09/06/06, 12:12 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,274
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I was an exterminator for 15 years and have had a lot of training and experience with mice and rats. I read your previous thread yesterday but didn't respond. The truth is that rodent poison baits would only poison cats that were eating the poison. Most cats are picky eaters and wouldn't eat the current legal poisons. Cats will not be adequate to control the rats.
The first task I would suggest is to determine what and where the rats are eating. Finding the damage inside the house suggests they are eating dry cat food and perhaps pantry foods. Placing a bowl of dry food out for the cats would attract rats and provide them with their necessary food. Trash cans and compost piles where kitchen debris is taken is another possibility. Limit the rat access by changing the habits and you will improve the chance that rat poison will work quickly.
D-con is a multi-feed low quality bait that professionals do not use. Get block baits. Most of them are single feed baits with more strength and quicker rodent fatality than D-con. Rats eat a lot of food so more bait is required than for mice.
Glue boards are another effective tool, but mouse size won't work on rats. I used to purchase the glue in gallon buckets and spread it on large cardboard or roof tiles. I caught many rats outside a rat infested crawl space using this technique.
Snap traps sized for rats are also effective, but are possible cat injuring devices. They must be placed in rat path ways, many of which will be located in areas cats cannot follow. Rat droppings are a good clue about where to place bait, snap traps, and glue boards.
The house needs to be inspected from the outside to determine if there is a pathway that leads into the house. A good block bait has a hole in the center which enables hanging the bait in areas that the rats cruise. Close entry holes. You can use steel wool, although I used a copper webbing that came in long rolls. Patios are a suspicious possibility and so is siding with a gap over the foundation edge. Holes where plumbing and electric enter the structure are another area to inspect.
A healthy female rat with adequate food can have 7-9 litters a year or nearly 100 baby rats. Eliminate their food supply, close their doors, and use traps plus poison to get the fastest control. Rats are more suspicious of new devices in their habitat than mice and so some things take a while to be accepted. Eliminating their normal food supply increases the speed of control. Kitchen cabinets usually are rodent habitats because they have a space below the bottom shelf that has a cat-proof opening by the base boards. Baits can usually be easily placed in this area.
Almost all companies that make poison baits do extensive testing on cats and dogs to see if they are in danger if they eat rats. Most products still on the market are very low risk to pets. I never had a single pet casualty in 15 years of regular rodent control work. Owls are in the greatest danger of eating poisoned rodents. Quintox is a poison that has zero risk of secondary poisoning and can be used in barns where owls may hunt for rodents. I have never seen it for sale in regular stores though.
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