Can't get rid of rats

nelly55

Member
Location
Yorkshire
All our farm cats have either got lazy, or something as although there's plenty of cats and they are well fed, there are still a lot of rats about too.
Ours are real hunters even though they are fed twice a day,I was always told a hungry cat won't hunt.At times I wish I could video them they hunt As a team 4 or 5 together nothing gets past them.Yet you never seen them get birds or even hunting them.Someone has dumped a lovely cat all it wants to do is sit by the fire ,they are either born with the hunting instinct or live life as a pet.
 

fermerboy

Member
Location
Banffshire
Hunting cats are a big help.
My mother had a big neutered Tom cat, soft as hell, loved in the house getting petted, spoiled rotten, but what a killing machine!
Rats, mice, rabbits, weasels, moles, pheasnts, hares, nothing was safe. He just enjoyed killing stuff!
Long gone now though.
 

Sonny

New Member
Tried rat poison (cubes and pellets), they still come back everytime. It seems like there is a never ending chain of them. Any tips?
I can finally sleep!!!! I live in California Redwoods near beach. My home is 65 yo renovated. Picture a long house with a flat fired on roof framed with 2,000 yo Redwood finished with exterior painted panelling; a cottage with a crawl space underneath. The water table is 12" so water percolates up Jan-April. There are blackberries and home gardens. Critters only need a dry space. No problems the first 2 years. Then an elderly disabled fisherman moved next door who thinks sticky traps and rats are natural. I tried every no kill method but could hear them multiply in my ceilings and walls. I only had 1 inside I could see thanks to my beagle. I found a fuzzy dog toy drug behind the fridge. The chewing noises at night kept me awake for 2 weeks. The worst was an exterior TV cable pulled out with a 12"x12" hole outside, just the cable hole inside so clearly it or they made an entrance into the walls and crawl space below. Rushing thru the ceiling over my bed I used a million volt tazer chasing them out somewhere on to the roof. The noise finally was as if they were moving in furniture and slamming doors. I lost it Friday. In a few hours joyous silence. Racoons, opposums, rats or mice can still dig to get under the house and chew to enter. However, the existing rodents are gone or dead. Dead is better than chewing my house, electrical and appliances. Dead is better than reproducing. My 4 bdrm 2ba house had scratching violently end to end, top to bottom and 2 sheds. I bought a bag of green bait blocks and filled the stations AGAIN. There wasn't a morsel left in the boxes, but this time I made bait bombs. Before sunset I slipped on dispoable gloves. I then slipped on small sandwich bags (as you would to pick up dog poo). I swished the bags inside a nearly empty peanut butter jar just enough to act as fragrance and glue but none to eat then turned inside out. In each bag I put two bait blocks rubbing the bag to get the peant fragrance stuck on them. I threw 2 bags on the roof at each end. I put 2 bait blocks in the wall behind the washer where the drain tube goes. I put bait blocks in the holes they chewed. Aisle 4 at Home Depot I got stick-on stainless steel wall patch and puttied over holes filled with bait blocks. I actually heard the banging in the wall and the slurping from 8pm to 11pm then golden silence. This is the 2nd night of silence. The bait locations are such that they eat it outdoors such as on the roof, not in the roof. The one that is down the washer wall is central. The animal may not make it outside and die under the house. Any odor will help me locate a dead thing under the house. It was impossible to remove anything alive. I work with a cat rescue. Fishermen keep cats in the harbor to keep rodents off the boats. I brought 2 home. Some volunteers may have 10 to 30 cats at home and still get rats. The cats can't get in the walls, under the house nor on the roof. I believe the miracle of only 3 hours from baiting to silence is because the rodents weren't feeding here. I'm a clean freak. Not one morsel on my property for rodents to eat. They came here to nest. From 11pm to 4 am they would leave to find food which is easy reach to all my neighbors dog and cat food and wild berries. I will go to poison first sound I hear, not messing with snap traps, and all the other stuff while they destroy my property.
 

Crowfarmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Sussex
The A24 goodnature trap looks interesting, captive bolt running of a 16g co2 bulb. Supposedly kills 24 before a new bulb is needed, i wonder if with a bit of modification you could run it from a 1kg disposable welding bottle.
 
Agree with this. I was getting over-run on my chicken sites and it was getting me down. Didn't want to do poison as we have massive amounts of tawnys and a few barn owls about too in the valley. So I invested in a night vision scope for Dad's air rifle and my god did I shoot some rats. To the point where I struggle to get any sport these days. There were other bits. I bought a silencer and mag kit for his S200 but a decent springer (Cometa 400S from MVF) with an NV scope will do an awful lot of damage to populations and provide a lot of sport at the same time.
.
Kudos for thinking about the owls, respect. Some of the "poisons" would have been fine like bromadiolone and difenocoum though. Its brodifacoum and flocoumafen that have S.G.A.R issues.
Like you say, there are some good lads out there who are chomping at the bit to shoot rats and do a sterling job as well. Plus the lads with terriers.
 

Kaitlan

New Member
Save yourself some money and try a 5-Gallon Water Bucket Rat Trap
These things catch sh** loads of rats

mouse-roller-with-mice-trapped-300x126.jpg


Tools needed
  1. 5-Gallon Bucket
  2. 1/2″ PVC Pipe
  3. 1/2″ PVC Pipe Caps
  4. Screws
  5. Drill Bits
  6. Cordless Drill Or Corded Drill
  7. Some Reese’s peanut butter cups or plain Peanut butter.
Building the DIY bucket trap
1.
The First Step is to measure the width of the top of the 5-gallon bucket trap. Minus two inches from your measurement, then mark the new total of your measurement on the PVC pipe.

2. Cut the PVC pipe to the length of your measurement, then insert the PVC end caps. Ensure that the PVC pipe fits between the sides within the top of 5-gallon bucket trap. There should be a small gap on each side of the PVC pipe so it can spin freely once on its “screw axes”

3. Now mark a drill point on the center of each PVC Pipe Cap.

4. Use a drill with a small drill bit to drill a pilot hole into the center marks on the PVC pipe caps.

5. Now use a Sharpy to mark two drill points straight across from each other on opposite sides of the Bucket trap. These drill points should be located around one inch down from the top rim of the bucket.

6. Drill out the marked holes in the bucket with a Drill Bit that is big enough to fit your Screws, but still small enough so that the larger end of the Screw cannot fit through.

Note this info came from howzak.com's DIY Rat Removal post
 

GTB

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
So I'm told, never tried it myself but someone I know is overrun with them cos they get rid of rats, I'd assume one would be as bad as the other myself!
A friend of mine had a lot of rats on his farm at one time. A lad that helped him had a barsteward of a ferret that he couldn't control so they set it free on the farm. The ferret was never seen again but there were no rats or rabbits on that farm for years afterwards. (y)
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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