rat control

[MELOC]

my mom's rental property has been overrun with rats. it is an older house with a stone foundation and they have tunneled into the basement and are now spreading throughout the house. the exterminator was called by my neice, the tenant, and we are deciding if the $750 yearly contract is worth the investment. the rent is very cheap as it is rented to a family member and mom is a bit upset about the cost of rat control.

what i would do would be to try decon. i have had luck with that in the past. once the population is reduced i would work on filling the holes. the problem is that my neice has 2 sons and a few dogs. she is afraid that the kids will get in it or the dogs will chew the dead rats. i can't say i blame her. the exterminator will use bait stations that supposedly capture the rats most of the time and do not allow them to run off and die (most of the time...it is not guarenteed). the stations should prevent animals and nosey kids from getting into the bait as well. the only problem i see is that the exterminator only comes by once a month (normally quarterly???) to check on things. how in the world can he manage closed bait stations once a month and still catch rats?

i was wondering what type of bait stations are readily available in hardware stores? i know snap traps are common, but are other types of traps commonly sold?

any other ideas for safe trapping/poisoning? i do have one squirrel sized box trap i am going to try to use.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Big rat traps baited with pecans or peanut butter.

Bar bait. I use the one called "Just One Bite."

[tinknal]

I would use the little bricks and drop them in every hole you can find. Use traps, cats, whatever is necessary. Try to remove every possible food source. I feel for you rats are a pain.

[MELOC]

the exterminator couldn't believe it was so bad. the house is fairly clean and one of the dogs is a jack russel who has killed a few of the rats.

my neice is very leery of using bait and having one of the dogs get poisoned by the dead rats.

i guess i will try my hand at trapping them out. i will stop by every day or two and see what i can catch. if i can catch a dozen or so, i will then seal the holes.

the rats have been seen off and on for a little while. i think they started seeing them in the fall in the basement. the exterminator said they have run out of room downstairs and are now spreading out through the house. he didn't want the holes sealed until the population is reduced fearing that they will just seek territory upstairs.

[tinknal]

Do the dogs actually eat the rats? In my experience they usually kill them and leave them.

[comfortablynumb]

set up a water barrel trap, you will catch more that way.

[MELOC]

i guess i could try to catch some of the black rat snakes around my house and release them over there... it would be like wild kingdom in person. hehe

[gobug]

Dealing with rats is different than mice. First, they are a bit suspicious of new things in their space. That means it takes a little while for bait stations to become effective.

Any rodent bait used can be researched. Call the manufacturer and ask about the risk of secondary poisoning. (dogs eating poisoned rats). Most good baits are well tested on dogs and cats and have a low risk. The risk is greater if the animals only food source is dead rats.

Decon is a multi-feed bait and I do not know a single professional (I know many) who would use it. Pick a solid single feed block bait. It works better.

Closing rat holes will do nothing for the problem. Figure out what their food source is and eliminate it. That will decrease the size of the litters and encourage the rats to relocate. Your story suggests to me that dry dog food could be one of their food sources. It needs to be eliminated if that is the case. Dogs quickly learn that if they don't eat when served, it gets picked up. Do not leave dry dog food outside, especially over night.

There are sticky traps and snap traps that can work with rats. A snap trap for rats is strong enough to hurt a dog or break your little finger. Glue boards must be large. If you know where they nest you can set traps at their exit.

Disturb their habitat. Don't just try to plug it. Dig it up.

Good luck.
Gary

[MELOC]

thanks for your advice gary. i appreciate the advice on bait. the exterminator suggested that the rats are seeking nesting area. there are no visible signs of feeding. the dogfood should be obvious. when i had my infestation a few years ago, the rats actually chewed through the dogfood bag to get the food. there is no eveidence in my neice's home to suggest they are feeding there. i think the exterminator felt that the rats were feeding outside, possible a neighbor's goat feed stored in a shed, and the house provides shelter. i am onboard with your thinking about a feed source closer/in the house, but nothing is obvious.

they need to get inside somehow. once the population is eliminated, sealing the holes should keep them from re-entering, so i disagree that sealing the holes will do nothing. they didn't just appear in the house, they found a way in somehow. after the basement is re-parged, it will be important to inspect for any holes in the siding/exterior woodwork on a regular basis. i think the exterminator fears sealing the holes right away as he feels it will push the bulk of the population into the house itself more so than the basement. i guess that makes sense, so i wish to kill as many as i can before i plug holes.

i would just like to be able to find more traps or bait station traps locally. i was wondering what is on the market.

[keljonma]

Two sites for information...
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74106.html

Last winter, there was a rat problem at the horse farm where roostercogburn worked. The exterminator set up 15 traps, some snap traps and some one-bite bait stations. The exterminator charged the owner $800, but only came out to the farm twice a month to empty the snap traps and pick up the dead ones that ate at the bait stations. Naturally, to catch more than the 15 rodents in 2 weeks, the traps have to be checked. Emptying the traps became part of roostercogburn's daily job. The horses, dogs and barn cats were in Florida for the winter, so there was no danger to other animals.

[BAmaBubba]

I know that it's worked for us before: scatter moth balls around the area of the basement and around the outside of the house

Good luck!

Brandon

[Ford8N]

I never get rats in the house but the mice sneak in during winter and I always trap for them using peanut butter as bait. The first thing is to find out how they are getting in and fix that problem. The Jack Russell should do a good job. I would leave him in the basement a few nights in a row. I hate to poison vermin as I am always afraid that I will inadvertantly kill a helpful predator such as a hawk, dog or cat that would get the varmint. I only use poison bait as an absolute last resort, but then you can't have rats in the house.

