The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: devonlad on November 25, 2012, 04:07:55 pm
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It was only a matter of time and after 3 years of relative rat freedom we have just spotted the signs of our first rat. A fairly obvious sign at that, a dead one laid neatly inside the shed door where our two farm cats live.In addition to this we have now seen a few tunnels running under the chicken run wire out to our compost heap on the other side. Like most people I'm sure we want the rats gone, and feel it would be wise to give our two cats a helping hand. but without risking the health of any of our animals. Been reading about Eradibait which sounds just the ticket, in that it is described as being deadly to rats and mice but harmless to other animals- is it ?? I can't imagine we would put down any poison without protecting the cats, dogs,chooks etc. but does this stuff actually work.
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I know what you mean....it's always a tricky one, the containers seem well made but then it's sods law that one of your animals will be over interested and do their level best to do a full investigation. Our pest control chap said that over the counter modern bait is no longer that strong and wouldn't knock out a cat or dog, if ingested. A worry, still.
We have used it to some effect but were able to place it in sectioned off areas, will tons of bricks on the bait boxes. We did better with fenn traps and better still shooting (rats have patterns, same routes used, usually at same times of the day) I popped smoke bombs in tunnels once but it was difficult to ensure that you had every hole covered.
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its not just pets getting at the bait, any vermin that is dying and comes into the open will be snapped up... that is the problem
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We had them recently as well. After doing our research we decided not to go down the poison route - we have dogs, cats and badgers and were concerned about them picking up any poisoned carcsses. We got a guy in with ferrets. It was quick and clean. He surveyed and blocked up all the holes then put a ferret down. You could hear the squeels of the dying rats. A few managed out but were then despatched by another ferret released to pursue them. The beauty of this is that most of the corpses are underground. We then filled in the holes with soil and spread some dirty ferret bedding around the area to warn off any others -bedding was supplied by the ferret guy. It was cheaper than getting the council or private pest control company out as well. I wouldn't have any hesitation about doingit this way again and would highly recommend it.
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Man ferret and terrier are a great team and there are always looking for a bit of work. Dont like the idea of blocking all holes some rats can be very aggressive when cornered and more than a match for a ferret and it is best to leave them an escape wrought that is where a terrier or two comes in. I speak from years of ferreting experience
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I think that my stable cat has given up ratting so am going to look for someone with ferrets, had not thought of that before. :thumbsup:
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We have a dreadful problem with rats. This year seems to be the worse by far! We haven't had hardly any eggs for weeks and weeks. At first, I thought it was down to the terrible weather combined with the molt but now, reading this post, I think the rats are taking the eggs out if the chicken houses!!! :o Cheeky *******!!!
I thought I was being clever getting a treadle feeder and denying their main source of food - guess they just found another one :(
My local ferreting club think it'd be cruel to the ferrets to send them down a rat hole... Any ideas/ contacts? :eyelashes: (South East btw)
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I bought a rat trap cage with the aim of shooting any we caught. Its failed so far. The rats are huge. Our cat who is an amazing ratter usually, got into a tussle with one in front of me and she gave in (thank goodness, I could see a large vet bill). Wonder why they (and foxes) are so much bigger this year?
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We've got brown rats and grey rats - the brown rats were living by a pond this summer and I think the floods must have made them move towards the farm - I got quite excited as I thought they were water voles - no, just rats! They are big, round and furry (and while i thought they were water voles, quite pretty fur) - and as you say, huge!
The grey rats are the usual nasty ones, the rat man says they interbreed too
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with the rat trap cage wrap it in a bin liner with the bottom torn out so it looks like a tunnel then bait it up in the middle and place it against a wall or fence, this works better than just placing a baited trap down
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with the rat trap cage wrap it in a bin liner with the bottom torn out so it looks like a tunnel then bait it up in the middle and place it against a wall or fence, this works better than just placing a baited trap down
THank you :thumbsup:
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I asked at our local feedstore about Eradibait and they didn't think much of it. We're using the medium nasty stuff with bait stations. It really does seem to be a bad year for rats. This is the first year ever I have had them digging into my polytunnel and eating vegetables. Horrible things!
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Spot the rat runs and put Fenn 6's down if they are that big. Otherwise Fenn 4's will do the job. I do not use poison.
I use roofing ridge tiles as a tunnel and cover the trap mechanism with a small piece of cloth.
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OMG charismahon... You mean business! I was quite shocked when I googled a 'Fenn'.
Not sure what i think about that to be honest. I know the rats need dealing with, but really???!!! :o
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no different to a mole trap or ordinary mousetrap really... just don't let anything you like get near themI used to use 20ltr buckets with a tunnel cut through about the size of the rat and a big brick on to to prevent accidents... but I stopped using them years ago when my dad caught his hand in one- its too easy to have an accident
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The Fenn 6 will break your hand (the genuine ones not the copies) and the Fenn 4 will break your fingers. So you need to be very very very careful. The rats are invariably not killed outright in a Fenn 4 so ned despatching. I use an air pistol because the traps are anchored to the ground and drowning is difficult (and illegal). Rats can cause a lot of damage and spread disease. It is a legal requirement to have an effective control system if there is a known rat presence. Fortunately we haven't got them here yet but we were overwhelmed with them alongside the canal in the UK. The only time the numbers noticeably dropped was when the mink passed through the area.