Has anyone ever rid their farm of rats?

Try reading Farm Bulliten #1638 Issued by the U S Dept of the Interior at the time it was printed. Its Called RAT Proffing Buildings & Premises. Consevation Bulliten #19 It may be A bit old but A good resource to get. Try Coco Cola that Kills them As they can't burp. Also mix and leave dry Cornmeal Sugar and Plater of Paris. They eat and drink and it kills them from the guts out. Try hardware cloth ocer the holes NOT wood.

Ayeyeye! I feel for you!! We had a problem with rats when we lived in Oregon. They were HUGE. They were running throughout the horse barn any time we got a heavy rain. What I did was set out the really sticky traps to catch them. It is gruesome, I'll warn you of that ahead of time, but it is a non-toxic way to deal with the rat problem. The other thing that might help is making sure that you are not unintentionally attracting them with loose feed or nest making materials, like easily accessible insulation. Barn cats do help and so would a rat terrier or other small and rodent agressive dog. I would NOT poison them. That could ultimately lead to other animals on your farm being poisoned accidentally
Here in Texas, we get the occassional field mouse running through the kitchen, but can't say that we've seen any rats to speak of...thank goodness!

__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

Well we can eliminate Galveston as your location...

I'm near Austin, LOL!

__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

Poison Poison Poison. Cleaned up our rat problem this year, mice also. We still have a partial bar on the shelf, been there 3-4 weeks now so it looks like we've got them licked for the time being. Been about 2 weeks since we got the last coon.

__________________
"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

We had a tremendous rat problem on the farm we moved into. First we got all the garbage cleaned up from the previous owners. Then we set out a large garbage can, sprinkled the bottom with corn, set up a ramp for them to get into the can and Bingo! Every morning there were a dozen in there, until the problem was gone. DH would bang them on the head with a pipe and then lay them out according to size to show me. He was quite pleased. We did lament about the ones that probably were big enough to get out! Yikes!

Dachshunds or Terriers.. Mine can catch and kill a mouse, rat or snake in a split second and are so proud of themselves! Good information in the other post... Good luck.. QB

Bar bait.

__________________
Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Well, I think that I shall employ all your methods! various ones in various places.
I will do the cans- try the water too, although can I drown them in 100 gallon troughs if nothing is tempting them in?

They mostly live under all my buildings. I might try scaring them out for my dogs today. I do have a rat terrier and 3 cats. Only one of my cats kills rats and boy does he come in covered with wounds! Almost every day! I may get more cats after we make some progress. I Have decided to drown them out from under the buildings if at all possible. I tried shooing them out to no avail. My rat terrier plays with rats and my bc and aussie do quick kills.

I like the drowning idea but I can't see them jumping into a barrel of water. I shall keep a record of all we kill starting today in my new war. Now, I need to go shopping!

kirsten

I seem to remember a board on a hinge. The board hangs over the barrel. Bait is hung over the middle of the barrel - or maybe even stuck on the end of the board. When the rat gets far enough out on the board, the rats weight trips the board and the rat falls into the barrel.

__________________
.

[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

.

Get a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. Scratch it up some where they can get footing. Get a piece of 1" pipe(a foot or so), put it in the middle of the other pipe and spread peanut butter on it. They go on the smaller pipe to get to the peanut butter, and when they step on the larger one it rolls, putting them into the water.

Black pepper works well in keeping them away. We keep our trawls in large drums, uncovered. We sprinkle them with black pepper between the seasons and they don't get chewed any more.

I don't have anything to contribute but I just have to say EWWWWWW! I hope I never see a rat, let alone an infestation of rats! I swear if I ever woke up out of a sound sleep with something running across the bed I'd go to a motel! LOL
Kristen, my heart goes out to you, good luck.