You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
We have rats, perhaps due to neighbours having chickens.....
They reckon they are doing everything they can,but of course they blame the woods at the back, building work going on etc.
We have had the rat people out, but want to set up some bait stations in the garden on a semi permanet basis. What do you use?
We have a Jack Russell minus nuts (rescue dog, so they came off before we got him), so he likes a chase but no killer instinct.
I had success with PIR floodlights.
Rats are a bit photophobic and a big old floodlight that lights them up every time the move discourages them.
You do occasionally see rats in daylight, so it’s not 100% but it worked for me.
Weve had some recently, used these and caught quite a few:
the boxes can be fixed down, and can be used with traps or bait. Also the boxes are locked so kids / pets cant get into them.
Not much you can do, chickens will be the source of food and unless you can remove that source rats are going to keep coming. Best you can do is thin the herd either by traps, bait or lead. If you are looking for someone to put some lead into their diet then asking on an air gun forum would be your best shot, we tend to be a responsible lot and know what works in terms of power for ratting and what the law is (we can only shoot on properties with permission of the owner so no taking pot shots in your neighbours garden).
If you go for the trap option you need to lay them on the rats normal path (they are very habitual) and bait them but don't set it. Once they take the bait you can set it but check it every 24h. I would advise having an air pistol to despatch any detainees, a cheap Crosman 2240 would be fine for traps.
If you want to kill them, the Goodnature traps seem like a good way of doing it:
http://collinsnets.co.uk/product-category/vermin-control/goodnature-traps
Friends used to keep chickens and they attracted an endless stream of rats fwiw. It stopped when they got rid of the chickens. Maybe you could swap your Jack Russell for a fox.
We had rats from the farm next door. They used to come into our roof and race about at night.
The rat catcher cleared them out but couldn't persuade our neighbour to fork out for his services until they discovered that the rats were costing more to keep than getting rid of them.
The rats were eating the feed and ruining what was left.
Trying dropping weils disease into a conversation as in have you had injections against or if they are having anyone doing any work on site if they have notified them about risk?
I got the cheapest cat food I could find, more mush than meat. Put about half a can in a saucer visible from the back door. The rats try to eat the cat food by picking it up with their front paws but because it's cheap mush that's not so easy to do. So while they're figuring out what to do, shoot them with an airgun. The other rats see free food so out they come. Shoot them too. Repeat until no more rats.
liquiorice is toxic for rats, so if you are worried about putting bait down becaus of other animals eating it that is a good alternative.
As above, buy an Airgun..... but use it shoot the chickens/neighbour.
.22 and patience.
Just get one of these:
We've got two. Despite living backing onto woodland, the only rats we see are the dismembered remains of the odd one that they leave out the back. The slinky black cat (Nelson) in particular is like all four horsemen of the apocalypse to the local rodent population. His best nights result was leaving four of the buggers, partially dismembered, by the back gate as a present for us. Thanks for those Nelson
I agree with Binners (!!)
Two cats = no rats. We have two; a wee 3kg, 15 year old scaredy cat, who is a total killing machine and just loves rodents. Her best 'Rat' day is also 4 confirmed kills.
All delivered alive by her, to cat #2. He's generally known as the cat beast from hell, 9kg of bruiser and outright killing machine who prefers ambushing hares to second-hand rats. He still managed to eat two point five of the four that she brought him at the fireside that evening.
Get a cat. Or two...
You're just imagining things.
Another +1 for cat food but on big nipper traps. Our cat is useless so its left to the traps to do their work. Last year i got about 6 in 2 days, but not had any for months until last week.
Irritiatingly for us, we have no chickens or food, but they still come back for more. I assume they're coming in via next door who until recently only had half a roof and we could hear them in our roof spaces. It sounded like a family of bears was loose upstairs. Thankfully we don't hear them anymore
Or a Jack Russell
Also, make sure the trap is appropriate to the rat. I had a cry for help from a neighbor when their glorified mousetrap failed to 'deal with' the black rat that had moved into their loft.
We have rats
In the house big spring loaded traps, what works for bait will be a bit of trial and error but cat food and peanut butter both get reasonable results though your particular lot may ignore both, (peanut butter would be my first suggestion though as it doesn't stink our go manky to the same extent). Best to wear rubber gloves wye setting traps as your smell is likely to be off-putting for the rat.
Outside, why bother unless they're actually causing damage?
What CFH said.
We had a rat in our garden.
I have an old BSA Airsporter.
The rat is dead.
Cats are rubbish and cause too much collateral. Make some glue traps
Get a micro Tyrannosaurus, aka a Staffy.
I watched my son's Staffy demolish a horde of rats in minutes when an old slab was lifted.
Catch, shake, it's dead, next please.
Incredibly fast.
