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Post by nana on Apr 12, 2016 17:10:35 GMT -5
Rats! After decades of living in the country and never having a rodent problem because we always had good cats, this past winter the rats found themselves an invulnerable fortress in my chicken coop and have been making up for lost time. See, we built the coop in a corner of the barn by framing in two walls and a door. We oh so cleverly lined all the walls, the ceiling and the floor with hardware cloth so as to keep predators out. Then we put up an inside layer of boards on the two outside walls because they, being ancient barnboards, were cracked and let drafts in. The rats discovered that the space in between these walls is rat heaven.
Safe from cats, hawks, and as it turns out, people, they come out and eat my chickens' food and scurry back in as they please, because old barns being what they are, the hardware cloth had to be bended and molded around protruding beams and there are small spaces they can squeeze through. And as I find the spaces and figure out ways to block them off, they find new ones, or just chew holes to make their own spaces. I won't use real poison because of the grandchildren, cats and chickens. I just don't want to risk it. I don't have nor do I want a BB gun. I have tried traps, but they must be wise to them, because I haven't had any success. I got a little crop duster and tried blowing cayenne pepper through the knotholes and cracks into their living space, and although they were certainly miserable while I did it, I guess once it settled, they found a way to live with it. I have been putting out home made rat poison which is a little bit of chicken feed, a whole lot of baking soda, and enough peanut butter to hold it together to roll into balls. Apparently rats cannot belch or pass gas, so they eat it, the baking soda reacts with their stomach acid, and they rupture on the inside. I've gotten four that I know of with that. I bring a pitchfork with me when I go into the coop and I actually got a slow one with it(who knew I could be so bloodthirsty?), but now they know to give me a wide berth and don't show their horrible little ratty faces when I'm in there. I am beginning to think that I will have to rip the siding off the barn and clean out the nests from the outside and then fill in the cavity with something rat proof and reside the barn, which I can ill afford, but I'm at my wits end.
Any helpful suggestions?
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Post by Chuckie on Apr 12, 2016 19:12:38 GMT -5
Rats! After decades of living in the country and never having a rodent problem because we always had good cats, this past winter the rats found themselves an invulnerable fortress in my chicken coop and have been making up for lost time. See, we built the coop in a corner of the barn by framing in two walls and a door. We oh so cleverly lined all the walls, the ceiling and the floor with hardware cloth so as to keep predators out. Then we put up an inside layer of boards on the two outside walls because they, being ancient barnboards, were cracked and let drafts in. The rats discovered that the space in between these walls is rat heaven. Safe from cats, hawks, and as it turns out, people, they come out and eat my chickens' food and scurry back in as they please, because old barns being what they are, the hardware cloth had to be bended and molded around protruding beams and there are small spaces they can squeeze through. And as I find the spaces and figure out ways to block them off, they find new ones, or just chew holes to make their own spaces. I won't use real poison because of the grandchildren, cats and chickens. I just don't want to risk it. I don't have nor do I want a BB gun. I have tried traps, but they must be wise to them, because I haven't had any success. I got a little crop duster and tried blowing cayenne pepper through the knotholes and cracks into their living space, and although they were certainly miserable while I did it, I guess once it settled, they found a way to live with it. I have been putting out home made rat poison which is a little bit of chicken feed, a whole lot of baking soda, and enough peanut butter to hold it together to roll into balls. Apparently rats cannot belch or pass gas, so they eat it, the baking soda reacts with their stomach acid, and they rupture on the inside. I've gotten four that I know of with that. I bring a pitchfork with me when I go into the coop and I actually got a slow one with it(who knew I could be so bloodthirsty?), but now they know to give me a wide berth and don't show their horrible little ratty faces when I'm in there. I am beginning to think that I will have to rip the siding off the barn and clean out the nests from the outside and then fill in the cavity with something rat proof and reside the barn, which I can ill afford, but I'm at my wits end. Any helpful suggestions?
THEE BEST bait for mice OR rats is to take thread and T-I-E a piece of bacon onto the bait lever of a trap. The small field mice can lick peanut butter clean off a trap and never set it off, but they CANNOT get the tied BACON off w/o setting off the trap. My Grandad said rats are smart enough to use their TAILS to reach into such things as peanut butter bait or the like, then lick it off (he once said he saw a rat put its tail in a ketchup bottle @ the city dump, pull it out, lick it clean!). Should the trap go OFF, all they lose is their TAIL! They are VERY smart, devious and "adaptive" bastards!!!
Try the bacon and see what happens. When we were kids, we lived in an area where urban renewal came in & tore the bldgs. down just across the street (dingy bars, greasy spoons & the like) and the rats were RUNNING ACROSS THE STREET!!!! Needless to say, we had a BAD coupla months of it!!!
