Rats! I have rats.

[Acre4Me]

Believe me, it was a nightmare! I had done the stupidest thing by putting down 25 pallets, to make a "floor" in the run to keep my chickens up out of the mud. Then I stuffed straw, a ton of it, down into all the pallet cracks. OMG, the rats just moved in!
I started a fire and started throwing the pallets in the fire to get rid of them, and the rats were just overflowing out and all over me! Some even jumped on me! I was grabbing them left and right. I was crying and screaming. It was like I opened a New York City sewer!
But I got it done and left no place for them to live.

How long before you stopped waking up in a cold sweat thinking you had a rat crawling on you?

Nightmare for sure!

 

[Dona Worry]

I have never had luck with poisons. BEST rat trap ever is as follows:

Get a TALL bucket-- I use your standard 5 gallon bucket, like so:

Fill halfway with water

Smear peanut butter just above the level of the water, and sprinkle grain and shavings onto the water. It should float on top, giving the illusion of a solid surface.
Make a cinder block or wooden ladder up to the edge of the bucket so the rats can get in.
Rats will hope into the bucket in search of food, and drown.

 

[Debby in france]

I have never had luck with poisons. BEST rat trap ever is as follows:

Get a TALL bucket-- I use your standard 5 gallon bucket, like so:
View attachment 1612490
Fill halfway with water

Smear peanut butter just above the level of the water, and sprinkle grain and shavings onto the water. It should float on top, giving the illusion of a solid surface.
Make a cinder block or wooden ladder up to the edge of the bucket so the rats can get in.
Rats will hope into the bucket in search of food, and drown.

I know they’re rats but how long does it take for a rat to drown ?

 

[Dona Worry]

I know they’re rats but how long does it take for a rat to drown ?

I have no idea. I leave the bucket at night, next morning might be 15 dead rats.

 

[andreanar]

How long before you stopped waking up in a cold sweat thinking you had a rat crawling on you?

Nightmare for sure!

I slept ok, but if a piece of my hair would tickle my neck, I would jump 10 feet in the air! Haahaha

 

[rehsanipoor]

UPDATE:
So we fed the girls wet food today and took it up after they finished. As soon as there was nothing left we saw the rats eating the bait. Maybe I'm a bit sadistic but few things have felt as satisfying as seeing them eat that stuff! I'll keep eyes out for dead ones although I've read a lot of people say they go down to their nests/tunnels to die. How long before most people see improvement? Tonight I'll also place bait boxes where the bigger ones can get it that can't get through all my hardware cloth. One was sitting under my picnic table and I think he gave me "the paw".

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We can go from tunnels being dug to nothing within a few days of putting out the bait. You should see an improvement by a week.

 

[Acre4Me]

UPDATE:
So we fed the girls wet food today and took it up after they finished. As soon as there was nothing left we saw the rats eating the bait. Maybe I'm a bit sadistic but few things have felt as satisfying as seeing them eat that stuff! I'll keep eyes out for dead ones although I've read a lot of people say they go down to their nests/tunnels to die. How long before most people see improvement? Tonight I'll also place bait boxes where the bigger ones can get it that can't get through all my hardware cloth. One was sitting under my picnic table and I think he gave me "the paw".

Great! So glad it went well and you could actually see them eating the poison -so you know they are receptive. As for one giving you the paw-what a cheeky little devil! Hoping to hear more success through the week!

 

[chickengr]

We recently adopted a 4 month kitten thru the humane society. It will live in the barn, where we have an insulated area, but for all intents, it will become more of an outdoor cat, and we hope a good mouser. Funny though, we called around to several humane societies, and various rescues after finding potential fits on their websites. It was a real challenge once I said that the cat would not live in our actual home, but described the situation, including cat having own bed, food, water, and comfy cage with loft, and with routine vet visits. Some of them were like "we will have to ask our board if we would even allow you to get a cat if its not going to live inside your actual home"...Wait, wat? A few people actually told me to lie, but I figured that if the adoption places knew our intent, they might say "this one is a better fit..." Oh well, cat adopted, clean vet report, spay scheduled, and she likes the outdoors and we've found one chewed up mouse (she might have just played with it, it wasn't eaten).

I had the same problem and never adopted a cat. someone would think God created cats to live in the house!

I started to feed cats that showed up at my property and luckily one gave birth here. I took care of the kittens and 2 of them stayed here. I still feed every single cat that comes here and this year 2 of them gave birth. as I feed them they are still here and the rats are gone. I used to have at least 10 rat nests around my chicken's run. they were here before I bought this property 4 yrs ago.

I think 1 cat will not be of much help. I have about 10 cats and I still see them catch a baby rat from time to time. but no more rat's poop in the chicken runs.

 

[Acre4Me]

I had the same problem and never adopted a cat. someone would think God created cats to live in the house!

I started to feed cats that showed up at my property and luckily one gave birth here. I took care of the kittens and 2 of them stayed here. I still feed every single cat that comes here and this year 2 of them gave birth. as I feed them they are still here and the rats are gone. I used to have at least 10 rat nests around my chicken's run. they were here before I bought this property 4 yrs ago.

I think 1 cat will not be of much help. I have about 10 cats and I still see them catch a baby rat from time to time. but no more rat's poop in the chicken runs.

That’s good that you were able to find some cats. My neighbors were adopted by a kitten that walked out of the neighboring corn field when they were out working in their yard. We aren’t expecting too much from 1 cat, but don’t have a big enough space or yard for 10 cats either! My youngest would love the possibility of 10 cats! We’ve had the kitten for 2 months, and she has acclimated well.