Rats Rats RATS!!!

[GBov]

So I have gotten them out of my colony by moving a cat in there but I find that the tunnels that the does had dug under and outside of the pen are housing breeding rats. Actually saw a youngster peering out at the world like a baby bunny does.

Cute?

Yes.

Bad?

Yes again!

So what do you guys do to get rid of the rats?

 

[Demamma]

Get more Cats.

 

[GBov]

Get more Cats.

:lol:

We have FIVE of the fuzzy free loaders right now!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Get more Cats.

:lol:

We have FIVE of the fuzzy free loaders right now!

:yeahthat: Only five?

We had a call the other day from someone wanting kittens or cats, since we usually have plenty to spare. Sadly, we could not accommodate them. :no:

We are down to about nine adults and a half dozen or so kittens, ourselves! :roll:

There is a recent thread around here somewhere regarding rats... I'll see if I can find it for you.<br /><br />__________ Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:55 pm __________<br /><br />Here ya go.

topic10029.html

 

[akane]

Most cats I've had won't hunt rats. Lock all the food up and get traps. You can also look up homemade traps like the bucket trap. If all else fails like it did for us because our rats refuse traps of every kind then poison will wipe them out in 2 days and can be kept in safe bait stations where nothing can get it.

 

[MaggieJ]

The very best rat control is a resident mink or weasel... but of course, once the rats are gone, they may turn on your chickens, rabbits etc. We have had three rat population explosions in the eleven years we have been here. In two cases, a mink and a weasel cleaned them out. I've often wondered if a domestic ferret could be trained for rat control.

The second best control, in my experience, is poison. You do need to be prepared to walk your area and dispose of dead or dying rats before your other critters can eat them and suffer secondary poisoning. Over a two week period, I gathered up about 30+ dead and dying rats when we put down poison. Yuck!

 

[GBov]

The very best rat control is a resident mink or weasel... but of course, once the rats are gone, they may turn on your chickens, rabbits etc. We have had three rat population explosions in the eleven years we have been here. In two cases, a mink and a weasel cleaned them out. I've often wondered if a domestic ferret could be trained for rat control.

The second best control, in my experience, is poison. You do need to be prepared to walk your area and dispose of dead or dying rats before your other critters can eat them and suffer secondary poisoning. Over a two week period, I gathered up about 30+ dead and dying rats when we put down poison. Yuck!

They have been used for that for a very long time! We have one but I dont think he is suited for the working life though :lol:

Pumpkin our orange fluffy but just came bolting through the dog door with a squeeky toy. So had to find her, get her new "toy" away from her and give it - poor little baby, it was still very young - to one of the older cats that promptly ate it.

Sad when they are little but I am thinking our problem is bigger than I first thought :evil:

Thanks for the link MammaSheepdog

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Thanks for the link MammaSheepdog

You're welcome!

It was ridiculously easy this time... if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see a box with "Similar Topics". I usually use the search feature because I forget about the box. :lol:

 

[Peach]

Release a few snakes? :mrgreen:

 

[GBov]

Release a few snakes? :mrgreen:

Florida! We most likely have more of them than you do :lol:

But if you can find a shed snake skin, shove it into your attic. It keeps them out for about 4 or 5 months!

 

[MaggieJ]

Even if your pet ferret won't hunt, just having him leave his scent in the rat-infested area may help deter them. Iggysbabysitter was trying this but I forgot to ask her how effective it was.

 

[ladysown]

would keeping a ferret do the trick you think? not loose but caged? One that hasn't been descented?

 

[3mina]

It doesn't necessarily work
I have four of them that get lots of loose time and I am still working to get rid of the mice that moved in this fall, I don't see them since I put out the Exlax but I've only had one in the traps.

 

[a7736100]

So I have gotten them out of my colony by moving a cat in there but I find that the tunnels that the does had dug under and outside of the pen are housing breeding rats. Actually saw a youngster peering out at the world like a baby bunny does.

Cute?

Yes.

Bad?

Yes again!

So what do you guys do to get rid of the rats?

