Rodent Control in Hampshire

[LouLaw]

Dear all,
My apologies in advance for my random approach but I’m getting a bit desperate now and I’m not sure where to go from here.
We are not farmers but we keep poultry (chickens and quail) as do some of our neighbours. We are in Hampshire. When we started keeping poultry we anticipated the associated visits from the rodents and budgeted accordingly. All the feed is stored in steel containers and the feed box is operated by the chickens weight. The quail is in rodent proof housing. I completed my Rodent Control on Farms Certificate (also handy for work) just before Christmas which coincided with local flooding and a new set of brown rats moving into the area behind the garage. I managed that quite quickly using Brodifacoum wax and bait boxes. They were gone completely in 3 weeks which we could prove with trail cameras. After a further week, we removed the bait boxes. At the end of March this year a new set of brown rats (one with one eye and one with a limp) moved into the wood store. They didn’t touch the Brodifacoum so I bought some Difenaq Wheat Bait. They loved it. The two injured rats disappeared after 2 or 3 days and have been replaced by entire families of brown rats who are now bringing their offspring to feed at the lovely wheat trough in the wood shed. Have i been recolonised or are they immune to the bait and I’m just fattening up brown rats and making the problem worse. Sorry this is such a long post but best to tell the whole story. Any advice happily received. Thank you in advance.

 

[topground]

You should consider rat populations like the reverse of ripples from a stone dropped in pond. As you kill the dominant rats on your holding who had control of the food and shelter, the less dominant rats move in and so on and so on.As long as you provide food and shelter you will always have the risk of rats moving in.
The best you can do is to make the site less attractive and getting poultry housing up off the floor and removing food at night or feeding from rodent proof hoppers where the weight of the bird activates food access is probably the best you can do.

 

[CopperBeech]

Where in Hampshire ? I kill a lot of rats.

 

[LouLaw]

Thank you for your reply Topground. In your opinion is this a recolonisation by another band of rodents then? I’m already doing all the other things and they seem to be really enjoying eating the poison but the population isn’t going down. Should I continue to feed them poison or will they just get fatter and beget?

Thank you for your reply Copperbeech, but I think my neighbours would object to your faithful friends sorting out the problem (they’re quite judgemental for townies).

 

[topground]

A fresh infestation. I find wheat based baits more effective then blocks because they don’t carry them away, If you are seeing very much younger rats on your trail cam it might mean you have dealt with the parents. You will have to keep at it and maintain permanent bait stations despite what they might have told you on the course. Any signs of rats in your rodent proof quail pens?

 

[LouLaw]

Thanks again. I’ll stay on it. The quail are safe as they’re in rat proof hutches, 2 feet off the ground. There’s also no evidence that they visit the chicken coop (trail cam). They just occupy the woodshed. We have the weight operated feeding stations for the birds and we sweep up the debris before night fall so no temptation there.

Thanks again for taking the time to give me some guidance. I’ll routinely change the bait ingredient in the bait boxes and make them a permanent feature (although these blighters haven’t touched a bait box yet), despite what they say on the course and keep on the wheat bait. I think I’ll try for another 21 days and then tell CRRU that brown rats are immune to this type of Anticoagulant. That will mean 7 weeks in total.

Then I might try the vitamin D poison and mix it in with the wheat bait that they so clearly love.

Thank you for your time. Wish me luck.

Lou

 

[Cranman]

Thank you for your reply Copperbeech, but I think my neighbours would object to your faithful friends sorting out the problem (they’re quite judgemental for townies).

Circumstances will determine what method you use.
On what grounds would your towny neighbours object to terriers? presumably they are happy that you kill your rats. With all the fuss currently concerning the environment and animal rights, why would they favour killing rats slowly and painfully with poison over a swift death by terrier?
Why are they happier that you use poisons that have the potential to get into the food chain, affecting the wider environment? The residues left by terriers can easily be put in a little green bag and hung in a tree on a nearby farm although they are a natural plant food.
Dogs have been used to control rats for hundreds if not thousands of years, so far there is no evidence of rats developing terrier-resistance. Rats are constantly evolving resistance to poisons.

 

[Trev91]

Dear all,
My apologies in advance for my random approach but I’m getting a bit desperate now and I’m not sure where to go from here.
We are not farmers but we keep poultry (chickens and quail) as do some of our neighbours. We are in Hampshire. When we started keeping poultry we anticipated the associated visits from the rodents and budgeted accordingly. All the feed is stored in steel containers and the feed box is operated by the chickens weight. The quail is in rodent proof housing. I completed my Rodent Control on Farms Certificate (also handy for work) just before Christmas which coincided with local flooding and a new set of brown rats moving into the area behind the garage. I managed that quite quickly using Brodifacoum wax and bait boxes. They were gone completely in 3 weeks which we could prove with trail cameras. After a further week, we removed the bait boxes. At the end of March this year a new set of brown rats (one with one eye and one with a limp) moved into the wood store. They didn’t touch the Brodifacoum so I bought some Difenaq Wheat Bait. They loved it. The two injured rats disappeared after 2 or 3 days and have been replaced by entire families of brown rats who are now bringing their offspring to feed at the lovely wheat trough in the wood shed. Have i been recolonised or are they immune to the bait and I’m just fattening up brown rats and making the problem worse. Sorry this is such a long post but best to tell the whole story. Any advice happily received. Thank you in advance.

Dear all,
My apologies in advance for my random approach but I’m getting a bit desperate now and I’m not sure where to go from here.
We are not farmers but we keep poultry (chickens and quail) as do some of our neighbours. We are in Hampshire. When we started keeping poultry we anticipated the associated visits from the rodents and budgeted accordingly. All the feed is stored in steel containers and the feed box is operated by the chickens weight. The quail is in rodent proof housing. I completed my Rodent Control on Farms Certificate (also handy for work) just before Christmas which coincided with local flooding and a new set of brown rats moving into the area behind the garage. I managed that quite quickly using Brodifacoum wax and bait boxes. They were gone completely in 3 weeks which we could prove with trail cameras. After a further week, we removed the bait boxes. At the end of March this year a new set of brown rats (one with one eye and one with a limp) moved into the wood store. They didn’t touch the Brodifacoum so I bought some Difenaq Wheat Bait. They loved it. The two injured rats disappeared after 2 or 3 days and have been replaced by entire families of brown rats who are now bringing their offspring to feed at the lovely wheat trough in the wood shed. Have i been recolonised or are they immune to the bait and I’m just fattening up brown rats and making the problem worse. Sorry this is such a long post but best to tell the whole story. Any advice happily received. Thank you in advance.

Hi LouLaw
I do pest control for a number of farms near Reading and would be more that happy to take a look, we shoot them and have night vision and scoped rifles which does help keep the numbers down.
All free of charge of course, I actually enjoy it, if you are interested drop me a message 07971083234 Regards Trevor

 

[Dry Rot]

Cured the rat problem here by simply removing their groceries. Your rats must be finding food somewhere. I simply stopped feeding poultry via self feed hoppers and fed to appetitie by hand. It is now so rat free that I have started the hoppers again. If the rats return, it will be back to hand feeding.

BTW, as is well known, 'scout' rats lay down trails which the later incomers follow. The trick is to have the traps down before the scouts arrrive so they get caught before they have a chance to leave trails.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

my daughter used to work as a pest controller, and she told me, first thing is remove any water sources and tidy up places where they could live/hide