rats...help!!!!!!

sheeplady · #1 09/03/06, 11:53 AM

I am getting over run with rats.

Actually, I have had a friend here for a few years with her chickens and over time the rats materialized. I can't use poison till she leaves as she has outdoor cats and doesn't want to poison them . The cats don't seem to bother the rats, just the songbirds and chipmunks..
But as they are leaving soon, I am getting worried that a lack of food (chicken's grain) and they will be trying to get in my house. I have counted as many as twenty BIG ones outside during feeding time.Eating with the chickens.Which means many more in hiding.Any quick easy ways to get rid of them? With so many, I am concerned about large #'s dying in the walls and even if they shy away from bait after the first few eat it.
Thanks. I know this has been covered extensively in the past.

dennisjp · #2 09/03/06, 12:03 PM

You can buy a 22 cal. rifle with a scope on it and use them for target practice.
Those rats carry a lot of things you don't want to get.
Get a cheap automatic riffle that will shoot 22 longs and have at it. Wear gloves, bag them and get rid of them.
If they are bold enough for you to count that many, it will be easy pickens and fum target practice too.
Just be careful with the rifle. If you don't know how to shoot, get someone that does to teach you.
I have been shooting gophers, (how ever you speel them little critters) with a 22 single shot with shorts. I live just inside the city limits, so the shorts don't make as much noise and keeps the cops away, lol.
Good luck and get rid of them before you become sick from whatever they may be carrying.
Dennis

ann · #3 09/03/06, 12:04 PM

Have you tried a 4-10?

pasotami · #4 09/03/06, 12:14 PM

You can also get live traps that are really small - put chicken feed in them after she is gone and see how many you can catch (then destroy). I have chickens and I put poison out for those big rats - I use the block type poison and I put it where I see them run in and out of a barn (in the hole). Unfortunately if you see them eating with the chickens then you most likely have them in your house if it is close by - they will travel quite a long distance to get "easy" food and water. I hate those things - had one chase me out of a feedroom at dusk and have hated them ever since. Plus they can carry all sorts of diseases - do be careful not to get bit by one.

edited: I forgot to mention that they have big bait boxes that can be anchored down so chickens can't get in them.... a friend of mine uses them in his barn.

silvergirl · #5 09/03/06, 01:01 PM

You can buy small live animal traps at the hardware store, but then you will have to kill the rats yourself... You might also be able to borrow live traps from your local animal control center or a local humane society. You could also get a terrier - Jack Russells are highly trainable and they are great ratters (and excellent companions!) - you would have to ensure that he doesn't go after chickens and also socialize him to cats or other small animals you may want to have around...
Silvergirl

harrisjnet · #6 09/03/06, 01:40 PM

If you put out beer or soda pop in shallow bowls, the rats and mice will drink, not be able to belch and go off to die. This is a poison free way to kill them, but you will still have to deal with them being dead in the walls.

suburbanite · #7 09/03/06, 01:57 PM

How about rat-sized mouse traps? Kills them quickly most of the time (check them twice a day to make sure nothing is hit sublethal and suffering), and they don't crawl into walls and such to die. Disadvantage is you might kill or injure a non-pest species who steps on the trap.

The advantage of live traps, is that if you trap a non-pest species you can release it.

Also, you may want to look at photos of your local 'white footed mouse' (peromyscus species). These are large mice that can look like young rats but many of the species of them have a diet that is 50% insects, so on the whole they are beneficial rather than harmful. That's an example of a species that you might want to release if you get it by mistake in a live rat trap.

Do you know anyone who keeps a large snake or anyone with a falconer's license? maybe a websearch can find one of the latter. They might be very happy to take all the live rats you can catch. Cage them and ship them off...no waste that way.

wvpeach1963 · #8 09/03/06, 08:15 PM

My pit bull is a Rats worst nightmare.

Only thing is I have to help him hunt them sometimes as he will tear up things to get to them.

Good cats and a good dog will keep the population to a minimum.

dennisjp · #9 09/03/06, 10:26 PM

I still say if the rats will stand out there and let her count them, a 22 rifle would be the best way to get rid of the most of them. After that, maybe the traps, or whatever, but a box of bullets for a .22 is very cheap and fun to use also.
IMHO.
A .177 cal pellet rifle will kill them as well if you buy one that shoots atleast 600-700 foot per second. They don't cost that much, but you could more than likely find a 22 for sale in the paper for less than what some traps and posion would cost you and a 50 round box of bullets for one a couple or three dollars.

JAS · #10 09/04/06, 07:01 AM

I have a space under the rabbits that the chickens cannot get to but were a lot of feed falls. It is the rats favorite spot. My husband puts rat poison in the block form on a long stick--he puts a large screw through the bait to hold it on to the stick so they cannot carry it off. When the rats eat all of the poison, he puts more out. It is an ongoing battle. They are eating all of my sweet corn right now and are living in the garden, so those are not getting at the poison. I plan on getting a farmcollie some day--too many hunting dogs right now--to help out.

Iddee · #11 09/04/06, 07:20 AM

Mix plaster of paris and powdered sugar. The rats will eat it and the plaster will harden into a ball that they cannot pass. They die from constipation.

bgak47 · #12 09/04/06, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iddee

Mix plaster of paris and powdered sugar. The rats will eat it and the plaster will harden into a ball that they cannot pass. They die from constipation.

That's one I've never heard of! I rely on D-Con.

vicker · #13 09/04/06, 01:48 PM

When I lived in Boston I had a problem with rats that were over running us from the building next door. We had an alley between us, and the alley was just swarming with rats. I tried using all the different rat traps to no avail. I finally talked to the city man in charge of rat problems and the like. He told me to take a regular rat sized mouse trap, mount it on a board so that you can lean it up against a wall or something and the bait will be at the bottom about 6 inches off the ground. He also said to bait it with a tiny piece of Slim-Jim. By gunny it works! I never had a sprung trap with out a rat after that. If the rat ain't dead, it will be close by and severly brain damamaged

Peanut butter also works great as a bait.