Dealing with rats!

forgottenhills

iamtony wrote: »

I read a source of food for rats is slugs. Poison the slugs and you may help the rat problem.

What a terrible idea. What other wildlife that eat slugs are you also going to poison if you do that?

dePeatrick

I had same problem, got a cat and problem gone, I try to balance out the bird kill by feeding birds every winter. I got sick and tired of putting down poison and no matter how much I put down still did not seem to solve the problem.

wrangler

Straffan1979 wrote: »

BEWARE...A half dead or poisoned rat will kill your dogs very quickly if they were to bite into him- the poison in the blood of the rat seems to act very readily when transferred to a dog; I’ve seen a dog getting a terrible death from it like this-

Tbh I’ve found having dogs invariably attracts rats- your best option is to build a small rectangular box from blocks along a wall or the dog run- put a pipe into it at each end and have a lid on it- put 2 of the plastic type large black rat traps inside at the end of each pipe with a small drop of bacon fat dripped on the trigger - leave it set all year round and you’ll be catching and disposing of them whenever they arrive- the dead poisoned rat is risky big time for your dogs and other animals.

this trap will work better the more ‘naturalised’ it becomes with moss etc growing around it over the years.

I've saved my dog twice this year after she took poison, she's 11 years old,.
It cost €350 each time to save her
As if that wasn't bad enough I had to take a full bait box from her in the last two weeks

Cats are much better at catching mice than they are at catching rats.

_Brian

Thargor wrote: »

Won't letting cats run wild on farmland kill way more birds than poison?

They really just patrol the farmyard rather than the whole farm so it’s not much of a problem.

Doctors room ghost

The best job I find for old ratty is the luna timber rat trap with the picture of the cats on it.
A good dab of aldi crunchy peanut butter on it and you will have ratty in no time.
Work 4 traps at the time and set them around 5 in the evening.check them around bed time and remove any dead rat
Fire them over the hedge for a fox or a magpie to eat.
Trap them hard for a fortnight and then when things slow down do week on week off.
And put the traps where the dog won’t put his foot.

Jb1989

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

The best job I find for old ratty is the luna timber rat trap with the picture of the cats on it.
A good dab of aldi crunchy peanut butter on it and you will have ratty in no time.
Work 4 traps at the time and set them around 5 in the evening.check them around bed time and remove any dead rat
Fire them over the hedge for a fox or a magpie to eat.
Trap them hard for a fortnight and then when things slow down do week on week off.
And put the traps where the dog won’t put his foot.

Am I the only one with a slight phobia of rats? I hate looking at them and would find it hard to open a trap with a dead one inside, very little scares me, but I hate the sight of rats, don't mind knowing there about, but hate haveing eye contact with them. Mice aren't near as bad to me, I think it's the big long tail on the rat that turns my stomach.

Tileman

Jb1989 wrote: »

Am I the only one with a slight phobia of rats? I hate looking at them and would find it hard to open a trap with a dead one inside, very little scares me, but I hate the sight of rats, don't mind knowing there about, but hate haveing eye contact with them. Mice aren't near as bad to me, I think it's the big long tail on the rat that turns my stomach.

Same as. Not much turns me queasy but those ****ers do.

wrangler

Tileman wrote: »

Same as. Not much turns me queasy but those ****ers do.

At least with the poison you never see them again

whisky_galore

Tried trapping before with success once put in the right places and now with three cats on patrol, haven't seen a rat nor a mouse since, bar dead ones.
Have put away the traps now that the cats are doing such a good job, the two females are crackers for mousing.

Thought about dogs, but they're needier than cats and need attention, I can't stand dogs being left to their own devices all day by their owners, there's two across the road and all they do is bark their heads off, owners aren't arsed. If you cant look after a dog properly, don't get one, it's that simple.
My female cats are neutered so there won't be batches upon batches of surplus kittens.