I had the same problem. One nest was right in a rabbit pen with cute babies going after rabbit feed. The rabbits are pretty lay back and didn't mind the rats eating in the food bowls at the same time. A bit surpised that rabbits don't attack rats as they do other rabbits. Anyway I got tired of dozens of rats running around in broad daylight like they own the place. Got some poison and put it in a rabbit cage and took out the rabbit. After a few days I'm not seeing any rats. Don't know where they go to die but I don't see any dead rats. Don't know if there are any left because I'm out of poison. I only used the poison in one cage but seems to have rid all the rats in 2000 sq ft area.

 

[garden lady]

So I have gotten them out of my colony by moving a cat in there but I find that the tunnels that the does had dug under and outside of the pen are housing breeding rats. Actually saw a youngster peering out at the world like a baby bunny does.

Cute?

Yes.

Bad?

Yes again!

So what do you guys do to get rid of the rats?

I had the same problem. One nest was right in a rabbit pen with cute babies going after rabbit feed. The rabbits are pretty lay back and didn't mind the rats eating in the food bowls at the same time. A bit surpised that rabbits don't attack rats as they do other rabbits. Anyway I got tired of dozens of rats running around in broad daylight like they own the place. Got some poison and put it in a rabbit cage and took out the rabbit. After a few days I'm not seeing any rats. Don't know where they go to die but I don't see any dead rats. Don't know if there are any left because I'm out of poison. I only used the poison in one cage but seems to have rid all the rats in 2000 sq ft area.

Under the buildings, in the walls and die and stink is what happened in my barn years ago after a chicken farm went out of business. All the rats at the chicken place left and went to all the neighbors farms and houses. I was a mile away. We had to poison them to get rid of them. Totally unreal. :x

 

[GBov]

Garden Lady, we lived in a simi-detached house for a few years and every bloody autumn the mice would move in, the neighbors would set poison and the darned mice would move into OUR bedroom walls to die...............

Talk about STINK!

Dead mice take weeks to stop stinking :angry:

 

[akane]

Surprisingly we've only had them stink once and 99% of the time they die in their burrows. Maybe because it's aglime under concrete they are digging and the walls are single plywood or metal siding specifically to avoid rodents getting in them like they did at our old place.

 

[garden lady]

Garden Lady, we lived in a simi-detached house for a few years and every bloody autumn the mice would move in, the neighbors would set poison and the darned mice would move into OUR bedroom walls to die...............

Talk about STINK!

Dead mice take weeks to stop stinking :angry:

:x I hate mice, but when I say rats, I mean RATS. :x I was filling up a bucket of water once and turned around and bumped into something and looked down to see a RAT/MONSTER as big as a fat cat. I worked at the chicken farm for a bit when I first got out of high school. The buildings were real long and DARK and sometimes you would hear one running. I guess they ate the chicken feed. I think our neighbors are doing what yours did because in the fall sometimes I see a dead one in the yard. Probably was running for our walls, but died before it got here. :x I am putting all the rabbit food and hay in metal cans.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Get more Cats.

:lol:

We have FIVE of the fuzzy free loaders right now!

:yeahthat: Only five?

We had a call the other day from someone wanting kittens or cats, since we usually have plenty to spare. Sadly, we could not accommodate them. :no:

We are down to about nine adults and a half dozen or so kittens, ourselves! :roll:

There is a recent thread around here somewhere regarding rats... I'll see if I can find it for you.

__________ Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:55 pm __________

Here ya go.

topic10029.html

i WISH there was that few here....
there are about a dozen adults though. right now three younger ones and three real young (like ten wks) ones. only the three youngest and two adults arent feral.
AND they all suck as mousers...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

OGG, you need some of "MamaSheepdog's Barn-Cats Extraordinaire"!

Our cats are great hunters and come in "decorative" colors.

I've been working on my lines for almost 15 years now, and natural selection has been a real bear. But we have some great cats that hunt well and are "predator savvy" . The ones that aren't get eaten, which is always a big bummer, because it seems like they are always the "favorites".

But the cats we have hunt squirrels, mice, rats, and cottontails, yet leave my rabbits and baby chicks alone. I don't know if it is "nature or nurture" at work, but I have never tried to "train" our barncats to leave domestic animals alone, so it is probably "nature".

I hope that over time you can do the same with your cats and develop a population of good hunters that don't prey on your domestic livestock.