Best rat bait

[FarmerD89]

Evening all, the better half is having an issue with rats I’ve been trying to use BASF storm poison and a generic paste bait in plastic bags they’re just ignoring it, they’ve bait stations next to their holes. The rats are getting that bold they’re asking you the time on the way past. I’ve shot a dozen with the air gun but I don’t think I’m winning. You can put food out in duck feeders and it’s like ringing a dinner bell. Issue is you only get one and then it’s an hour before they resurface. Can anyone recommend something that will work,
Regards D

 

[JSmith]

Can’t think of the name but it’s a pink paste like substance in a thin paper case, you’ll sweep them up! Can buy in 5kg box

 

[FarmerD89]

Can’t think of the name but it’s a pink paste like substance in a thin paper case, you’ll sweep them up! Can buy in 5kg box

The stuff I’ve got is blue plasticine texture in plastic bags. I’ve not got my vermin certification so I’m having to source from other places the small packets 150g seems like home gamer style stuff. The basf storm is first feed kill.

 

[JSmith]

I’ll have a look in the morning it’s good tack, it did used to be blue but they changed it, it’s in paper though about table spoon size an squidgy paste!! Not plastic! I had some small box of green grain based sh1tter an it was like cocaine to them, they loved it, didn’t touch them!!

 

[FarmerD89]

Be nice to wipe them out they’re amongst her beloved pet ducks so can’t risk any risk of them getting a dose.

 

[JSmith]

You can stick them on a wire an secure it to something they can’t move, find where they’re travelling outside the ducks an poison there! Dont want daffy doing the dying duck dance after a dose of pink sherbert

 

[Steevo]

I just use bog standard bromadiolone whole wheat loose grain bait. On an arable farm whole grain bait will always work better for ratthan pasta or blocks etc imo as it’s what they are used to finding in the fields or odd bits spilt in the yard.
Works well and at £35/20kg pretty reasonably priced too. Never use anything big name branded.

It helps keeping other food sources limited if you can, and also reducing muddles about the place for them to hide in.

Would be worth putting some poison down the holes and filling them. Keep doing it day after day until they stop digging it out again. Putting a plastic bait station next to a hole and expecting them to feed just won’t work at all as it’s so unnatural to them.

 

[Steevo]

Be nice to wipe them out they’re amongst her beloved pet ducks so can’t risk any risk of them getting a dose.

Not sure if this will work for ducks but these are very handy for chickens to stop other animals getting to the feed.

Grandpa's Feeders Automatic Chook Feeders

Buy the original automatic chicken feeder. We deliver the best quality available in the market and back it up with a 24-month money-back guarantee.

www.grandpasfeeders.com

 

[Andrew1983]

Have them in my workshop area which has a pile of feed next to it, population exploded in the last few days, have poison down but they don’t seem to be touching it. Planning to take out everything they are using for cover tomorrow but fear they will flit to the straw shed where they could get seriously out of hand. Best to get on top of them before that happens..... What can I do to get them eating poison?

 

[JSmith]

 

[FarmerD89]

ive got pee'd off and gone and done my Lantra online rodent certificate so i know abit more about how i can legally control them, ive gone and bought some Benzoate and brodifacoum bait, but im not entirely convinced theyre eating it, theyre going through small bales of straw biting all the bloody strings and its frustrating. Ive put three types of bait out stuffing it down their burrow entrances and then back filling over it so they have to encounter it before they dig out, but the next morning i go out theyve dug a new way in and out, just defeating the object. Plan B is the compact tractor and a steel flexible pipe for an hour.

 

[spin cycle]

Evening all, the better half is having an issue with rats I’ve been trying to use BASF storm poison and a generic paste bait in plastic bags they’re just ignoring it, they’ve bait stations next to their holes. The rats are getting that bold they’re asking you the time on the way past. I’ve shot a dozen with the air gun but I don’t think I’m winning. You can put food out in duck feeders and it’s like ringing a dinner bell. Issue is you only get one and then it’s an hour before they resurface. Can anyone recommend something that will work,
Regards D

could the bait stations be the problem?....these clean black plastic stations look good but i think they're to clean/clinical and they move if a rat tries to get in....i made wooden boxes....put some straw in them and after a while after some ratty visitors they get drawn to them IME.....i just use standard red or blue poisons from mole

 

[Newguy]

could the bait stations be the problem?....these clean black plastic stations look good but i think they're to clean/clinical and they move if a rat tries to get in....i made wooden boxes....put some straw in them and after a while after some ratty visitors they get drawn to them IME.....i just use standard red or blue poisons from mole

Wooden boxes with straw works a treat. I do still use the plastic ones, because they do work, just not unless you put it out in anticipation of problems. Otherwise it is something new and suspicious and unnatural to them.

