The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: cuckoo on October 29, 2014, 10:50:05 am
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I wasn't sure which would be the best post for this so will try here.
We keep our holding as well as we can - feed in bins in vermin proof shed. No food left down overnight. Buckets picked up etc etc. We have a rat population explosion. We have bait down. Have some back break traps down - but only 2 hits in a week from 4 traps (baited with chocolate spread). Any more ideas please?
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Depends on the situation, we have recently used the terriers and smoker and a friend with night vision and an air rifle to good use!
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Many years ago we had a rat problem, caused when a neighbour had been storing grain in a loose heap in an open-fronted shed. The rats multiplied really quickly, but then once the grain was used, they spread out to all the surrounding farms, so all got his problem.
We used bait boxes carefully positioned, airgun, and the terriers, plus of course the measures you already use to give them nothing to eat. I think of those things, the terriers were the biggest deterrent - even when they didn't kill them, the dogs made life very unpleasant for rats. Now, we occasionally find the dogs have killed a young rat, so presumably one scouting for fresh territory.
Other neighbours used Rentokil for advice and to place bait boxes.
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Thanks - have bait boxes with bait and are checking and replenishing regularly. My 2 terriers and spaniel like to look but haven't caught anything yet. Will look into air gun and night sight - are they expensive?
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Good night sites are hundreds. I've never had much shooting them. Ferrets can be good for ratting too, also good as a deterrent. I had one Jill that I put down a rabbit burrow, she killed at least two rats and flushed another one. I used to let her into the drain pipes under the farm and didn't see a rat for years, she always came back, was very friendly.
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We are getting overun too - its a nightmare - they are eating the wiring on vehicles, getting in everywhere and eating my tools, lights, vehicles.
The cat is leaving about 5 a night on my workbench, the dogs just make lots of noise but occationally make it a quicker job that the cat does.
I cant afford the time to shoot them (although it does make a good evening)
I did buy some eradibate or something about two days ago as I cant/wont put down poison. But they dont seem to be eating it - they sem to know whats going on?!
I also have one of those electronic things in the shed that is supposed to be frightening on the hearing range of rats - my rats seem to come in and have a rave to it :(
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Put more traps down, and maybe vary your trap bait. Find their "run routes" and place traps along them. And don't bother with poison - get a bunch of cats from Cats Protection.
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The last time we had rats we tried using the poison blocks, rather than baited seed. It worked much better and more quickly, even though it was expensive buying the blocks. Almost as soon as I put down a new block a rat would coming along, pick it up then run back home with it, where presumably other members of the group, and the very young, all got to eat some too. It's much easier monitoring how much is being taken/consumed, and we positioned them under paving stones where a rat could squeeze in but not a dog or cat. Once the uptake of blocks slowed right down the infestation was basically over, and during the final few days we always removed the blocks overnight to prevent any of our abundant hedgehogs having a nibble. Definitely worth a go if you haven't tried it before.
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We don't like to use poison as we have barn owls nesting, but I have had quite good results using the live cage traps. Just be careful handling them when there is a live trapped rat ::) .
And the :cat: :cat: deal with the littlies for fun ;D .
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I would kill rats any way I could, ferrets, dogs, shooting even poison if all else fails. They spread the most awful diseases, to animals as well as humans. Isn't there a mix of wheat and dry plaster of paris some use? The plaster of paris apparently solidifies in their gut and kills them. Not a nice way to die but, then neither are the diseases they spread.
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I would kill rats any way I could, ferrets, dogs, shooting even poison if all else fails. They spread the most awful diseases, to animals as well as humans. Isn't there a mix of wheat and dry plaster of paris some use? The plaster of paris apparently solidifies in their gut and kills them. Not a nice way to die but, then neither are the diseases they spread.
Oh please - not that disgusting idea of plaster again :furious: :furious: Surely there are enough ways of killing rats without resorting to something so inhumane.
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Put more traps down, and maybe vary your trap bait. Find their "run routes" and place traps along them. And don't bother with poison - get a bunch of cats from Cats Protection.