Poison causes other problems and they become resistant to it anyway. Had rats and mice dying inside the walls of the dwelling house and stinking when we used it before. Would never go back using it.

AntrimGlens

Jb1989 wrote: »

Am I the only one with a slight phobia of rats? I hate looking at them and would find it hard to open a trap with a dead one inside, very little scares me, but I hate the sight of rats, don't mind knowing there about, but hate haveing eye contact with them. Mice aren't near as bad to me, I think it's the big long tail on the rat that turns my stomach.

I got two pigs during the summer for fattening, put them in a field adjacent to the house, baited under their ark and thought everything was hunky dory. Fast forward to three weeks ago and i saw about a dozen rat holes and runs where the rats were going to the pigs trough. Stuck the head torch on one night and counted at least ten of the feckers. Now I can handle snakes, spiders, grizzly bears, crocodiles or any living thing except rats so I near ran for the hills.

When I was a student working in England I had to clean out the mobile grain dryer, opened the slats and two rats ran out up my arm and over my shoulder. I hated them before that but that gave me a massive phobia about them, so I can barely build up the courage to open the bait boxes I have down to refill them.

Have moved the pigs inside now and I see the rats have followed them but I have five concrete bait boxes filled regularly (by my father) and I'll wipe the fookers out.

The problem is that you can't buy any more poison than 300g at a time unless you have undertaken training in rodent control at a cost of £70 to get the certificate.

Even writing this gives me the heebie jeebies. :eek::eek:

patsy_mccabe

I'm putting down poison once a week, bit by bit. Thinking is, they will eat it better that way, rather than just hoard it.
The cattle shed has cavity blocks and they have created runs inside them. You can get the smell of the dead ones now, from inside the wall.
I keep the meal in plastic barrells and they are rodent proof, but the small bit of meal the cattle spill sends numbers mad every winter.

Jurgen Klopp

Any chance there's any foxes passing through your land/premises?

Had a problem with rats coming from a river in the field and a fox passed through and started leaving leftovers where it's little path was through the field.

Rats gone within a few weeks and nothing in the last couple years

Or if you know anyone with a pet ferrret I've found scattering there bedding around teh shed will clear them out too. Think the scent of the ferret frightens them

iamtony

forgottenhills wrote: »

What a terrible idea. What other wildlife that eat slugs are you also going to poison if you do that?

I've never actually used slug tox but its common.

Ok maybe slug beer can traps might work better.

simx

Was a bit late getting going this year with bait and seen loads of them around the yard at night time so went he’ll for leather with bait boxes and blocks, felt intakes we’re still slow so put a dab of peanut butter on blocks for a few weeks, 6-12 blocks every 24hr’s I was refilling for about 3 weeks

Bass Reeves

simx wrote: »

Was a bit late getting going this year with bait and seen loads of them around the yard at night time so went he’ll for leather with bait boxes and blocks, felt intakes we’re still slow so put a dab of peanut butter on blocks for a few weeks, 6-12 blocks every 24hr’s I was refilling for about 3 weeks

Werethe blocks fixed to something to prevent removal. What bait did you use

Doctors room ghost

Jb1989 wrote: »

Am I the only one with a slight phobia of rats? I hate looking at them and would find it hard to open a trap with a dead one inside, very little scares me, but I hate the sight of rats, don't mind knowing there about, but hate haveing eye contact with them. Mice aren't near as bad to me, I think it's the big long tail on the rat that turns my stomach.

No I’ve no bother with catching them.
I do get them in the timber Luna traps.release the spring then and drop them out.in over the hedge with him then and at least whatever eats him gets no poison.
Poison is too expensive anyway.
If you mind your traps they last years.

Melodeon

Terriers. That's all I'm saying, terriers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg

Bass Reeves

Melodeon wrote: »

Terriers. That's all I'm saying, terriers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg

If you have that many rats you are in deep deep deep deep.......sh!te.

