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So we've got a/some rat/s living under a shed. A while ago, I saw one out and about doing it's stuff so am pretty sure I know where it/they live. Having chickens we're limited about the poison-oriented ways of dealing with them, so taking the advice of Alabama3, I've got myself a gun. What I want now is to lure the (not so very)little fekker(s) out and feed them some lead. Or lead-freee ecologically sound pellets. or whatever today's hillbilly about town uses for entertainment. So, anyone got any advice on luring the varmints into my hopefully trusty 3-9x40 sights?
Cheers
Left over spare ribs. The backyard if my student house was full of rats for a while, all after the bones my fat house mate was chucking out.
Why not just get a rat trap ?
(Unless you want to go around shooting stuff of course ... ?)
🙄
piper?
Why not just get a rat trap ?
1- chickens
2-
(Unless you want to go around shooting stuff of course ... ?)
piper?
currently serving a ban on playing the pipes in or around the house when people are around.
I heard that peanut butter is a good thing for this.
Put it on both sides of a piece of bread so it takes your quarry some time to pick it up
Then blow its brains out!
(PS tried a trap from amazon, they just ate the food out of it!)
Immolation of the shed. It's the only way.
You are alway going to have rats then if you have chickens & feed for them & dont want to use baited traps.
I think you are going to struggle to shoot them, chances are they are happy nesting up underneath your shed, only way I could shoot them was to bait the insides of scafold pole and then place a 12 bore down the other end!
Stick your bait trap under a slab or in an place that the rats can get to and the chickens cannot.
Cat?
Hose under the shed - flood 'em out!
You are alway going to have rats then if you have chickens & feed for them & dont want to use baited traps.
I have chickens. I don't have rats.
Well, that's not true, we used to have a rat but his name was Bob and he lived in a cage.
Cat?
Terrier is better.
I'd go with poison in a place the chickens can't get to. If not, the bit up there about peanut butter is spot on. They frikkin love the stuff. We trained Bob to come when called using peanut butter.
Cat food.
Head shots only please. Even a rat deserves a humane send off.
Make sure the rifle and your marksmanship are up to the job. Zero your sights for 15m and practice hitting a target about an inch in diameter. I'd recommend a .22 air rifle producing at least 10ft./lbs and a flat head pellet like RWS Hobby. Make sure you have a safe backtop in case you miss.
Do not touch the corpse(s). Use a shovel and incinerate if you have the facilities.
cat plus poison where the cat and chooks can't get to. Though ultimately we only got rid of [i]all[/i] of our rats when we freecycled the hens!
Or derek's idea. 😯
badly tuned chainsaw.... Smoke them out.
Or, leak a lot of propane into the holes and then throw a match down the hole. _might_ not be good for the shed though. Or the chickens. Or the neighbourhood.
Would look good though.
Well, I'm not going to pretend that I know much about the rat catching ability of a terrier vs a cat, but cats do have some form in this area, I believe. Anyhow, any fule no: cats > dogs...tree-magnet - Member
Terrier is better.
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tree-magnet, but he does have rats, so his rats(not yours 😉 have access to a food source and a nice place to breed under his shed
BTW, I removed a shed last year for someone I know, & even though they only ever spotted one rat in their garden, I found 4 nest full of young under one shed!
They were feeding on bird seed that was easily accessable from a feeder on the floor!
Poison traps is the easiest solution imho
Dress up as a sexy female rat then shoot them as they come wandering over to check you out. They fall for it every time 🙂
entice them out...
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cast are cooler..
but for ratting a terrier is best -
Block up all holes except one - hose from car exhaust down remaining hole. Win!
I'm just putting these in to balance out the sensible replies.
Or, leak a lot of propane into the holes and then throw a match down the hole.
I did this with a wasp nest in our compost heap but used petrol.. Phenomenal explosion which got rid of the nest, but about 70% of the compost heap ended up in surrounding gardens.