.22 rimfire and peanut butter. Or this looks good.
I got the cheapest cat food I could find, more mush than meat. Put about half a can in a saucer visible from the back door. The rats try to eat the cat food by picking it up with their front paws but because it’s cheap mush that’s not so easy to do. So while they’re figuring out what to do, shoot them with an airgun. The other rats see free food so out they come. Shoot them too. Repeat until no more rats.
for such a successful animal they have pretty awful senses, I walked up to one on the garden table an shot it through the head nigh on point blank range (it was too close to use the sights). Quantity over quality ! 😀
Get a 'working' Yorkie, use their evil for good
Polecats hunt rats, the name comes from the French, Pouletchat (chickencat) as they were often found in chicken runs hunting rats (though some egg borrowing may well also have occurred).
Ferrets (domesticated Polecats) have also been used as rodent control.
Where can I get one of those capacitors from? Just putting the finishing touches to our revamped chicken house/ run. I can see an arrangement like that being quite useful ( the one that killed them straightaway at least).
Not sure who it was who suggested glue traps above but I can't think of anything less humane than sticking a rat to a board and letting it a) starve to death or b) chew it's own feet of trying to escape.
I have absolutely zero qualms about killing rats as long as it's done quickly and humanely.
+1 never use glue traps.
Proper dog is best, with ferret backup.
Will make it their mission to rid your garden of rats.
Funny all the folk suggesting a gun. This isn't 1 v 1 deathmatch. This is the last level of Goldeneye. They're not going to stop coming.
What you need to do is bury an oil drum with a hinged lid as a trap
Bait it with a coconut.
Release the last two cannibalistic survivors into your garden.
Are the rats in your kitchen? Not sure what you're gonna do though.
That Border Terrier up there can't catch many rats, it's only got three legs
That Border Terrier up there can’t catch many rats, it’s only got three legs
The rats are the other one.
That Border Terrier up there can’t catch many rats, it’s only got three legs
The rats are the other one
Like pickle Rick? Does he have a laser canon?
Hahaha! Stupid predictive text.
Funny all the folk suggesting a gun. This isn’t 1 v 1 deathmatch. This is the last level of Goldeneye. They’re not going to stop coming.
Funnily that's exactly what I said when I pointed out the only reason they will stop is when there's no more food. But it will control their numbers.
My BiL used frozen melted chocolate on a saucer as bait, positioned under their bird feeder on the patio. The frozen hard chocolate meant the rat/s would have to spend time gnawing and scraping to get their choclatey fix, which gave him time to take careful aim from an upstairs window with his air rifle.
Excellent sport.
bigblackheinoustoe
Member
Cats are rubbish and cause too much collateral
Agreed. Cats are a bigger problem than the rats I’d say. Rats are just cleaning up the unused food/mess - cats are just indiscriminate killers of local wildlife.
Whilst the air gun method would undoubtedly be the most pleasurable method for the would be Urban-Rambo ... it’s also the least effective.
If you see the odd rat during the day - you can guarantee you got many more in the same area during the night.
A good few Fen-traps placed strategically around known rat runs will fold a few of them over in no time; but poison is the best method ... the rats will often take it back to the nest where other rats will also consume it.
I am looking at this, and perhaps a discreet call to the council
https://www.toolstation.com/pest-stop-rat-bait-station/p57949
https://www.toolstation.com/pest-stop-mouse-rat-killer-sachets/p79919
Any thoughts?
Whilst the air gun method would undoubtedly be the most pleasurable method for the would be Urban-Rambo … it’s also the least effective.
If you see the odd rat during the day – you can guarantee you got many more in the same area during the night.
*sigh*
Except if you use a red light to illuminate them which rats can't see.
My brother does have a .22 which has sound modification attachments.
The problem with poisoning them is that they like to peg out in tricky bits to-get-to of a building so they rot away and you're left with a stench for a considerable period. Once you've experienced that stench you then notice it all over the place.
squirrelking
*sigh*
Except if you use a red light to illuminate them which rats can’t see.
... the old as the hills red-light for lamping myth. Pure nonsense of course.
And as much as I expect the Urban-Rambo enjoys dressing up as an adult Action Man in his full Real-Tree camouflage to go big game hunting after rats (or squirrels). The airgun is still the least effective method in reducing rat numbers ... one shot at a time; waiting for the nervous rats to reappear. Its a lot of effort!
Regularly see bags of 30-40 rats from a 2 person night ratting session (using night vision scopes)
Them buggers are quite happy to carry on munching next to their fallen brethren. Nervous they are not ( farm rats mind )
As revs really. They're not easily deterred. Ignore the red light idea, they're bothered by people not lights, don't make lots of noise and don't get too close and they'll sit there happily being picked off until the food runs out. Unfortunately you'll need to be up all night for several nights to make a difference and be sure you've actually got the ones in "your" colony.