They still have to be dug out for the terriers. Put in stone walls and old sheds and terriers are not the answer. Rats will not naturally come out out when terriers are around. terriers like taht have to be locked up at night as they will travel and attack sheep.

Good cats are a patience hunter. They will sit on top of a ditch hide behind a barrell or wheel and pounce when rats appear. Cats that have the instinct that are well fed hunt for the pleasure alone. They will kill for the fun of it alone.

Ard_MC

Albert Johnson wrote: »

It would be a very mundane world if everybody had the same mindset although you're quite possibly correct with the above. I was of the opinion that if there's that much available to hunt then the poor cat won't have any reason to be hungry but perhaps I'm wrong. For anyone worrying about the plight of any poor moggy at the Johnston residence the truth is I detest cat's and therefore don't keep them. Between the better half and myself there's currently 5 dogs and thankfully very few rats.

I had the same mindset as you. But anyway I have ended up with a neutered Tom cat. That has to get fed twice a day or I don't! And it's the best killing machine ever. Granted a few birds get it. Only problem is, he thinks it is great to drop his kill usually headless at the back door!

simx

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Werethe blocks fixed to something to prevent removal. What bait did you use

Yeah in a bait box, storm blocks

Thargor

Melodeon wrote: »

Terriers. That's all I'm saying, terriers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg

WTF is going on there? Why are there so many massive rats in that one tiny area? Is it from grain or feed being stored there or something?

patsy_mccabe

Just back from the shed there now. Saw 2 rats mad scampering when I turned on the light. Hate the feckers.:mad:

Grew up down the country with horses and stables, and indoor/outdoor cats. We rarely saw rats. The horses' rugs would have cat tracks all over them every morning!

I only advise getting cats if you are going to be willing to care for them. I adopted two "semi wild outdoor cats" from Drogheda Animal Rescue about 10 years ago and they were great cats. We kept them inside for a month as advised then fed them at the same time morning and evening, they stayed around. They trusted us enough that we could put spot-on on their necks while they ate to deal with paracites. One of them could be captured to be brought to the vet for vaccines, the other could not but lived to be at least 8 before disappearing.

Sorry I haven't read the thread to see if you can't have cats. But I write this as advice to anyone dealing with the same issue.

I adore cats though and now have three mostly indoor cats! But I don't live rurally anymore.

Doctors room ghost

Thargor wrote: »

WTF is going on there? Why are there so many massive rats in that one tiny area? Is it from grain or feed being stored there or something?

They are big poultry sheds on stilts that they drag along with the tractor
Free range broiler and the like.
YouTube ratting with dogs and you see them.
Plummer terriers were developed in the uk especially for ratting by Brian plummer.hes on YouTube too and wrote several books

Bass Reeves

simx wrote: »

Yeah in a bait box, storm blocks

Storm is not a great poison for alloys publicity. It is a multi feed kill poison as opposed to other that feed in a single feed

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodenticide

Donald Trump

_Brian wrote: »

We stopped using poison here after finding a dead barn owl that had probably fed on a contaminated mouse.

I was gutted.

Got a few cats and problem solved.

Cats kills lots of wild birds too.

Birdnuts

Donald Trump wrote: »

Cats kills lots of wild birds too.

More so commoner garden birds like Chaffinches and Blackbirds - Barn Owls(which are much rarer from the loss of traditional farming habitats) in contrast are in much greater danger from secondary poisoning though consumption of dieing rats. In any case trapping avoids these problems(including the growing resistance of rats to many commonly used rodenticides)

Jurgen Klopp

Melodeon wrote: »

Terriers. That's all I'm saying, terriers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg

I always found this Mink and dog combo very satisfying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjebAlfrexA

BarryD2

Problem with rats as I've found, is that they're very territorial. In that if they have been used to having nests in a particular area, they keep coming back. Agree with keeping them out if at all possible but they have an amazing capacity to climb and get through all manner of small spaces to get back where they want to go! War of attrition over a few years to change their habits.