 

[Bury the Trash]

gun, ir / camera nitesite working quite well here,atm definatley will clear up bait hy ones i should think. anyone else bought and using them goodnature ones lately ?

 

[Smith31]

Cats

 

[Steevo]

Have them in my workshop area which has a pile of feed next to it, population exploded in the last few days, have poison down but they don’t seem to be touching it. Planning to take out everything they are using for cover tomorrow but fear they will flit to the straw shed where they could get seriously out of hand. Best to get on top of them before that happens..... What can I do to get them eating poison?

Rat psychology is your friend - start thinking like a rat.

It's hard to persuade them to eat a "foreign" food of poison when they have an abundant supply of food they are already enjoying. If a child was enjoying eating a pile of chocolates, it would be really hard to convince them to eat a cucumber just because you want them to. What poison are you using @Andrew1983 ? I find the rats that visit my arable farm will happily eat grain based baits, but some free wax blocks I was given on my rat baiting course are utterly useless and they won't touch them. Not surprising when you think about it. A bit like many of us Brits when we go abroad and like to enjoy a full English breakfast rather than a bread roll and some cheese.

The best option is make it easier or more attractive in some ways - they are lazy just like any other creature. Find the burrows, place poison down the entrance and fill it in. Perhaps even mix some feed similar to the feed they are enjoying into it to make it seem similar to what they are already enjoying. Come back the next day and if it's been opened out do the same again. Keep feeding them. It takes several days to eat a toxic dose, and even once they have digested it, they will continue feeding whilst it works through their system. They won't die straight away. Keep going and then one day you will get there and the burrow won't have been opened out again.

Removing all cover will help a lot. They thrive on mess and muddles.

If they move to the straw shed, they'll probably still use the same path each day to keep feeding from the feed shed. Placing poison along this route might help too.

Rats are very suspicious of anything new so its unlikely they will eat bait put down straight away unless they really want to.

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

ive got pee'd off and gone and done my Lantra online rodent certificate so i know abit more about how i can legally control them, ive gone and bought some Benzoate and brodifacoum bait, but im not entirely convinced theyre eating it, theyre going through small bales of straw biting all the bloody strings and its frustrating. Ive put three types of bait out stuffing it down their burrow entrances and then back filling over it so they have to encounter it before they dig out, but the next morning i go out theyve dug a new way in and out, just defeating the object. Plan B is the compact tractor and a steel flexible pipe for an hour.

My daughter assures me that rats acquire a taste for something by smelling each others breath (her experience is in a laboratory, but I think its has a ring of truth about it for our situation) so once n starts eating the others will follow, which was why warfarin was good because they could all get used to eating it, then die.
Ive got some in the boiler shed roof, blighters raked out all the insulation fro round the chimney, luxury warm accommodation.

 

[Steevo]

could the bait stations be the problem?....these clean black plastic stations look good but i think they're to clean/clinical and they move if a rat tries to get in....i made wooden boxes....put some straw in them and after a while after some ratty visitors they get drawn to them IME.....i just use standard red or blue poisons from mole

Wooden boxes with straw works a treat. I do still use the plastic ones, because they do work, just not unless you put it out in anticipation of problems. Otherwise it is something new and suspicious and unnatural to them.

Spot on!

I always use bait stations like this because they are so easy to use.

Came to top one up yesterday and found a dead mouse wedged inside along with a load of shredded straw/plastic etc. Seems he decided to make his own nest in there next to the food source!

A brand new shiny one won't work straight away though - best to put them down months in advance so they get dusty, and lose their plastic smell and just blend in as part of the environment.


P.S remember that the dye on the poison means nothing at all - the same poison can be different colours, and different poisons can be the same colour. It's just a dyed attractant coated on the grain.

 

[Steevo]

gun, ir / camera nitesite working quite well here,atm definatley will clear up bait hy ones i should think. anyone else bought and using them goodnature ones lately ?

@Clive was trialling one before Christmas I believe.

 

[harrow]

You know to wear gloves so you don't leave human sent on the bait ?