When we moved to an idyllic 1864 built home way out in the stick in the mid 1990's that had been used as dog breeding kennels it was over run with rats & mice to the extent that you could see several a day . There was a pig farm almost a mile away , John had a mega problem , where the rats would watch him feed the pigs and then scamper down to the troughs to steal some feed .Currently bashing my head over a moderate infestation. Is in a shed so not the house.
They are reeally smart. Won't eat blue poison, some will eat red but with impunity.
Currently trying peanut butter. Wouldn't touch it for a week, despite being directly on a run/congregation area. Finally got them eating the peanut butter so trapped one youngster, now they'll only eat the butter if it's not on a trap.
Have, off the back of this thread, ordered glue traps. Would prefer a more instant kill but infestation needs curbing!
Any placement tips? Right on runs with bait on? Right below holes?
These rats are super neophobic so want the chance to catch as many as possible in the first go before they see their mates stuck and decide to give glue paper a wide berth.
In the mean time, am trying to get them hooked on more peanut butter.
Yea, I've done a rat poisons course needed in order to buy poison in any kind of quantities required.very much echos what you're saying. Now I've got at least some of the little fekkers finally eating peanut butter, should expand my options somewhat. Will see if the glue traps provide any luck and go from there.When we moved to an idyllic 1864 built home way out in the stick in the mid 1990's that had been used as dog breeding kennels it was over run with rats & mice to the extent that you could see several a day . There was a pig farm almost a mile away , John had a mega problem , where the rats would watch him feed the pigs and then scamper down to the troughs to steal some feed .
W started our vermin eradication programme inside the house and expanded the circle perimeter every three weeks or so till after two years we'd got a couple of dozen bait statins on the perimeter of our 1.2 acres .
ICI used to have a brilliant rat removal leaflet .
Rats like to follow boundaries and places where their body can touch two or three surfaces such as along the side of a wall they use their whiskers & sound to detect the surfaces .. a solid surface to one side or left , right & above give them a great sense of security Make a simple mtr long tunnel or tube ( 3" round or square drain pipe ) trap run , put a 2 inch hole in the middle so you can load an initial feed & add new bait without disturbing things and adding new scents to the trap .
Make a sensible cover for the hole one that can be easily removed such as some guttering screwed to a foot long stick ..so you don't put new scent near the trap .
Place the bait tube , wooden tunnel along side the wall where you can see rat droppings . IIRC you can use a UV torch at night , I think you'll be able to see their urine drips under the UV light glow back at you .
Put a couple of big bricks in a letter U about 55 mm or so from the ends of the tube tunnel to stop other creatures like hedgehogs getting in . Anchor or weigh down the tube, tunnel to the floor so it does not move .
Give the trap an initial charge of a mixed paste of peanut butter & cocoa powder , leave it for four days check the trap if the bait has been eaten , replace the bait and again check it for consumption but this time do it at day two .
It it's all gone add the rat poison to the bait mix . (I used to use Neo Sorexin CD rat killer neat and Dratt , 1/4 litre corn oil , 25 kg of mixed small bird seed and a bucket of wheat mixed up in a cement mixer ..... told you we had a big rat problem .
( Dratt is or was a poisons register item ) .
Check it in a couple of days to see if it has been eaten , if so refill the trap and replenish till it is no longer being eaten . If it is still being eaten after a month use a different poison as they may have a resistance to the earlier one .
I've also used a two litre pop bottle with the end cut off to make a funnel to pour several Kg of bait poisoned with Dratt down holes adjacent to walls or tree roots then covered the hole with some paving slabs but still leave rats & mice access to the filled hole .
We had two cats and my Goldie gun dog .. they some time caught a rat but never ate them , but once when our big cat was acting a bit torpid we took him to the vet for a shot of vitamin K just incase he'd eaten any poisoned rat/ mice . The vet gave him the shot just incase & informed us that he'd got a tooth problem that required a broken tooth removing .
I wouldn’t go advertising this if I were youWE had a cheeky bugger sitting on the fence watching everything, one shot got him but stray pellets took out the neighbours shed window.
When we first moved to the out in the sticks1864 ex railway gate keepers house to set up our the small mammal farm on an old kennels site at the property I cut several 1.25 inch holes the upstairs floorboards near corners and poured 1/3 cup scoop of Dratt treated home made poison mix in each hole & screwed a bean tin lid over the holes to close them off . A couple of years later it was a bit of a shock to find loads of dehydrated rat & mice corpses under the floor boards when I did a rewire . Found they'd chewed the insulation off the lighting circuit . All 30 amp ring cables in dozens of places , event to having had a chew on the copper conductors of the cooker supply .we get rat problems now and again on the farm, our local pest controller guy puts down poison and the problem seems to go away for 6 months or so.
Our cats are great against mice, but they're no good for rats
We used to have mice problems in the house too - they'd nest under the floorboards beside the hot water cylinder and die there. Nice smell in the house for a week or so until they decomposed enough.
The ultrasonic plug-in things seem to work really well in our outbuildings, which are full of perishable canvas and cloth. Rarely have problems up there any more.