Have work for a rat terrier or ratting dog- IN

Willowynd · #1 02/25/10, 02:15 PM

I am looking for someone with a rat terrier, JRT or other dog that is good at catching rats. My coops/rabbitry have been getting mauraded horribly all winter (ate an entire litter of week old baby bunnies in the nest box- leaving only skins and bone fragments, killed 2 young cockerels, left only leg bones and spines of a bantam cochin, attacked a crippled duck- then ate his feet half off through a cage with small mesh that he was in to recuperate). I have not been able to breed any rabbits all winter and am tired of my breeding birds being killed. I found a hole with tracks outside one of the coops/rabbitries. Trapping is no longer working after catching 3 and I would rather go with a non-poisonous way to get an upper hand on these rats as I fear for the safety of my poultry and collies. Anyone in the Ft Wayne/ Columbia City area that could come out and let thier dog have some fun doing what they do naturally?

backwoodsman · #2 02/25/10, 02:31 PM

Good Luck. I'd plan on doing some more trapping. Dogs may get a few but traps will probably thin them out good. Switch baits and kinds of traps if need be. Just bought a few of the no.55 Conibears and they look to be a gem dandy. Wooden rat snap traps work good too and Ive caught my fair share of barn rats in size no.110 conibears, no.0and bigger foothold traps. Raw/bloody meat baits draw some and some have a sweet tooth for honey, sugar donuts, peanut butter etc. Im not a fan of poison either but with the infestation you have it may be a viable option?

fishhead · #3 02/25/10, 03:23 PM

If you can get in there and move things around to push them out of hiding a dog should do a good job on them. I think you'll still need to keep traps set though.

Willowynd · #4 02/25/10, 04:00 PM

They are not inside my coop during the day. I have never seen any milling around. I am finding tracks outside and found a couple tunnels outside against the coop. If you want to see the damage, tunnels and tracks I posted on the poultry board.
Rats again!

tamsam · #5 02/25/10, 05:17 PM

If you can get a car or truck close to the tunnels fasten a sweeper hose or such to the exhast and put in tunnel. Seal it of with dirt and let idle. Do this to every tunnel you can find. Or place a little poison called Last Bite in the tunnel where your dogs can't get it. That is all I can tell you that worked for me. good luck. Sam

Ed Norman · #6 02/25/10, 07:16 PM

My dogs would love to, but the distance is a bit much. When you get the dogs, run a water hose down the holes and tunnels and they will learn to wait for the heads to pop up. I was once involved in a high volume gopher operation in Montana with my 2 rat terrors and my friend's 4 rat terrors, plus my fox terror for good measure. The Hutterites invited us over to a pasture. They had a water truck and a short school bus full of old men who sat inside and enjoyed the show. Those dogs were tired of biting by the end of the day. A bloody mess and a good time was had by all.

Willowynd · #7 02/25/10, 11:15 PM

OK, can someone tell me if rat tunnels stop inside the ground or if they have other entrances/exits as well? I see the 2 holes side by side next to the coop but not sure if it is one tunnel or 2 or if the ends come up under my coop...

Willow

Ed Norman · #8 02/25/10, 11:50 PM

If they are digging and get lucky and hit another tunnel, then they have more exits. In the past I found tunnels in grain dust behind a feed mill and started stamping around, collapsing them. Rats began popping up out of many tunnels within 10 feet. If you use a hose, water might come up in surprising places far from the hole you are filling.

Willowynd · #9 04/02/10, 01:09 AM

Just wanted to provide an update. A fellow homesteader came out and found more trails then set traps and caught a few. He then left some traps so I could keep resetting them. I have caught a few more then nothing. I decided to check the coops tonight to see if there was any hanging round- saw none in the brown coop, but the white coop I saw one when I opened the door. I watched where it went and then checked around the building outside and found some new tunnels so moved the traps over there on each side of the tunnels. Hoping I catch him tonight. On the plus side, I am seeing they are smaller than the original rats....so these must be thier kids. I am going to take the hose out there tommorrow and see what comes out so I know how many I am still dealing with.

backwoodsman · #10 04/02/10, 07:28 AM

Good deal, congrats, sounds like your getting a handle on the problem. A pellet/BB gun or .22 with shorts or CB caps might be handy if your seeing a few as you enter buildings? Even a .410 with 2 1/2" shells and some 8, 9 shot or even 12 shot? If it was me I'd keep the traps set for quite awhile after the you havent made a catch. The conditions that drew the first rat will probably draw more on occasion.

fishhead · #11 04/04/10, 08:55 AM

I'd also drop some moth balls in all of the tunnels and seal them with dirt or rocks. A ready made tunnel system might encourage any scouts to set up housekeeping.

There is an interesting program on Nova called "Rat Attack!". It would be a great place for someone with a pack of terriers.

Willowynd · #12 04/08/10, 11:08 PM

My son pulled up the driveway yesterday and saw a rat behind the white coop. He just happened to have his BB pistol with him. He shot it in the head, though was at enough of a distance that it did not kill it right away...but while stumbling around it walked into one of the traps I had set. It had just finished with a big rain so I think thier tunnels were filled...as another decided to leave its tunnel and got caught in another trap about 30 mins later. So 2 more down

I didn;t get a chance to check the traps today- and now I don't feel like going out after working 10 hours today. Will have son check tommorrow when he comes by to work on the project I hired him to do. I will pick up some moth balls tommorrow and do that fishhead.
Thing is I am not sure what is drawing the rats. I have had chickens before and never had rats- just mice. Mice I can live with outside- they don't kill my birds or baby bunnies (though I noticed I need to set some glue traps out in the kitchen again- seems a mouse has been in my potholder drawer recently). A fellow homesteader was out here and he didn;t mention anything that needed to be changed...so not sure.

||Downhome|| · #13 04/09/10, 02:03 AM

theres food somewhere, as well as cover. no food no rats.

you really need something thats multicatch. and you need to trap them befere they get large and smart. rats learn fast.

when I was still living in town as the houses started to get empty due to forclosure we had a major rat explosion. I dont know if it was garbage left behind of food stuffs or what but I had lived in that nieghborhood a long time and never seen a rat then through the roof. it was so bad I quit sleeping there. I know for a fact all my nieghbors and myself where traping them as fast as we could.

had some friends that used a metal garbage can and a plank that was hinged, the plank had a bait cup attached under the board and at the end above the bucket and was also counter weighted there, as the rat goes for the bait it can make it up so far but after its so close to the bait its weight and the counter weight come into effect and tip it in to the bucket. its important to have at least six inchs of water other wise they can jump out. then you have a smarter rat. this set up worked well to limit the rat population they had.

heres another variation on the garbage can, though I would think the rat could keep a grip on a corn cob so maybe a wood dowels or something hard and smooth instead.

http://www.allpestco.com/2009/06/homemade-rats-trap/

again dont forget the water, but dont expect them to drown they can swim for days.

check and clear either daily. the first I described I know it worked the second seems it would be simpler to setup. as the first you have to work out the counter weight.

Strange Bear · #14 05/05/10, 02:33 PM

I had some of that vitamin/electrolite supplement in a bucket, some mice got in there and they all died. Might be something you could use that wouldn't be as dangerous as poison.
Just a thought