A lady that used to clean for us told us that mice anyway will go to FLOUR before they'll go to anything else. She used to mix flour, powdered sugar (said ANTS go for that too!) and Boric Acid together, and leave it in the affected area. Dunno IF B.A. affects cats or not, but might wanna check... Good luck!!
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by kellyjo40 on Apr 13, 2016 1:09:14 GMT -5
Yuck! What a brain bender. I hate rodents inside the house, can't imagine rats! Hang in there Nana. Cement between the walls may work, costs money and time though.
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Post by nana on Apr 13, 2016 7:00:16 GMT -5
I can tie a piece of bacon on. I kind of like that idea! I picture them tugging at it and then WHACK! Lights out! After all, who can resist bacon? Cooked or raw, though? I would say cooked, but I'm not a nasty rat. I've been trying to leave no food in the chicken feeder overnight, but there's so much that they spill on the floor that it must still be enough to feed the pack. The peanut butter/baking soda bait is effective, and they don't seem to catch on to the fact that it kills them, because it seems it takes some time to work, and all the dead ones I've seen have been outside on the lawn like they were trying to outrun that bloated feeling... They're not dying inside the wall because I'd smell them. But apparently they need to eat a critical mass at one time for it to be lethal. Otherwise, I guess they get a bad stomachache, but don't die, and those ones don't eat it anymore.
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Post by Chuckie on Apr 13, 2016 11:42:54 GMT -5
I can tie a piece of bacon on. I kind of like that idea! I picture them tugging at it and then WHACK! Lights out! After all, who can resist bacon? Cooked or raw, though? I would say cooked, but I'm not a nasty rat. I've been trying to leave no food in the chicken feeder overnight, but there's so much that they spill on the floor that it must still be enough to feed the pack. The peanut butter/baking soda bait is effective, and they don't seem to catch on to the fact that it kills them, because it seems it takes some time to work, and all the dead ones I've seen have been outside on the lawn like they were trying to outrun that bloated feeling... They're not dying inside the wall because I'd smell them. But apparently they need to eat a critical mass at one time for it to be lethal. Otherwise, I guess they get a bad stomachache, but don't die, and those ones don't eat it anymore. We always used RAW bacon. Every Fall we have about 3 or 4 field mice make their way into the house, and trap them w/the bacon. They are often so SMALL, they could lick peanut butter off the trap & never set it off. Not so w/the tied on bacon! After we catch those few, we never see any more sign of them, so go figure... CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by mach12 on Apr 13, 2016 13:30:34 GMT -5
We fought both rats and mice for about a year after some renters moved in a couple of properties down from ours and didn't keep their feed in cans or keep the feed cleaned up, especially around their rabbits. I finally gave up and attended a seminar that the county offers and went with their recommendation, which was putting out bait stations for a few days with single feed bait blocks placed in bait stations. According to them there isn't a secondary poisoning risk to pets or other animals who might eat the dead rodent and placed properly there isn't a risk to pets or wildlife, especially for the short period the bait will be out there. I did that and it took care of them, then put mouse traps in the bait stations (the ones I bought have plenty of room and clearance). I really wanted to avoid the use of poison but it was getting so bad that I was more concerned about disease and further spread of the rodents. I still catch mice from time to time but haven't seen a rat around here for a long time. I have really good luck with peanut butter, even with the traps in the chicken coop where the feeder is, but the bacon is a great idea. It'd darn sure catch me...
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Post by nana on Apr 13, 2016 18:19:47 GMT -5
I looked at the rat poisons down at the feed store, and they scared me. So many warnings and beware of this and wear gloves when handling, etc. I'm pretty sure the chickens would eat a rat if one was stumbling around and vulnerable, because I've seen them eat mice, and I'm not sure I trust corporate America. If it kills rats, how can it be benign if a chicken or a cat eats a poisoned rat? But I may yet go that route if I can't get a handle on this soon. I don't think my plinking and plunking around the edges of their population is going to cut it. I just keep hoping if I make it inhospitable enough they'll move on.
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Post by sporko on Apr 14, 2016 11:11:56 GMT -5
We had a rat problem several years ago following a hail storm. Every roof in the neighborhood was ripped off and replaced. We had a hoarder that lived in the neighborhood and ... voila... all her rats ran and found new homes. I believe my catch count was about 35 in a few months.
Personally, I found trap placement more important than anything. In fact, once I realized that, I completely stopped baiting traps. If they're in the right place: bait is unnecessary.
Rats are creatures of habit and will create "runs." More often than not they are up against a wall or vertical surface. They'll scurry down along the wall habitually. Place the trap 90 degrees to these runs so they're running across the "bait end".