Not if you want to avoid the cats passing on toxoplasmosis from your rats to your livestock and possibly you.
Choose a quiet place downwind of the farm buildings and sit quietly just before dusk. Bait where you see the rats run from and if you find a hole just pour the bait down - they don't go any further than they need to. Under piles of stuff, behind logs or sheets of tin, under hay bales, the list is endless. They may not touch new bait sites for 10 days but once the alpha male and female in a group start to eat it the others will too. They need to ingest about 15g before they die. The range of a group is about 50m from their nest but others will always move in once one group have died.
Two mild winters have led to an explosion in numbers. We saw so many dead on the lanes where they'd run from the combines and been killed by cars it made us wonder about just how many were still left in the fields. We bait all year round and know we'll never be rid of them but have so far kept the numbers down.
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There are plenty of keen shooters out there that would jump at the opportunity to shoot some rats for you. Whereabouts is your farm?
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I would kill rats any way I could, ferrets, dogs, shooting even poison if all else fails. They spread the most awful diseases, to animals as well as humans. Isn't there a mix of wheat and dry plaster of paris some use? The plaster of paris apparently solidifies in their gut and kills them. Not a nice way to die but, then neither are the diseases they spread.
Oh please - not that disgusting idea of plaster again :furious: :furious: Surely there are enough ways of killing rats without resorting to something so inhumane.
Have never, would never unless desperate.
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When you wake up in the night with a rat or two running across your face , you don't care how you get rid of them .
The financial cost of rats on your feed stuff bill is horrific , they can often eat more of the feed than your sock if left to their own devices .
The point made about disease being spread or brought in to your stock cannot be under estimated either . One of my small mammal breeder friends had big losses & had several autopsies done to see if it was a common disease/complaint . The vet said after doing the expensive autopsies that it seems to have been caused by disease carrying rats infecting his stock .
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When you wake up in the night with a rat or two running across your face , you don't care how you get rid of them .
:o :o :o EEEEEKKKK!!!!! Right that's it I'm never going to sleep again.
(I'm still not convinced they don't lurk down the toilet ready to bite you when you sit down.)
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When you wake up in the night with a rat or two running across your face , you don't care how you get rid of them .
:o :o :o EEEEEKKKK!!!!! Right that's it I'm never going to sleep again.
(I'm still not convinced they don't lurk down the toilet ready to bite you when you sit down.)
Flush first and be quick. :o :o
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Anyone in or around Nottingham with a rat problem feel free to message me. Offer free control with dogs & air rifle, 17years experience. Cheers.
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In the 1950's & 60's when our , " Three seater brick clodgy ", was 50 yards down the small holding from the house we had to be careful .
Many a time a few big rats would come flying out the trapdoor hole when you lifted the lid .
In the end dad set up a big piece of heavy corrugated galvanised Anderson shelter metal on a frame suspended by two chains , we had to bash the sheet with a lump of wood shaped like a rounders bat before we went inside to give the rats down in the earthen closet time to escape instead of coming out the seat hole as we lifted the lid.
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There is no such thing as an inhumane way to kill a rat, 'orrible nasty creatures that cost the country a small fortune and as has already been said spread all kinds of diseases not only to stock but humans as well.And eat my electric cables and water pipe :furious:. Unlike mice rats have to have a source of water in the form of a dripping tap or similar. Rats need 3 things to survive, food, warmth and moisture eliminate one of these and you won't have a rat problem. Bicarb\baking powder is another good killer in a bait. Rats can't pass gas, bicarb produces copious amounts of it, I'm sure you can work the rest out! They hate the smell of diesel as well, been used effectively down rat holes, not very environmentally friendly but needs must sometimes.
Every dead rat is a rat less. Bain of my life :huff:
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I resorted to poisen - 5 different veriaties - they even ate one of them out the 'sealed vapoulock' buckets - things are coming into control now - but if we leave any foodstuffs out its still getting eaten.
I think I may accidently spill a bit of deisel around the shed. Probably make the woodwork last too. :)
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There is no such thing as an inhumane way to kill a rat
I get the sentiment Shotblast, but disagree on the fact! Rats are still intelligent living creatures, so surely the least we owe them is to find a way to control their numbers without causing unnecessary suffering?
