The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: doganjo on April 24, 2018, 12:23:33 pm
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As well as rats I have ducks, hens, cat and dogs. Can anyone suggest a reat eradicator that won't affect my dogs or cat if the eat one? The dogs are retrievers but I think only the young one might eat them. The cat is a hunter so might well do.
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It'll probably need to be a trap rather than poison. Place it where you know they feed or along a wall where you've seen their droppings or a line of grease where their fur rubs as they pass. It'll need to stay in place for several days as they're neophobic but as soon as the alpha male and female start to feed the younger ones will follow.
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I've tried the snap traps like mousetraps. Killed two, but there's a lot more than that I imagine and they sussed out how to get the meat without springing the traps
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I've had some success with a tip I read online. Bait UNSET traps with cat biscuits until rats are reliably taking the bait. Then use a hot glue gun to glue the biscuits to the traps and set them..........
Also, if you shoot, a tip from a gamekeeper - liquidise tinned cat food and spread it on a solid surface. The rats can't grab it and run off (and it's very smelly, so they will find it easily). Once they have become regular visitors to that spot, get ready with the air gun...........
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We use Tom Cat poison in blocks - use bait station so blocks can’t be removed.
None of our animals have had any problems, in a year I have only seen one dead mouse.
We don’t have a cat but there are plenty arpund and they don’t seem to have a pribkem.
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Thanks, Terry, they've reassured me that the rats are unlikely to come out in the open when they've taken the bait so I've ordered a pack.
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Good luck then! I’ve found it usually works within a week. If the blocks aren’t touched after 2 weeks, it may be where you have sited the bait box.
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We’ve just trapped 10, took a few weeks but think they have all gone now. They were quite brazen and out and about during the day, they seemed to have a sort of timetable as to when they were seen in the garden. We used a trap from amazon, baited it with peanut butter, chocolate, and dog biscuits. Couldn’t use poison because of the dogs. Apparently a bit of a problem locally at the moment. I’m keeping the trap baited just in case.
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I cannot trap rats live and kill them.
But I wish I'd seen this before I bought bait boxes and blocks - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victor-Electronic-Trap-100-Kill/dp/B000LNX06C/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1524939501&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=rat+trap&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victor-Electronic-Trap-100-Kill/dp/B000LNX06C/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1524939501&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=rat+trap&psc=1)
I was assured by the TomCat people that the rats would go to their nests to die so my dogs wouldn't see them to retrieve them. So I hope they're right.
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After having one leap out at me from the plastic bin I keep my bird seed in, it was war. These rats are scary. Hope your ones disappear quickly.
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Found a local lad who has just cleaned my duck shed for me and will take down the taurpaulins and insulation above the runs - it was put there, when I moved in here 10 years ago with 6 dogs, to keep them cosy. Rats are using it as a nest so once it's down hopefully we'll see less of them. I've told him he can have the bait boxes for his business in return and I'll get one of the electronic ones in case they come back.
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I tried the electric trap prior to resorting to poison. It is for indoor use only and says not to use in a garage or outdoor building. Having bought it I tried in my stable anyway, the batteries lasted a day or two at most out there and it didn’t catch a single rat.
I also tried humane traps - 0 rats caught, snap traps - 1 rat caught (we could see 15 rats at a time in our neighbours garden, so there were plenty to catch), electric trap - 0 rats caught, feral cat - good deterrant while we had her caged but ran off once released.
We didn’t resort to poison lightly - it was a last resort. All signs of rats disappeared in a week.
I now put bait out at the first sign of rats - getting rid of them before they make a home and multiply means I put less poison out in the long run.
My advice would be, don’t offload your bait boxes too soon.
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I tried the electric trap prior to resorting to poison. It is for indoor use only and says not to use in a garage or outdoor building. Having bought it I tried in my stable anyway, the batteries lasted a day or two at most out there and it didn’t catch a single rat.
I also tried humane traps - 0 rats caught, snap traps - 1 rat caught (we could see 15 rats at a time in our neighbours garden, so there were plenty to catch), electric trap - 0 rats caught, feral cat - good deterrant while we had her caged but ran off once released.
We didn’t resort to poison lightly - it was a last resort. All signs of rats disappeared in a week.
I now put bait out at the first sign of rats - getting rid of them before they make a home and multiply means I put less poison out in the long run.
My advice would be, don’t offload your bait boxes too soon.
That's fine but I can't risk harm to my two champions and my youngster or my cat - all of whom would retrieve a half dead rat.
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Hi Doganjo, when we had a rat problem a few years ago, I was similarly worried about our cats, and neighbour's dog. However, when I did the calculations as to the amount needed to kill a rat, and then the number of dead rats a dog or cat would need to eat to get a fatal dose, I satisfied myself that any issues were pretty unlikely, provided the dog couldn't eat the poison itself. Your mileage may vary of course, but that was my own conclusion.
The blocks got rid of the rats very quickly, and since then, we've put bait boxes around the barn etc, and check them regularly. This seems to have prevented any re-infestation.
HTH!
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Hi Doganjo, when we had a rat problem a few years ago, I was similarly worried about our cats, and neighbour's dog. However, when I did the calculations as to the amount needed to kill a rat, and then the number of dead rats a dog or cat would need to eat to get a fatal dose, I satisfied myself that any issues were pretty unlikely, provided the dog couldn't eat the poison itself. Your mileage may vary of course, but that was my own conclusion.
The blocks got rid of the rats very quickly, and since then, we've put bait boxes around the barn etc, and check them regularly. This seems to have prevented any re-infestation.
HTH!
I agree with the above approach, which worked for me too. Different bait types have differing toxicity levels for their target species, so if you get the correct bait for rats, then the dose required to impact on dogs/cats/birds would require numerous carcasses to be consumed to have any impact on the non-target species as Womble says.
I cant remember the specific bait now, but there was some very good information on toxicity levels for target/non-target species available from suppliers online.
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Further to my reply above, you may find this useful:
https://www.pestmagazine.co.uk/media/245855/32-33-know-your-poison.pdf (https://www.pestmagazine.co.uk/media/245855/32-33-know-your-poison.pdf)
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Difenacoum is quite a bit safer around cats and dogs than the Bromadiolone you bought.
It also has the benefit of being better on mice too.
Look up LD50 for the specifics of potential poisoning of non target species.
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That’s really useful, Maysie, thank you for highlighting it.
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I'm presuming you don't need the competence certificate for these poisons suggested?
Don't like using poisons becoase of cats (ours and others), and JR, but I think we have a bit of a problem in the polytunnel, where hens are kept with access to outside.
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Single dose poisons need a licence, but double dose (ie less effective) poisons are still available without a licence but in smaller volumes, these are generally sealed in individual 100g sachets nowadays.
The poisons should ALL still be treated with great respect and used with the professional bait boxes, weighted down and clearly marked etc to avoid any issues with non-target species still though.
I tried many things before resorting to poisons as I have cats, dogs, chickens and feed the wild birds, but in the end it was the only effective treatment and the problem was getting wildly out of control while my other ineffective efforts were trialed.
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Thanks everyone.
Part of the problem is the tarpaulin containing the insulation that my sons put up to keep the dogs warm when we moved in 10 years ago - it's their home. The kennels are no longer needed for the dogs which is why the ducks and hens are in there. So as soon as possible, that is coming down - got somebody lined up but he's busy just now. Then I'll put the bait boxes down, and hopefully that'll be the end of them.
Locking this now, thanks for all your help and reassurance