Oh, Rats!

I now have rats in my chicken barns. I've never had them until this year. Lots of mice, but no rats. I've been baiting rat traps with peanut butter and only get babies. Any better bait?

What really gets me is I put poison bait blocks under the slatting and the evil little monsters drug it out onto the floor where the chickens can get ahold of it. They must have planned on hauling it into the attic for a mid-day snack, but couldn't climb the wall with the bait. I don't think the hens ate any, but I sure don't like seeing them exposed to it.

Trade those hens in for non-vegetarian ones.

They'll brutalize one if they get a hold of it. I watched 'em tear apart a living mouse once. It's kinda scary. I wonder what they'd do if I tipped over in there.

The rats don't come out 'til lights out. They have free reign of the barn from 8 pm to 4 am.

Yikes. Do they make an industrial sonic repeller?

I don't think those actually work. But you did remind me of an idea I've heard before - Some have told me that running a plain jane radio tuned to anything you want to listen to will deter mice and rats. Theory is that the mice and rats can't get used to the constant chatter and are constantly startled as the sound changes from song to song, or topic to topic (talk radio). They are pretty high-strung. Since they can't ever be comfortable, they move on.

Maybe it won't work, but at least I'd get to listen, too. I'll leave the radio on all night tonight. But then, how do I know it's working???

Have you tried a amall livetrap? Wouldn't need the poison.

(quoted from post at 11:48:32 01/30/14) Have you tried a amall livetrap? Wouldn't need the poison.

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I've been using snap traps baited with peanut butter. I've snapped 4 babies with them, but no adults. I've also chased down and smashed one baby and one adult. Any ideas on a bait that they can't resist? I know they like chicken feed...

I use the plastic bait stations from TSC. Put the bait in those on metal rods. Rats go in to eat but can't get the bait out to carry it around.

I get mice with peanut butter, never a rat. Only thing I"ve found that always works is a live trap baited with this year"s bird seed.

Don"t know about you, but I delight in taking the trap down the road to the sleazeballs that twice tried to break into my shop. Turn the rats loose there.

Mechanical or other kinds of traps, vs, poison bait, I'll take the trap every time when possible, seems they drag the bait off, then die in bad places where the dead corpse reeks something awful. My preference especially around barns, where they die in walls. More important, and its probably not so easy with poultry, you have to break the cycle with these rodents, interrupt the food source, or eliminate it, and or habitat for them to live in. We had them at the horse farm some years back, they can be a pain to deal with, can be wise to what you are doing, but I prefer the trap unless they get wise to it, then you have no choice to try poison, still prefer snap, sticky or multiple catch live traps when you have numerous mice. With the bait, some of them would be stumbling around in plain sight, easy to kill then, but not so good with customers around. What was most effective was cleaning immediately under the grain bucket after each feeding, no spilled grain, no food for them, that was the attraction.

I worked in commercial construction in NYC for many years, I've seen them take over a new building and get out of control in no time, more so after a nearby demolition and poor housekeeping on the new site, the most effective thing you can do in my opinion is get rid of the food source immediately, in this case it meant strict housekeeping, implementing traps and bait as well. In my case, I had a demonstrated reputation for keeping jobsites clean, my house until its turned over to the owner, right from the start I had an exterminator hired and on the job until the job was done, riding a new elevator while taking an owner for progress tour is not impressive, when rats ride with you, saw that more than once. Infestation does not take long, gets worse even faster.

I don't know how effective any predators would be in your case, some Cats are really good at controlling mice, some are not, too many variables for me, I want to find their trails and use choke points for traps with things they like, cashews, granola bars have strong odors, they work good in live traps for mice, which can catch multiples, without resetting, then you can disposed of those afterwards, I find these most effective with mice, though I have also put out excessive snap traps just the same, no overkill when dealing with these rodents LOL !

Try this.http://ifunny.mobi/i/0ouUhLhl56

I use D-Con. Comes in pellets in a tray about 3 inches square. Rats can't carry it away. Its effective.

Yes, Home Depot used to carry them. I had some success with them, but the rats get wise to them.

