat to live totally out of doors here. (Central VA.) So, I made the best decision I could. Easy to judge when the problem isn't in back garden.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

GSD a proper pest control person here will find all the holes and put poison down them with a flexible tube. They then put something like a concrete slab on top of the holes so the rats have to eat their way out. If it is done correctly the rats never surface again because they die underground before they can eat their way out.

When I had a rat infestation and they got into my attic which was gross it was the only thing that worked. I tried the owl friendly pellets, flooding, traps, a terrier man, poison bought at the agricultural store and nothing worked. For every 2 breeding rats you have they will in their lifetime produce 2000 more and the rat man wiped a very large nest out within two visits. I still get the occasional one in the attic and have poison up there permanently so it never gets out of hand again but with chickens and ducks they are always going to be round. We also have 10 cats 9 of which are useless ratters.

 

[Berpisc]

Rat poison is nasty and rats have a nasty death with it. Sadly they are very clever and very productive. Cats that catch rats are rare as a rat is a formidable opponentin my experience. If you dont control them, they will get everywhere. There are no easy answers. We had professional pest control in on the farm some years ago, they used poison (we had a specific one off problem). It worked out better value for them to do the job.

 

[GSD Woman]

Lindylouanne, I've never heard of that solution but I'll certainly remember it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rats are gone but I'm keeping my eyes open.

 

[ycbm]

Rat poison is nasty and rats have a nasty death with it. Sadly they are very clever and very productive. Cats that catch rats are rare as a rat is a formidable opponentin my experience. If you dont control them, they will get everywhere. There are no easy answers. We had professional pest control in on the farm some years ago, they used poison (we had a specific one off problem). It worked out better value for them to do the job.

I don't know if they catch many but I know their presence can make them leave. I have the worst stable management standards, there's always food around on the floor for rodents, and in 30 years here I've seen 3 rats, all dead, one per decade.

A friend got 3 feral kittens from the trappers a year ago. She had tried everything and the rats were biting through dustbins to reach the food. Kittens arrived, rats left.

My cats will take stoat, and often do, I find a lot more stoats than rats, and they are at least as formidable as a rat, surely? They bite a steel poker if they're cornered in the house!
.

 

[Berpisc]

I think a good ratter is a valuable cat, I agree about stoats, very formidable. We had some half grown young hens raided by a stoat. Not nice.
The best ratter I had was one of my dogs who had a big dollop of terrier in his mix. We must have wimpy cats round us...
I hate using poison, its not nice at all, but sometimes it has been necessary.

 

[Gloi]

Would the peanut butter / bicarb mix harm Jack Russells? If not I may try some down the rat holes behind my stable.

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Porridge oats and poly filler does job as well. An old rat catcher man in the 70’s told me that one.

 

[Sandstone1]

Is there a humane way to deter rats? A strong smell or something?

 

[GSD Woman]

Berpisc, years ago I had two cats that would catch and kill mice, rats, voles and squirrels. One of the cats made a nice line of dead rodents along my side fence. My neighbor found it amazing. These cats also caught minnows in the creek at the end of the street. Not many cats like though. my current cat is indoors only. I don't like having indoor/outdoor cats. They are flea magnets.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Is there a humane way to deter rats? A strong smell or something?

it’s best to just not give them food and shelter inadvertently.

I have two farm cats, I’ve not seen them with a rat because I don’t have rats (although the cats have before brought in a squirrel, a stoat and have been known to ambush and kill hares, the first two on the list are both pretty formidable and the squirrel was either very lost or the cat brought it back from 1.5km away.) I don’t doubt they would have a rat. They are yard cats but also have the run of a utility room with a large double radiator.

Having just completely emptied a small barn, there was absolutely no sign at all of either mice or rats. I am not being smug, having lived on a property that had a major rat infestation it’s not something I want to experience again, I have had poultry friends be over run who have lost birds to them as well.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

We used to keep doves and have had rats kill them sadly. When we were farming we only ever had one cat that would kill rats. They stayed away while she was alive but moved in en masse after she died. I had to resort to poison and felt absolutely awful when mucking out a deep litter bed I found a nest of dead three quarter grown rats. There were several in it. At least that was a few less to get at my horse feed.

 

[Mule]

I use a rodenticide, it's a super strong warfarin product. It sounds like a nasty death but what can you do? Mice are one thing but rats are something else entirely.

 

[ycbm]

Surely it has to be a better death to die of thin blood (warfarin) than to die of a blocked digestive system (bicarb/polyfilla)?
.

 

[Mule]

Surely it has to be a better death to die of thin blood (warfarin) than to die of a blocked digestive system (bicarb/polyfilla)?
.

I think so but I wouldn't fancy either

 

[Mule]

I did accidentally contribute to drowning several mice once. I had a bucket of water near a food bin and I suppose they went to have a drink and fell in. So drowning would be a fast / less nasty way to go. I doubt it's very reliable though.

 

[GSD Woman]

While bleeding out (warfarin) may seem a better rat death, and I'm not sure about that having seen animals bleeding from all orifices from rat poison, than the 12-24 hours it takes for a rat to die from the peanut/bicarb death I'm not going to risk poisoning my dogs or the wildlife near me. Just the other day I saw a bald eagle flying about 2 miles from my place. I know there are hawks, owls, raccoons and at least 1 fox. With a good pen so far I've been OK from those but the rats got in and they had to go.