Outside, I've had luck nailing traps to fencing 2x4s. They'd always run along the horizontal 2x4s moving from house to house. I caught a lot of them there. Again: no bait required. Set them and check them.
If the runs are not obvious, you can often find them with a black light. Rats have no bladder control and just sort of dribble all the time. The main runs will light up bright.
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Post by nana on Apr 14, 2016 20:47:02 GMT -5
If the runs are not obvious, you can often find them with a black light. Rats have no bladder control and just sort of dribble all the time. The main runs will light up bright. Good advice, but....eeewwww!
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Post by Chuckie on Apr 14, 2016 21:41:26 GMT -5
If the runs are not obvious, you can often find them with a black light. Rats have no bladder control and just sort of dribble all the time. The main runs will light up bright. Good advice, but....eeewwww!
I/WE had a gal that cleaned for me in my bachelor days and into me married life. She said "betwixt husbands" (methinks she had like SIX!) and 8 "or so" kids, she'd lived in pretty much abject poverty HOWEVER, she always abided by TWO things--"soap is CHEAP, and my kids NEVER went to school dirty!" and also "there's NO SHAME in having mice or cockroaches, the SHAME is in KEEPING them!!!!!!" GAWD how she HATED the latter!!!
She could clean this house to IMMACULATE in <four hours, and she often exclaimed when done that "if a gal came in here wearing fancy panties, you can tell what COLOR they are by how much my FLOORS shine!!!" LOL, love ya Vivian!!!
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by nana on Apr 19, 2016 21:13:23 GMT -5
They ignored the bacon-set traps, although I think I will try again in a better spot. I had them in the coop, but in order to keep them out of the chickens' reach I guess they were not in a spot that the rats were running. I've seen them running along the window sill in a part of the barn that is outside the coop, and I tried two glue traps there, which were highly effective, but also horrific. I hadn't thought it through, but of course once a rat is caught in a glue trap you have a doomed but very alive and squealing rat to deal with. I ended up covering them with a rag and dropping a sledgehammer on their heads, which was the quickest way I could think of to dispatch them, but it was not pleasant, I can tell you that. But I'll try new bacon and set the snap traps on that windowsill, and also I've ordered two locking poison bait stations and bait. I'm not happy about using poison, but I have an infestation, not just a few lone rats. I need to get this under control.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 19, 2016 22:43:48 GMT -5
That's where I was at when I resorted to poison. Had to get it under control.
That mention of glue traps reminds me of a guy I met when I attended the health department seminar. He wasn't too happy about the noise they made when caught and said he came up with what he thought was a good idea, at first anyway. He dropped the rat and trap in a plastic bag and then sprayed ether (engine starting fluid) in the bag and put the rat to sleep and was going to fill the bag with water so the rat would die in its sleep. He tied off the bag and went to get more that he had caught so he could do the same. When he got back to the bag the first rat was gone. Apparently he should have used more ether except that the ether softened the glue on the trap and when the rat woke up it chewed through the bag and took off. He went straight to putting them in a garbage can of water.
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Post by nana on Apr 25, 2016 19:51:48 GMT -5
5 days since putting the baits out and we are starting to see dead rats, which is good, but I live in terror of what it may do to the cats if they catch a rat that's stumbling around. I can't wait til this is over. I am going to invest in something I saw while doing research: a battery operated electric trap. It's like the bait stations in that it is only accessible to rats and mice, and you bait it with a handful of peanuts or something and it sits there, and they go in to sniff out the peanuts and get electrocuted. Once the infestation is gone, I'm getting one to try to have some insurance that a new bunch won't try to move in. It has a light that comes on only if you catch something, so you can leave it alone and don't have to keep checking.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 25, 2016 23:12:53 GMT -5
Those electric traps sound interesting. Do you have a link you can post that shows the one you're looking at?
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Post by nana on Apr 26, 2016 7:31:00 GMT -5
www.raising-happy-chickens.com/electric-rat-trap.htmlThis will take you to the website page where she tells all about it, with links to go purchase one if you want. The website was very interesting and informative and not just about rats, although I got a lot of good info on the rats from it, too. However, my nightmare may have come true--this morning I found 3 dead rats, but one was half eaten. So now I'm watching my cats with my heart breaking to see which one gets sick. I already called the vet, and there is a treatment, but it's not an easy thing, and I thought I hated rats before, but now I wish they could be wiped off the face of the Earth forever.
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Post by cinnabar on Apr 26, 2016 7:59:47 GMT -5
Don't know about rats, but mice will eat their own .....it is a possibility.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 26, 2016 13:01:45 GMT -5
Holy smokes! I just reread this thread and see where a whole paragraph didn't post on my April 19th post. Not sure what I did that caused that to happen (I think I did an edit). Looks like I was suggesting drowning the rats and there's no way I'd recommend that, even as much as I dislike them. And I strongly advised against ether unless you want to risk an explosion. A very likely risk in my opinion.