The trouble with poison is they'll go back under the shed to die - and stink
If you don't use the shed much, it won't be an issue though
I have heard the best plan is put some peanut butter about 20cm off the ground on a vertically placed paving slab or similar. They have to stand up on back legs to reach it giving you a stationary target and also provides a good back stop.
bait the insides of scafold pole and then place a 12 bore down the other end!
hmmm, i like it, have no access to shotgun and can't be arsed getting a licence
willard (good name for this thread) - i like that too, but have form in this area and not good form at that. still you're right, would look good, i can vouch for that
ski - OH took a photo of rat eating bird food - it was in a dish on a feeder stand - it had climed up the pole and into the dish. I'd suggested a glue paper round the pole to keep it stuck so making for an easy target but she wasn't keen
philsc/rubberb - hmm combining both suggestions I could dress up like that and...
ok enjoying this so far, peanut butter sounds good. cat is out, the one i've seen was about the same size as a small cat. cats are fine for mice, but a terrier or similar would be the thing for a rat
cast are cooler..
awwwwwww
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I bet they can breed quicker than you can shoot them too 😉
& the trouble with trying to shoot them, for every one you do shoot, there will be 3 or 4 of his brothers bonking their sisters under your shed, waiting to eat their shot Bro 😉
The other option is to borrow a farm Colli, they tend to be well trained in ratting, the one on the farm I used to work on, was fairly nifty at dispatching rats!
All you had to do was give him the right whistle and point in the direction of the rat & the game was on.
Many a bet was won/lost Collie ratting 😉
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Once went to a place where they had hung baited fishing hooks about 6" off the ground, bloke working there said it was very effective.
Immolation of the shed. It's the only way.
Nuke the entire site from orbit - it's the only way [u]to be sure[/u].
I'd suggested a glue paper round the pole to keep it stuck so making for an easy target but she wasn't keen
Google "rat glue traps" - they work quite well
Once went to a place where they had hung baited fishing hooks about 6" off the ground, bloke working there said it was very effective.
Yep I have heard of that too, but used for another reason 😉
Apparently - they like sweetcorn.
These would be good if you have a biggish garden
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Lamp them out, car headlights should do. Wait in the car.
Then blast away.
Why not bait the scaffolding pole, but cap off one end, get some detonation fuse, and use the pole itself like a canon barrel, and the rats at the missile - ALA all your problems solved in one go (no rats, but better still no [b]trace[/b] of dead rat)....
DrP
Google "rat glue traps" - they work quite well
I did, no use on ground due to chickens but I thought they'd be good wrapped around the feeder pole. OH not keen and possibly has a point, leaving it to starve while we're away n holiday is less humane than a head shot.
derek_s - fair sized garden, but that's maybe a bit random, how about this
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or seeing if [url= http://www.gunstar.co.uk/Deactivated-Artillery/German-105mm-Howitizer-gun-for-sale-gs62215.aspx ]this [/url]could be un-deactivated
DrP - you're a genius
EDIT [url= http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Swedish_Orienteering_And_Firing_A_Rat_From_A_Cannon_Championships ]is this anything to do with you?[/url]
This works for squirrels: [url=
As they are but rats with furry tales, surely the same thing would work in this case.
Just tell the chickens to steer clear of it.
Assuming you are legally able to use whatever form of 'gun' you have obtained on your laand, I have found custard poured into the frog of a brick to be a good bait for rats. They like the custard but can't drag it into safety so have to eat it in situ. Leave the bait out for a few nights without shooting so they get used to it then give 'em hell! As has been said, don't handle the corpses, and make sure you are confident of head shots before even thinking of shooting them. Not just to stop them suffering but you also don't want an injured rat crawling away then dieing somewhere you can't get to it's rotting corpse....
I was told burnt porridge oats was the thing to attract them, they can't stay away from it. Put some on a shovel, scorch them then stand back & wait.
I have chickens, various 12G shotguns, an air rifle and rats. I poison the rats away from the chickens, normally by filling in all the holes after popping some poison (wheat covered poison that smells like aniseed). I set up traps where the kids can't get to and lose their fingers.
The best way is to get a "humane" trap whereby the rat goes into a cage that is baited and the exit door drops down when they get to the bait. You can then dispose of the rats as you see fit. Seems to work well and avoids any problems with being a poor shot / poisoning chickens / losing the kids fingers.