Preventing Rats/Mice from causing havoc with stored combines / self propelled forage harvesters etc
- Thread starter Pilatus
- Start date
Speedstar
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders
Is it not best the kill all the rats off on the farm , get a good man in and you will have none to get in your combine
startinghandle
Member
50/50 plaster of Paris and whole meal flour mixed with a packet of cupasoup for a good smell but keep dry .. guaranteed to kill rats
- Location
- norfolk
Hoover all the grain out, then strip guards off, leave panels open. Also run it up every couple of weeks
Pistonbroke
Member
Some modern wire insulation has a plant based ingredient in it that makes it taste nice to them 🫣. Idiots
Our combine doesn’t have its own dedicated shed so always gets moved from pillar to post throughout winter which I’m sure helps
- Location
- norfolk
Yep definitely helps giving them a run up now and then
Right-arm fast
Member
We keep our combine and header in the grainstore. Rats are only in the grainstore to eat so don't tend to get in the machines. As soon as we park them in an area without a food source they have caused problems with most things with any wiring on. We tend to get on top of the rat population by the end of October round the stores aswell, which will help i suppose. I dont know if it was just us but the rats took some killing last winter/spring.
Need a big boss rat to keep the others away, mice will disappear as well!
Where is the best place to get one of them
Where is the best place to get one of them
I'd lend you mine but the mice would all come back.
You could try Rentokill.
I know of one farmer who surrounds his combine with 600mm strips of flexible steel sheet which forms a continuous vermin proof wall on a dead flat concrete floor. I was astonished when I first saw it TBH.
Do vertually the same good blow down and hoover out all i can panels off to let light in but i just use oil as diesel can do damage to paint work . oil inside and any access points like wheels axles etc and i tie the elevator flaps up a bit so the don,t act like stepping stones if they hang right down and a couple of packets of mothballs in cab engine bay etc also coat any wiring looms with oil that i can get to .
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
Posted this a couple of times in the past.
Drill and Baler just about squeeze in as well.
Didn't use it last year, as a good set of cats; a good tidy up; less grub about has transformed the place.
V rarely see a rat.
It's amazing how much difference a few cats make. Leave the big doors open a pinch so cats can freely roam in and out of sheds and do their thing.
A bit off topic, but do you lot have the anti-cat brigade/bird lovers/tree huggers going around destroying cats or is that just an NZ thing?
There used to be heaps of cats around here, sadly as neighbouring farms got subdivided for housing and the weirdos slowly moved in, the cats have all but disappeared.
A bit off topic, but do you lot have the anti-cat brigade/bird lovers/tree huggers going around destroying cats or is that just an NZ thing?
There used to be heaps of cats around here, sadly as neighbouring farms got subdivided for housing and the weirdos slowly moved in, the cats have all but disappeared.
kiwi pom
Member
- Location
- canterbury NZ
A good clean down of the machine and a tidy farm with a good pest control system is about all you can do.
Try not to give them any more places to live and feed than you have to.
I'm the self-appointed chairman of the anti-cat brigade in NZ. Feckin things, if you must have them roaming round killing birds at least keep them on your own property.
I am a townie though.
Try not to give them any more places to live and feed than you have to.
I'm the self-appointed chairman of the anti-cat brigade in NZ. Feckin things, if you must have them roaming round killing birds at least keep them on your own property.
I am a townie though.
- Location
- SW Scotland
Yes this works well with the added advantage the oil keeps rust at bay. I add some diesel to the oil to thin it a bit and help it creep further into the hard to reach places. Doesn't bother the paint but it's over 40 years old. Built when paint was paint. Not the flaky rubbish they use nowadays.
And the smartarses who say just kill the rats have clearly never had to deal with a sudden invasion. They can still do a lot of damage before they all succumb to the bait.
Expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for farmers published
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From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024
Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...
From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024
Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...