I use "D Con", the best I've found. been using it right along and I have never had any problems. I put the pellets in 2 gallon plastic oil jugs with a brick on top to hold it from moving. Animals other than rats and mice dont get in to eat the bait.

set rat traps against the wall and they'll run right into them.

I like the theory of the D Con, but the last time I had a chicken coop I used some for mice and next thing I knew I had chickens walking around with dead mice in their beaks. Don't want any dogs or hens getting to the poisoned rats. On the other hand, while I've become efficient at cleaning mousetraps I wonder how I would do with rat traps. And can you just throw away dead rats, or do they have to be buried somehow (they're much larger than mice!)?

Johanna
Thursday is my day off and I'm going after these critters one way or the other!

Johanna, do you have barn cats? If not, get one immediately. Have it neutered, feed it well and it will do an amazing job of ridding your barn of vermin.

Also, put your chicken food in a rat-proof container.

I don't have a barn cat. I've been concerned that I'd make the investment in getting one and then my dogs would chase it off. But maybe if it used the chickens' entrance on the back of the barn (away from the dogs' yard) that would work.

The food storage is in galvanized garbage cans, but how do you keep the critters from eating out of the same feeders the chickens use???

--Johanna

hi joanna - I'm having a similar problem with mice in my chicken house and maggie j gave me a really good suggestion for a bucket trap. If you had a large enough bucket it might work for rats, too. Check out the "mice and chickens" thread.

I haven't actually managed to get the trap in there yet, but I did start locking up the feeder at night and it's discouraging them somewhat. Like you, I don't want to risk poisoning my cats or chickens. Good luck!

Rats are much smarter than mice and therefore more of a challenge. I've used variations of the bucket trap for mice with good success, but rats are another story.

We have a bad infestation of rats under our goose house. I hate the idea of using poison, so I'm going to make some modifications to the basic bucket trap and see how that works. I've heard if you dig a hole and sink the bucket except for the top couple of inches that it works better. Can't do it today, though, because I have too many chores to do for the rabbits.

Let's brainstorm this topic some more and see if we can come up with something other than poison that works. I'm not quite desperate enough to use poison yet... although it may come to that.

Have you guys Googled "rat traps"? There are a ton of intereting devices out there. I even came across one site that was devoted to antique rodent traps. Fun reading!

Well, I feel a bit naive, I hadn't thought about removing the food at night. My feeders are hung on chains -- can I just raise them up high at night?

Years ago we had a rat enter our house through the basement and over the course of a couple weeks kept making further incursions into the house so that we finally called in the professionals. One of the things the rat man (as I came to call him) said was that rats follow paths they have previously taken by scent. That's why our rat kept going further into the house each day, following his previous path and then exploring from there. The rat man also said that ammonia obliterates the scent so that rats can't follow the same path, so I'm wondering if ammonia around the rats' entry places to your barn would help slow them down. You'll probably still need to find a way to eliminate them, but it could be another weapon in the war. I don't know if ammonia would have any effect on other animals, but I think you only need a bit to drive away the scent.

I can sympathize about the disposal. Having taken care of lots of mice I was confident I wouldn't have any qualms about disposing of a rat. When he was trapped and dead, though, I took one look and said "call the rat man."

The rats will climb the walls, come down the chain to the feerer, they have to be put in secure places at night.

I don't like using poison, in fact I don't use it at all. We lost a cat to rat posion, the rats took it to their nest the cat found the rat nest killed the rat and ate the grain. My vet told me the new rat posion takes longer to kill the rats so if a cat or dog gets some it acts so slow by the time you notice something wrong it is too late. The posion came frome somewhere else.

Set rat traps against the wall with a little peanut butter on it. Rats are no smarter than mice my dad catches a ton of them in the regular cheap traps. wear a couple 3 cent latex gloves and throw the dead bodies in a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage.

I think rats and mice are very smart, suspicious critters. It seems to me that once one gets snapped in a trap, the others won't go near it. I've used sticky and snap traps with some success, but you have to fix them so other animals cannot get into them.

I've used the Rat Zapper and got one once. Then it became corroded and would not work. I cleaned it per instructions, but it still did not work anymore.

I use D Con, but I hate to do it. They only take the bait when nothing else is available. Good luck.

I repeat, mice are easy. Brian left a tall mug with an couple of inches of sweet coffee in it down in the workshop the other night. You guessed it... mousie could not resist sugary caffeine and drowned trying to drink it. Bucket trap in miniature.

I am now on a mission to be the best rat-trapper in Ontario! All ideas welcome... I'm going to experiment: tip-traps, funnel traps, repeating live traps... let's try them all. It will take some time to make and test all the ideas I have been researching... but I will post a full report in due time.

Anyone else want to take on THE GREAT RAT-TRAP CHALLENGE???

Tonight I'm setting the traps for the first time. They've been sitting in place for a few nights baited but not ready to spring, as advised. I don't relish tomorrow morning, except that it should be the beginning of our erRATication (ugh, pardon the pun!).

--Johanna

There's a bunch of variations on the bucket traps. Back in 1960 I went to a vector control (mice & rats)class. They said get a barrel and put brick in the bottom. Put water in it to the level of the brick. Put some bait on the brick. Put board leading to the edge of the top of the barrel. They said a rat will jump into the barrel and can't jump out. Other rats will jump in to see what the first rat is doing. Never tried it and can't imagine dealing with mess of drowned rats.