Problem is without sorting the source of food you'll not sort them long term. You'll just end up with a pile of dead rats. (and new ones feeding on them).
Council or private contractor is your best bet, I'd honestly say outdoors poison should be a last resort. It's indiscriminate (and the most effective stuff looks like coloured gains which is very appealing to birds too) and it does carry up the food chain, especially if it makes it back to the nest where the young will take it as they make lovely meals for a lot of other stuff (full grown rats less so). If you've children or pets poison should be a no go,
If you've got pets or kids then you do want rid as they are very aggressive if cornered (or that way inclined) and will scratch and bite. a rat bite has a chance of ending badly.
Traps at entry points. It can help to "Wash" the runs with something strong smelling (they don't like mint apparently so a high concentration of mint oil in water is supposed to work well, indoors I'd use bleach solution) as they navigate by scent a lot but, ultimately, if they're not causing a problem beyond "omg rats" you really can just leave them be. They do less damage than squirrels and make less mess than birds and I can't imagine you resorting to poison for those.
Someone up there mentioned weil's disease. Leptospirosis is only really a worry in wet environments such as river banks as it dies off when it dries. It will enter your system through mucus membranes as well as cuts but, so long as your garden isn't a swamp and you're not rubbing soil in your eyes you'll be fine. Unless you've pets and kids that do drink from puddles, or put hands in mouths etc. But then poison should be a no go, so use traps.
If they're in the house then get on with it ASAP, poison is usually the best method, possibly combined with traps. (traps are "best choice", and in theory you should start there but usually you'll end up with poison any how so skip the traps, just accept the inevitable smell [if you do use traps, make sure you tie them down]). Use a bromide (brimadolne) or bromidacoum based whole grain poison ideally - both acumlate in the liver so don't need your rat to have its fill in one go. With new food sources (eg bait blocks) rats and mice tend to eat a little then go back to what they know, working up to eating their fill, so often ingest insufficient poison to kill them but enough to make them wary next time, with non cumulative stuff this means it doesn't work well when there is a good source of food else where.
You'll likely need to get a pest controller to put this ^^ out for you as it should need a licence/certificate to buy it. It's available from mole country stores and similar if you've a local one and want to try your luck.
Regardless of the various "these dog" answers, animal control isn't viable, a big rat will make a mess of a dog or cat if it decides to fight & even small cuts and bites infect easily (why you don't want rats round livestock) and can prove fatal for a dog (and always expensive for you). Oh and when they don't "shake" the rat too death you'll need a strong stomach.
One thing with a dog, they're effective for flushing to guns at least.
Blasting a shotgun in barns never put off rats feeding in daylight, the noise made by someone talkng made them scarper.
Good nature traps are great but pricey.
We have a city wide predator free programme that gives away traps with the aim of killing rats and stoats to protect native wildlife: https://www.pfw.org.nz/get-involved/groups/predator-free-brooklyn/
You can make a basic DOC 200 style trap with some pallet wood arranged in a tunnel shape with two traps inside, one large one small:
Peanut butter works really well as bait if you're not catching anything move the trap to a different location. My neigbour has caught 22 rats to date!
Crush several paracetamol tableyts and mix it into peanut butter. Pop it down where you see the rats. Night night ratty.
Go round the exterior of your house with a pencil.
Fill any hole which you can fit the pencil into. You can get stainless steel wire mesh for covering air vents.
If you know anyone with Ferrets iv'e herd putting ferret shit round the garden will stop rats coming in .....
Cheers everyone and very useful.
Do I need a licence to buy the bait from Tool Station?
We had an infestation last year, middle of suburbia the buggers were out feeding in the day. I won't use bait as I have found it ineffective in the past, unless you get a specialist in, any bait you can buy requires the rats to eat high quantities and nothing else. Rat traps are the way to go, but don't bother with what are basically large mouse traps, I use rat cage traps, sometimes advertised as humane traps, they are a lot more efficient at trapping. Down side is yo need to get a bit hands on to dispatch them. A deep container of water is my weapon of choice, cleared the problem in a couple of weeks.
Rocky mountain: no, you can just buy the poison.
Lunar: that's what I did, but used an air rifle for dispatching.
A deep container of water is my weapon of choice,
And also illegal in the same way as drowning unwanted kittens. Shooting UK, plenty of other Google results (from the mail through the guardian) but this one mentions the act in question too
If you humane trap, you need to shoot them, single blow to the back of the head with a heavy object etc. You're not allowed to release either (just in case you thought it was a good idea).
Humane traps are, by and large, not a great idea.
Re the bait from toolstation, I don't think you'll need a licence for it due to the low concentration of poison. I wouldn't eat it though.