Rats!!!

[Bramble-Poultry]

we are trying ferrets this year! we can nail the swines when they are about ground, and we have a pair of working ferrets that we will send down after them. let you know how it works and if i end up with a falt cap and keep ferrets down trousers!!

[Hilary B]

We don't keep chickens (yet) but do get rats in the garden. Others have sugested a base of concrete slabs. I'm not sure that this will deter them. The rats in our garden make tunnels under our paving slabs (sometimes making them very uneven). I sometimes have to reset the slabs. What's really needed is a good few inches of poured concrete floor.

We have four cats, two of which are good ratters. I also, occasionaly, use an air rifle. However, eradicating one set of rats doesn't mean there isn't another set ready to move in.

We live in a small village surrounded by fields of grain. It is rat heaven.

Don't like using poisons for the reasons already stated by others. Do sometimes use traps but have to be careful where they are sited. Hate to imagine what damage they might do to an over inquisitive cats paw and the resultant vets bill.

The point to paving slabs is to prevent any 'direct access' from underground to the chookery.
I would always tend to use a cage-style rat-trap. I've had more than enough mice crippled, but not killed, by the traditional mousetrap (2), and the non-cage rat trap is just a larger version. I really don't think I could cope with a rat that had got caught the same way those mice were caught.
On a couple of occasions I have encountered a rat that had got itself in a space it couldn't get out of readily, on both occasions the poker was to hand...... A very effective (and satisfying) method, when opportunity presents!

[Eco-Chic]

Rats used to overwinter in my garden shed. There is a space under the floorboards that is well chewed and presumably the 'chewings' were to make nests. I think the rats came in small but got too large to exit as each Spring I removed up to half a dozen mummified rats. Last winter I left the door ajar and didn't have any undertaking duties this Spring.

My JRs despatched a rat a few weeks ago (Before Chooks) and left it on the path. As I didn't appear to have noticed it they moved it to the middle of the patio until due praise was given

I might investigate the stuff Bramble mentioned above (not the plaster of paris).

[Polly Fouracre]

Whippets!! They'll keep the little beggars under control. Also terriers, if you can put up with them.
I put rat bait in small drainage pipes, big enough for rats but too small for hedgehogs etc. I angle them into the hedge or fence where the rats seem to run.
My whippets though kill the adults then hunt out the nest , kill everything but don't attempt to eat them.

[Sue]

Hi
We have rats on the allotments, a combination of derelict sheds, compost bins and one chicken keeper whose run isn't secure. He has 20+ hens and doesn't get an egg from them...
I put weldmesh under my compost bin to stop them but when I turned the last lot of compost I could see there was a maze of tunnels underneath it and anyway they've just chewed their way through the plastic to get in (dalek types). If you have the square bins for weeds etc they use those to nest in.

When I can afford the £6.99 it costs and I'd really need two lots, I'm going to get some more Ratty Run which is a new eco-product that is supposed th "upset" them and make them move away. It stinks to high heaven of rotten garlic. It did seem to work ie no rats in compost bins when in use but of course once it rained back they'd come. Now hit on the brainwave of sprinkling it IN the compost bins (doh!).

We have at least 3 foxes earths on the allotments so would they eat rats and mice - got them as well.

I keep resisting calling the council, know it would be poison here there and everywhere if I did so reluctant to do it - and couldn't cope with the despatching of anything caught in live traps. Terriers not an option.

And I found a mummified mouse in my shed that had got tangled in some enviromesh, urggh.

Sue

[Eco-Chic]

I could cook for them if you want to collect Sue

[sqweek01]

Rat sculptures???????

You mean like this?

Rataholics Anonymous - Personal Rats

Sorry I couldn't resist!

Regards

Clare

[davefromthechipie]

Snadger I too hate using poison but its the only true way to get rid of them .I own a cal 22 rifle, 410 /dog lol /20 & 12 gauge and used to hunting yet them bloody rats & numbers I find its a lossing battle.( i gave up ) You can put/hide poison where cats,hedgehogs,chickens etc.. cant get to it .

If you see a rat daytime your probably infested with them
just make a small hole on an old pot ,wack 2 kg worth in it and your be rat free in 3 days

[shadegrow]

Has anyone heard of a noosky trap? Read about them on eBay and wondered had anyone tried one out? Curious as we ourselves have rat problems and even with our 4 whippets, all of whom love live bait, we can't seem to get rid of the rats.

[RichmondHens]

Yes we have tried a Noosky, with no success whatsoever. Looks like a good idea, but have caught zilch with it. Trap-wise, have had most success with either the old fashioned snappy traps (instant death) or a cage trap where they are caught live, and then you have to kill them by whatever means you choose. My OH shoots them through the cage bars.

[snakeshack]

I use metal traps (selfset) inthe garden and round the shed,I have placed a double layer of 13mm weldmesh under the chooky coopwith weed control fabric on top to stop rats coming up under the coop.I can't use poison as I feed the corpses to the snakes.
I put traps inside drainpipe so the dog/hedgehogs etc cant get to them.