Some of the guys in Vietnam used the barrel without water. Put some garbage in the bottom and set the barrel next to a table or ledge. Rats get in and can't get out.

Been a number of postings on this site and others attesting to the bucket traps. I've got cats that like to sleep in the chicken coop and I don't have mice or rats.

Bob

We put concrete in the feed/tack room to discourage them from digging. Are in the process of getting all the junk from around the barn so they have no nesting places. I don't choice feed the chickens as I don't want to encourage the rats. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of rat bait, but you can't totally prevent the beasts from moving in.

We have a barn cat who is really good about getting rid of the mice, but for rats I prefer a dog.

Honestly, a farm bred rat terrier, or a jack russel, schnouzer (sp?) any terrier is bred for killing rats. The English would throw the dog into a pit with a hundred rats then time how long it took them to kill them all. Weird sport.

I do like the bucket idea! My favorite house mouse trap is a metal coffee can, a thimble of peanut butter and a plate. You put the thimble on the plate, balance the coffee can on top and come back the next morning to dispose of the critter. It will be alive. If you want to train the cat, or dog, here's your chance.

Maggie - please post the results of the trapping experiment.

kitty

Regarding bucket traps, I got to my office this morning. No one had been there for two days, and in the empty garbage can at the end of the countertop were two dead mice. I expect they ran across the counter looking for something to eat and then jumped off, trapping themselves in the can instead of jumping free. I guess it must have happened at the beginning of the two day hiatus and they were dead by this morning.

I guess I prefer the notion of a quick death than that they would have an extended suffering, but in the end it was at least the elimination of two mice. I hope I get those same results in the barn tonight!

--Johanna

Got one last night! Unfortunately it appears that after it was trapped it was blocking a runway, so something gnawed on the back end. I took one look and said "that 2 dollar trap has done its work" and the whole thing went in the garbage! I hope I'll have the fortitude to reuse some of them like I used to do with mice -- I'm sure there are plenty of barn rats waiting for their 2 dollar traps!

--Johanna

Got two more last night, and I am proud to report that I had no qualms about emptying and resetting the snap traps. I have the full program under way now, a place to secure the feeder overnight, safe places for the traps so that the hens definitely can't get snapped accidentally, peanut butter jar in the barn so I can re-bait them, empty bags and gloves for the clean-up.

I had to laugh, yesterday a friend said "oh, you mean you have mice?" and I said "no, I don't think 8 inches long qualifies as a mouse!" Same guy told me he'd worked rat abatement in Chicago and his advice was "be sure you tie your pants legs closed when you go after them". Yikes! I don't want to confront any live rats, just kill them off so I'm not paying to feed them over the winter!!!

--Johanna

Johanna, sounds like you're doing great!

I haven't got my program underway yet... but its going to be a big job! And I suppose the longer I procrastinate the bigger it it will be...

Maggie--

You know, they do multiply rather rapidly.....!

--Johanna

LOL, Johanna, I am aware of that.

Been very busy with my geese, rabbits and other critters, not to mention trying to scare up a few bucks selling antiques in the shop and on ebay...

What I need is that mink that took up housekeeping in the cellar a couple of years ago. He cleaned out every rat in the place. We deported him to a secluded area when he showed up in our bathroom face to face with our moggie, Marilla.

Our experience with the mink makes me wonder if it wouldn't be worth buying a domestic ferret. They are supposed to be good pets and are, by nature, death on rodents.

One way or another, the rats are next on my "to-do" list!

Are ferrets safe with young birds?

I'm asking because the "second dog" experiment has bombed yet again. As much as I hate eating my own words, I'm doing it this time. These pups aren't working out at all.

"Life is a rat race and the rats are winning." George Carlin (big grin)

Kitty

Kitty, I have no idea if ANY birds are safe around ferrets. I remember my Dad telling me about rabbit hunting with ferrets during a visit with English relatives when he was on leave from the air force during WW2. They would release the ferret into the rabbit warren and block the other holes with nets. The ferret would chase the rabbits out and they would be captured by the nets. This was not so much sport as a way to hunt very necessary meat during the rationing years.

I hope that no one tries that off-the-cuff idea of using ferrets without doing more research. Could be that an escaped ferret would cause more problems than the rats!

Since getting three rats in the trap I haven't caught any more. I put the feeder away every night. I see evidence that critters are still coming through, but they're not hanging around and making a big mess of the bedding every night.

We're about to be hit with this big storm coming across the country. Does cold weather slow rats down?

--Johanna

The cold may make them lie low for a bit... They do tend to hoard food. They have to drink, however, and will come out for water... I've heard they need about a fluid ounce daily.

Might be a good time to rotate traps type and location. I have heard that they will learn to avoid traps after seeing their buddies get caught. If you replaced the snap traps with a live trap or two... or the bucket trap, you may start getting them again. Later bring back the snap traps.

I found the hole where they were getting into the mudroom and patched it... much less activity out there at night. I think I may have trapped one or two in the mudroom and that's what I am hearing now. Previously, my son counted SEVEN when he went out for a late-night smoke.

Thank goodness for Marilla (our moggie) who patrols the house and keeps them out of the living areas.