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Thanks for the replies - have got 2 ferals and have used poison too - but will stop due to cats.
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I know of one house in the next village where there are so many rats they've had to resort to storing food in the oven or an old fridge and the rats are now eating the carpets ....
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If you have rats coming into your storage areas you'll need to be careful to make sure there are no bags of plaster around, apparently the smallest amount will kill a rat. Also antifreeze in water will kill anything pigeons, rats, stray cats etc so be careful not to leave any lying around.
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We had five tonight :) between the air rifle, two terriers and a lurcher :dog:
I bloomin HATE the things, they are chewing into all my pens grrrr
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Up at my allotment we are overrun with them in the last 3 weeks I have over 50 in live traps , my best was 7 in one trap all about 3/4 size ,my wee dogs have accounted for another 9 , and another 4 plot holders are putting down poison we must surely be making inroads now .
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The last time we had rats we tried using the poison blocks, rather than baited seed. It worked much better and more quickly, even though it was expensive buying the blocks. Almost as soon as I put down a new block a rat would coming along, pick it up then run back home with it, where presumably other members of the group, and the very young, all got to eat some too. It's much easier monitoring how much is being taken/consumed, and we positioned them under paving stones where a rat could squeeze in but not a dog or cat. Once the uptake of blocks slowed right down the infestation was basically over, and during the final few days we always removed the blocks overnight to prevent any of our abundant hedgehogs having a nibble. Definitely worth a go if you haven't tried it before.
Most blocks have a a hole running through them. Please secure the block with a nail through the hole thus avoiding the chance of a block being carried into an undesirable location (dog walking footpath, school run pavement etc)
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Most blocks have a a hole running through them. Please secure the block with a nail through the hole thus avoiding the chance of a block being carried into an undesirable location (dog walking footpath, school run pavement etc)
BenBhoy is right about the 'fixing' of bait.
I posted a link regarding rodenticide use here http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=54966.msg461881#msg461881 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=54966.msg461881#msg461881)
I think that its important that folk have a look at it before putting bait out and about.
Its well worth a look http://www.thinkwildlife.org/crru-code/ (http://www.thinkwildlife.org/crru-code/)
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Agreed - my allotment neighbour has rats in his chicken pen & poisons them - I found 2-3 carcasses in my compost heap where they had crawled off to die but also a different type of remains under a pallet which I suspect was a long gone hedgehog :(
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This has been our worst year for rats in the ten years we've been here. We've had a lot of success with poison in boxes but you can't get complacent cos the buggers return. OH is waging war with a rat who is getting into the chicken coop every night despite her efforts to block the holes.
I think the best answer is two Jack Russells hunting as a team. We only have one. He was sure there was something behind the kitchen fridge so I heaved it out. He went in one side while the rat came out the other so I had to put my foot on it until the dog caught up. I hate rats in the kitchen and they are all big this year.
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This has been our worst year for rats in the ten years we've been here. We've had a lot of success with poison in boxes but you can't get complacent cos the buggers return. OH is waging war with a rat who is getting into the chicken coop every night despite her efforts to block the holes.
I think the best answer is two Jack Russells hunting as a team. We only have one. He was sure there was something behind the kitchen fridge so I heaved it out. He went in one side while the rat came out the other so I had to put my foot on it until the dog caught up. I hate rats in the kitchen and they are all big this year.
Tell you what's better than two JRT's....two patterdales!! Lol
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Hi Carse Goodlifers
Thank you for the two links, particularly the second one to CRRU
SV
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This has been the worst winter in YEARS for rats!
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for the initial period a live catch multi trap can be very effective.
Don't forget rats are also neophobic
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strange I haven't had rat problems for 3 years, but I have a cat which catches rodents. Why not get pest control in?
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We had a bit of a rodent problem here but then we got three feral cats from Feline Welfare - problem solved. The cats happily live in one of the stables and we provide food and water. they have been brilliant. Even hubbie, who is not a cat person at all, likes our stable cats!