I'm surprised no one called me on that. You're all too nice!
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Post by nana on Apr 26, 2016 15:17:29 GMT -5
You're talking to the lady who stabbed a rat with a pitchfork and dropped a sledgehammer on two others and is now poisoning them. If someone wants to drown them, I don't think I can judge. In another lifetime I once thought rats and mice were kind of cute, in a pet shop way, but now they are my most hated creature. And the fact that I have to risk my cats' lives to get rid of them makes me hate them even more.
Cinnabar, I wouldn't put it past them to eat each other. If only they would! But I think it was a cat, because two of them were in the usual spot for me to find my "gifts", uneaten, thank goodness, but the third, half eaten one was between the house and the barn. It looked to me like a cat caught one and ate it, then went back for more to share because the pickin's were so easy.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 26, 2016 18:00:01 GMT -5
Nana, I'm the first to admit that some things zip right over my head but one thing I'm sure of, anyone messing with your chickens is in for some big trouble!
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Post by nana on Apr 29, 2016 7:23:31 GMT -5
No sick cats, so it either wasn't enough to hurt them, or it wasn't them at all. Whew! Definitely a dent in the population now. The guy I get my feed from said one rat will go through about $25 worth of feed a year. I believe it. Until I wised up to my situation, I couldn't believe how much my chickens were eating. I bet at least 50lbs of every 200 was going to the rats. Now I put the feeder in a rat proof metal can at night, and I'm feeding the chickens outside in their run during the day, so the rats don't have such easy access. I'm beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope it's not an oncoming train!!
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Post by nana on Jun 1, 2016 19:38:45 GMT -5
To paraphrase Gerald Ford: My long, chicken coop nightmare is over.
It has been over a week and a half since I saw any hint of a rat. The bait is no longer being taken, although I will leave the staions out indefinitely and check them often to make sure. Chickens, cats and grandchildren all well and accounted for. It was not fun.
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Post by metrowmn on Jun 2, 2016 10:30:23 GMT -5
Wow. I feel your pain. WHen they renovated my house they found 5 rats nests in the walls, 5!! I used to hear them when I stayed here on long weekends. All closed up and no more rats once they finished the renovation.... until recently. We started hearing that unmistakable scratching at night. We set out glue traps around the patio, and first night caught 3 field mice on one and a big juicy rat on another. Ewww. Tim put the field mice near an opening in the cottage crawlspace where we saw some black snakes but they didn't take the bait so he did em in with a shovel.. The rat met his untimely end with the shovel too. We switched to the old fashioned traps that snap closed. I think it kills them right away- couldnt bear to see them struggling on the glue traps. Seemed too cruel, bad karma. Anyway, now it seems we need to set them out every night. WHen we don't we hear that annoying scratching around the patio in the middle of the night and I sure cant sleep then. We won't use poison. 2 of our 3 dogs will eat ANYTHING so don't want to chance it, besides, don't want them to crawl up into a spot we cant reach-nasty! A field mouse crawled into Tim's AC in his car over the winter. When we turned it on after the winter the smell hit us..... well let's just say one little creature can make a very unpleasant ride. I never gave any of this thought when I moved from the "burbs" of NY to the countryside of NC! :-)
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Post by mach12 on Jun 2, 2016 12:25:08 GMT -5
When I was a kid I worked weekends and summers for a remodeling carpenter and one of the jobs was digging out under houses to give access for the plumber. I'd quite often have to deal with rats and mice under houses and it could sure be startling sometimes. I'm going to be working in the crawlspace the next few days moving the ice maker waterline and installing the propane gas line and I keep remembering the good old days. I haven't seen any rats around here in a long time and only occasionally see a mouse so it's not likely that I'll see anything but there's a reason that "sneaky rat" is a common term.
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Post by nana on Jun 2, 2016 19:03:52 GMT -5
I agree the glue traps are too cruel. Not that poison is so great, but at least it doesn't necessitate killing a helpless terrified creature. Poison makes them really sick, and I'm sure they feel awful, but at least they can crawl off to die by themselves. I've made my peace with the squirrels, chipmunks, voles, mice, skunks, woodchucks and raccoons, because they do not reach the level of infestation these rats did. I can share a little of the largesse, but they wanted the whole enchilada. Metrowmn, try the homemade rat poison--you'll have to keep it from the dogs because they will probably love it because of the peanut butter, but if they do get into it, it won't hurt them. Dogs can belch and pass gas, as I'm sure you know as a dog owner!
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