[texican]

Originally Posted by MELOC

my neice is very leery of using bait and having one of the dogs get poisoned by the dead rats.

the rats aren't bad enough yet, if she's leery... when they get really bad and start chewing on her babies, she'll be buying the bait herself.

"I" wouldn't pay anyone... I'd throw some rat bricks out, tell the kids they ain't candy, and the rats'll be gone shortly. They have to nibble on the sticks (instead of carrying little pellets around in their mouth, back to their nests) and then it's 'over'. Afterwards, close off their entrances, throw some rat sticks in for future insurance, and not worry anymore.

Good luck.

[Nancy]

We also have just a few bricks for foundation in our old farmhouse and one year had an infestation of rats. We started using bar baits and eventually we got rid of them but it took awhile. We just put our bars baits under the house in our crawl space where the rats were. Whenever we would smell something dead DH would crawl under the house and pull out the dead rats and toss them. Not fun but cheaper than paying someone else to do it. We haven't seen many rats since then and it's been about 7 years.

[Rickstir]

We eliminated rats in chicken house be removing their hiding places and letting the cats stay in the house all night. We trapped a few, but it was the cats that did it. I saw our big tom one day catch one and kill it in under two seconds. The cats eat the mice they catch, they didn't eat the rats. I shot a couple with a .22 loaded with bird shot too.

[Mutti]

We had a major rat problem in a barn one time so we flooded the tunnels we found and had a massacre with .22 and hoe when they came swarming out....I won't go into the gory details but it sure didn't cost $750!!!!!!! The rat bat bars do work and we use them routinely under bldgs on our farm now. Evidence of any rodent problem gets nipped in the bud...one seen is 25 unseen in my book! Cats can only do so much...now if someone could solve the growing armidillo problem around here..... DEE

[Oregon Julie]

Buy Rodetrol. It kills them by causing them to dehydrate. No risk to another animal dying if it eats the now dead rat or mouse, but you do not want non-target animals to eat the pellets so it needs to be placed in areas that they cannot get to. I get my Rodetrol at a local home improvement store.

And to who ever commented about the dogs not eating them, HA! My terriers would gnaw on them in a heartbeat and our livestock guardian dogs love to catch and kill rats, then drag them around for days as a play toy. As much as I hate the rats and the damage they cause I was not willing to use any type of poison that could also harm my dogs if they got into a dead rat. Rodetrol rocks!

[gobug]

You are correct that sealing the holes is important. It just will not stop the rat problem that already exists. It could cause any living inside to branch out in the house. My comment was just aimed more at what needs to be done to get rid of the rats. If you have rats, closing the holes won't get rid of them.

Droppings are a good thing to carefully inspect for. Unlike mice, rats prefer to carry their bait to where they like to eat. Droppings are a good indicator of a regular area of attendance.

Mice will take granular baits home in their cheeks. One mouse can empty a whole bait station (or Decon box) This is my main reason for using block baits. First of all, you can inspect block bait and monitor activity. Second, you can secure the bait using a string, nail, or wire so a pet cannot get it. Third, rodents have to eat it and cannot take it all back to their nest.

Mice can go under a door with a quarter inch gap at a run. They can get through a hole the size of a nickle. A rat needs a hole the size of a quarter and nearly a half inch gap. Rats can climb structures better than mice. They can go up a steel rod 1 inch in diameter. They can enter below ground or on the roof.

Use a little flour to dust the floor in areas you suspect having activity. Look for tracks. Place it close to walls because rodents prefer to run along a wall. Areas of activity are the best places to locate any control device you pick.

I will check out the Rodetrol. It does not sound real to me. I specialized in handling situations with other creatures, like zoo animals or birds of prey, and the only bait I know of which has no risk of secondary poisoning is Quintox. This was not my own personal choice, but the training of industry experts.

Dogs are a bigger worry than cats (picky eaters). If any poison is chosen, even peanut butter on a rat sized snap trap, special care must be taken to prevent the wrong animal from getting into the trap. I agree with Oregon Julie, some dogs would eat just about anything. In all my years of pest control, rodents were 25percent of the day to day business. I never poisoned a pet in thousands of jobs. I always was able to place bait in locations that were only available to a rodent. If you look hard enough you will find where the rodent goes to avoid your pets. That is the best place to locate your controls.

Good luck.

[MELOC]

i placed three new snap traps and loosened the throw on the two existing traps today. i may use my patented "string on the trigger" trick if they keep stealing bait off the older traps, lol. i placed two traps along one wall of the basement that was a trail from the outside. a portion of the wall had been removed big enough for a racoon to enter and water had washed in dirt making tracks easy to see. i placed a squirrel trap along the wall perpendicular to that corner. another snap trap was placed at the old cellar steps to the outside where i found another trail and droppings. i left one snap trap outside on the porch next to the garbage cans and one at the top of the inside cellar steps near a chewed out hole in the wall. we will see what happens with the traps. i plan to check them every day or two.

i also bought stick bait. i got "just one bite" as it was all the hardware store had in the form of stick bait. i hear walmart has "tomcat", i may try that later if i need to. i am holding off on the bait until i see how well trapping goes. i don't think the pets will be a problem as long as nothing dies inside the living area of the house. if it does, i hope my neice has the sense to remove it before her inside dog gets it. the outside dog is a mouthy great dane in a kennel. she will probably be the "chewer" if one happens to die in the kennel. we will see. i don't plan to place bait until i can catch 6-12 in the basement. i would rather have a few stragglers die in odd places than the whole colony, so i hope to reduce the numbers before i place poison.

thanks.

[Cascade Failure]

Large rat traps, baited with peanut butter and cover by an upturned milk crate. Place a heavy object on top of the crate. Rats get in, pets don't. Has always worked for me.

Mutti's flood and shoot approach is a lot more fun though.