I even wired one into the PA system at work, turn it on at night and the grating/warbling noise went out through the whole plant. I don't think it was so much a sound they couldn't stand, but maybe they associated it with "Hey, somebody must still be here!"

Water buckets work good for other types, not sure about Rats. They try to get a drink, fall in but can't climb out. You can even make a rolling log across the top of it. As they fall in you can here them say "Oh rats"

I have never had a problem with rats but I have had mice. I made the mistake of putting poison behind the walls where only the mice can get it. The mice eat the poison, then come out looking for water, chickens eat the mice and the chickens die!

i saw a show on discovery channel about rats. unlike mice, rats live in a colony. if a rat gets sick, the other rats smell the breath of the sick rat and avoid whatever the sick rat ate. they advised to rotate different brands of poison. set out one brand heavy, then when they stop taking it, wait a week and switch brands, and bait heavy again. my neighbor used to make wooden boxes out of old barn boards, hinged top and a hole in the side. put the poison deep in the box so the rat had to go in to get it. kept other critters from getting it. racoons seem to snack on it with no problems. rats and mice cannot throw up, so when they eat poison they generally go for water.

Pecans for bait work well for me.

KEH

Not rats but mice, I use chocolate on traps. Melt a Hershey bar on the trip lever. They have to chew it off, peanut butter they can lick it off. $.02 worth joe

I keep about a half doz wild cats around my barn. I was a prime candidate for rats, mice, birds or what have you. I have allot of feed grain laying around for my cattle. I haven't seen a mouse or rat around in years.
I buy a 36# bag of cat food every six weeks or so from TSC. I give them a couple of cups a day of food. They get water from the livestock tank. I even leave a board in the tank in case one falls in, they can crawl back out.
For me, its more then worth it to not have the problem with rodents and the birds that use to poop on everything.

Went to the barn tonight and was able to grab one as it was climbing the wall. One dead. Only saw the one tonight. I was always told that if you see one rat, you have 1000. They only came in when winter hit. I sure hope there aren't 1000. Left the radio on.

I'm gonna go check out live traps tomorrow. Get some chewy granola bars....

I've had good luck with "One Bite" poison. Traps and cats are near useless. In fact the cat pee and crap is more of a bother than the rats! A good Jack Russell terrier will kill your rats that come out, but he may well kill everything else too, like your chickens. Load the place down with poison and watch em die,

be relentless with the poison.
keep your coops/whatever clean as you can.
feed early so the chickens will clean up every bit during the day.
on bucket traps, go bigger.
I remember once leaving a open top 55 gallon drum uncovered
that was empty except for just a bottom covering of grain.
found rats in it every morning.

I have a bunch of rat poison stations I bought at an auction they're made from PVC pipe with a Tee near the center to pour the bait down and the rats can go thru to get to the bait and nothing else can.Also there is a big difference in rat poison these days as to strength as the weaker homeowner stuff is about useless to get good poison you have to buy it at a farm store in large quantities.Also all other food sources need to be done away with I have cut down on rats dramatically by switching to covered metal feed containers and only feeding what the birds will eat up every day.You can also shoot them with rat shot best is the 22 Mag rat shot it'll even kill squirrels at close range.

I'm not doing rat poison under the slatting anymore. Just too much risk. Even if I use a bait station, the rat can crawl in with the birds, die, get eaten, and kill the birds. This is my business. I can't afford to lose birds. I may set up some bait stations outside, but that should have been done when it was warmer. They aren't going outside anymore.

Keeping feed clean isn't really doable. The feeders are on slatting and when it spills, it's inaccessible to the hens. The barns are really tight. very few places for them to get in. I clean out once a year, but by now the manure is 18 inches deep under the slatting. It's like heaven for them - manure to burrow in, feed to eat, and condensation to drink.

I did find two spots where they're getting into the walls. I wonder if a slip noose over the hole would be effective?

Every one of the large poultry houses I have been around and its quite a few all have bait stations every where and I have never heard of a chicken eating a dead rat and killing the chicken,also most of the time rats will go to a hole to die.