Rats

teepee

Hi all ,
Any ideas to keep down the rats & mice , theres more around this year .
Baiting or trapping .
Anybody here of mixing skim coat and caster sugar and leave it out in dry powder form , when the rat eats it they get thristy and drink water and the skim expands out dus killing the rat ? what do you think .

BOND747

Iv got two cats around the farm so the only rats and mice i see have their four feet up in the air, as well as a rodent free yard you can claim the cat food as a farm expense

denis086

get a few wild cats to take up residency in your bale shed and make sure to spill a drop of milk when your feeding the calves and theyll stay around. We havent seen a rat or mouse in a long time even when we cleaned out the old bales of straw from last year and usually we stand there with shovels ready but we only saw one this year and that got the heel of the boot. In fact they have now started successfully hunting rabbits which is fantastic

teepee

Ive a fox terrier and the cat and terrier wouldnt work , never seen him caught one .

Mrmoe

A combination of a good ratting dog and wild cats will do the job. A dog will be easier to use if you have a localized problem in one shed, the cats will pick up the rest.

pakalasa

We were plagued with rats for a while.
We got CATS around the place for the last year and we havent seen one since.;)

Figerty

I can supply you a few natural born Killers if you want... of the feline variety.

These are lethal, but I have too many around,,, bird population has taken a might hit locally..

teepee wrote: »

Hi all ,
Any ideas to keep down the rats & mice , theres more around this year .
Baiting or trapping .
Anybody here of mixing skim coat and caster sugar and leave it out in dry powder form , when the rat eats it they get thristy and drink water and the skim expands out dus killing the rat ? what do you think .

reilig

I wouldn't have a cat around the place. They are one of the most unhealthy animals. They spread disease to cattle and sheep by p - ing and s - h - ing on hay and feed and these can cause blindness and breathing problems in animals.

When you have them for catching rats, cats become a carrier of Leptosporisis by carrying eating and storing rats and coming in contact with urine of rats.

Its dangerous to let children near cats that hunt for mice and rats. I personally know a person who always had cats at her house and who developed a degenerative eye sight condition over the last 5 years to only 25% vision. Doctors have laid the blame totally on the cats that she kept.

IMO, poison laid properly in secure bate boxes would be a far better alternative for the control of rats in the long term.

Shauny2010

I found that the better fed the cat is the better they hunt, best trick is to feed the cat well but keep feeding him/her the same food every day then it`ll sort out a bit of variety for itself i.e. the rats!:D

snowman707

bait at strategic locations works a treat,

cats a no no here, not since we got an out break of toxo in the sheep 20 years ago.

O.A.P

Cats are only slightly better than rats (they dont eat spuds or grain) Bait and traps is the way to go IMO.

hammer73

O.A.P wrote: »

Bait and traps is the way to go IMO.

+1, and i use fenn traps instead of the mousetrap style traps. never had one go off without a rat in it.

John_F

wasn't there something in the journal a month or 2 ago about banning the majority of rat bait due to some chemical being banned from europe? Anyone else see???

Upstream

If you're using cats as a means of controling vermin, is it possible to possible to vaccinate them against Lepto?
Are the vaccines for Lepto in cattle effective in cats?
Sorry if this is a silly question, just wondering.

Indubitable

Poison is the way to go. I set it up in a few locations and the rat population has taken a huge hit. I also hunt them with the shotgun the odd time. The brand of poison I use is "storm".

LostCovey

hammer73 wrote: »

+1, and i use fenn traps instead of the mousetrap style traps. never had one go off without a rat in it.

Fenn traps are fantastic. Have you tried putting peanut butter on the pan? Deadly!

Kills less owls than the 'Storm' too.

LostCovey

Feargal as Luimneach

kingofthe3rdyrs wrote: »

Poison is the way to go. I set it up in a few locations and the rat population has taken a huge hit. I also hunt them with the shotgun the odd time. The brand of poison I use is "storm".

Storm is good stuff alright. Saw a sparrowhawk which died of secondary poisoning this year and a Barn owl ( now extremely rare) which suffered the same fate:mad: Cats the way to go. Spay the female so you don't get an explosion in your cat population.

pakalasa

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Storm is good stuff alright. Saw a sparrowhawk which died of secondary poisoning this year and a Barn owl ( now extremely rare) which suffered the same fate:mad: Cats the way to go. Spay the female so you don't get an explosion in your cat population.

I was wondering was this how all those endangered birds or prey, (sea-eagles etc) were killed this year.
Bit of a scapegoat I thought, blaming the local farmers. Much easier than blaming domestic rat-poisoning.

LostCovey

pakalasa wrote: »

I was wondering was this how all those endangered birds or prey, (sea-eagles etc) were killed this year.
Bit of a scapegoat I thought, blaming the local farmers. Much easier than blaming domestic rat-poisoning.

The only problem with that theory was that post mortems and lab testing proved that those birds were killed by a combination of nitroxynil/Trodax (ie an agricultural/veterinary fluke drug) with alphachloralose in lamb carcass material, in the middle of the lambing season, with the carcasses being found on upland sheep farms for the most part.

As you say, it is possible that someone who wasn't a farmer was trying to poison rats in that manner, but it seems less likely than the theory which you have referred to.

However, that 'other' theory you mention is verboten/taboo/banned on this forum (see smaccarrick's sticky at the top of the forum).

To paraphrase:
"Don't mention the war. You did it once, but I think you got away with it".

Basil Fawlty

round tower huntsman

where abouts are you?
i'd be happy to hunt around with a pack of good ratting terriers.
clean,natural pest control.

djmc

Anyone try these battery traps that give the rat an electric shock
I have seen them on youtube and done deal

round tower huntsman

why waste money on traps and poison when local terrier lads will do it for free.
or get yourself a good ratter. also keep a ferret about the place,rats hate em.

aristo

djmc wrote: »

Anyone try these battery traps that give the rat an electric shock
I have seen them on youtube and done deal

I have 1 same as the donedeal 1s, runs off mains rather than batteries caught afew with it, they are half the price on ebay