RATS!

[Damascus]

I get rats in the garden mainly from the local fields, I use a brick, tie stale bread to it and sit n wait!
The brick being to heavy for them to move hard stale bread can’t be removed so they feed there, a nice stationary target and proved very effective over the years!

 

[C_Claycomb]

There were a small but unknown number of rats around my mum’s bird feeders earlier this year. Got a snap trap from B&Q, which proved too stiff for my mum to set. Since we have a cat and the birds, I built a box to put the trap in. The mice loved it….crapped and peed all over it. Caught two or three mice, no rats.

 

[mrmike]

Rat number six today in a week. I set the trap that my gardener found after it went missing a few weeks ago, and it was sprung before I could wash my hands and boil a kettle for a cuppa.
This despite two bait traps being used as the only alternative I could buy in the range, a few weeks ago. I'm almost out of bait, having bought two boxes, and it seems to have made no difference. Snaps are the only effective means. It seems.
I've managed to get a second hand no 4, but the mechanism is too strong for my puny hands, and I've been warned its a complete beast and finger breaker!

Can I ask what type of bait you are putting in the bait boxes? (Grain/block/pasta)

 

[Woody girl]

Can I ask what type of bait you are putting in the bait boxes? (Grain/block/pasta)

Peanut butter works a treat on the snaps, kill every time. but I was using the blue blocks in the bait boxes. Seemed to not work with them still around after the bait blocks eaten and being rebated.
Either I've got a serious problem and I'm over run or the blue bait isn't working.
I'm leaning towards the blue bait not working.
I'm even seeing them during the day now.
No food or water available.
Dug the compost through and eliminated all long grass and weedy areas.
Bagged some second hand storage shelves for all my tools and other outdoor stuff. Tidied that all up. Nice and neat, no hidy holes.
Blocked up the drainage with 2 layers of chicken wire, so they can't get in or out of that.
Snaps and peanut butter is the only effective method here in my little garden.
Hate the little b*****s
Hate dealing with the bodies.
Hate killing them.
No choice, have to get rid of all vermin! Nasty disease ridden, thieving(had my two best strawberry before I could) dirty brown rats! Yuk!
Phew! Rant over!
I'll go make a cuppa now.

 

[C_Claycomb]

 

[mrmike]

Peanut butter works a treat on the snaps, kill every time. but I was using the blue blocks in the bait boxes. Seemed to not work with them still around after the bait blocks eaten and being rebated.
Either I've got a serious problem and I'm over run or the blue bait isn't working.
I'm leaning towards the blue bait not working.
I'm even seeing them during the day now.
No food or water available.
Dug the compost through and eliminated all long grass and weedy areas.
Bagged some second hand storage shelves for all my tools and other outdoor stuff. Tidied that all up. Nice and neat, no hidy holes.
Blocked up the drainage with 2 layers of chicken wire, so they can't get in or out of that.
Snaps and peanut butter is the only effective method here in my little garden.
Hate the little b*****s
Hate dealing with the bodies.
Hate killing them.
No choice, have to get rid of all vermin! Nasty disease ridden, thieving(had my two best strawberry before I could) dirty brown rats! Yuk!
Phew! Rant over!
I'll go make a cuppa now.

Pretty much all the poison is going to be blue, it's one of the ways to tell it is poison.
Grain bait is terrible as the rats just take it away and stash it without eating it.
Is the block bait secured inside the bait box? You can usually put the blocks on a wire tent peg type affair to force the rodents to eat it.
Can use the same to secure the paste sachets of bait. Anything to stop them taking it away and stashing it instead of eating it.

Can also try changing to a poison with a different active ingredient than you are currently using as rats may build a tolerance.
The biggest issue is that all the really effective poisons have changed since I did rodent control course 20 years ago, but the ones readily available to the public are still the same watered down rubbish!

Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here....

 

[CountrysideWanderer]

You might be able to find someone with a nice quiet pcp and night vision , if the area is suitable for air rifle shooting ..............
All that usually means is that an angle can be found where pellets have no chance of leaving boundary and a safe backstop (like the ground, a woodpile etc)
I've 'shot out' the rats numerous times around my chickens over the years, it does work
I've also 'buried' a couple of sachets of amazon rat poison under the coop in areas of rat disturbance where nothing else (living)can get in, and then sealed off as well, as I do not like using poisons due to risks of it migrating through the food chain.

 

[Woody girl]

I do have a n8ce little pop pop, but unfortunately neighbours are very close and also public footpath up side of garden. No way can I be legally using it within my little garden boundary.
If i could be legal, I'd be doing it.
The snaps are slow, but effective. I had about 13 in a couple of days not long ago.
Plus, I don't have to sit out in the cold and wet waiting for an opportunity to despatch the blighters. I just check the snaps every hour or so, and first thing in the morning.

 

[Silverclaws2]

Of no help I know but maybe of general interest: a company I used to work for a tunnelling and pipe laying company had it's own on the payroll ' ratter. ' His job was obviously disposing of rats of which because of leptospirosis presented a problem to the workforce. Where he was called out to a job I was on once to deal with the rat problem for myself to take interest given my own interest at the time, my interest being air guns to rather admire his monstrous great breech loading company supplied Weirhrauch complete with tripod arrangement.

His method consisted of lobbing a chopped turnip down in the hole to coax a rat out whereupon the Weihrauch made a right old mess of the thing, blood and guts everywhere for the rest to come and feast for the air gunner to enjoy themselves for the rest of the day blowing rats apart for myself to learn the blood and guts was the coax, they couldn't help themselves but to come out and feast and yes after the ratter had been and gone we didn't see evidence of rats for a while.

Later in my working career a job that came my way often was to ruin new Stihl chainsaw motors by causing them to run rich and braze on extensions to exhaust pipes for the fitment of hoses to be used in ratting and yes the ratters had dogs.

 

[Woody girl]

Found a new entry exit point in use. I blocked these up with chicken wire last spring, as I knew the critters were using them. They must be getting into the pipe from elsewhere. Dammed if I know where.
Also discovered a rat hole next to the fence. Obviously in use. I had let the grass grow in this one small area fir no mow may. Cutting the grass(with scissors!..don't ask!)
I found this ... petrol and a match?

 

[Toddy]

You know that if you mix ordinary bleach and vinegar, or bleach and ammonia, it will create a very toxic liquid which will give off gas.....don't breath it in, but poured down that run and bunged up with a turf, well.....you're just cleaning, aren't you ?

 

[Woody girl]

Got my gardener coming Thursday. Was going to dig this up and make it a wildflower garden. It's the other side of the wall, just outside my back door, and next to the back gate.
I'll finish the cutting tomorrow if blisters allow, and see if I can find any more holes.
Then I'll try your bleach idea.
Then it gets dug up and made into a flower /herb bed.!

 

[Woody girl]

Well, the burrow is gone. Now the blighter is running about in broad daylight, refusing to leave, and trying to hide my bait boxes and traps. Last night he sprung the best snap, and ate the peanut butter, and dragged the snap into the coal storage area. I had a job to get it out this morning. He seems to like the big patch of day lilies as a hidy hole too. I watched him run into it last night when I disturbed him digging in my tomato plant pot.!!!
Immune to bait, and able to sabotage my traps. Can't use the pop pop due to neighbours and public footpath. Plus he's damm quick..more than me!
I just can't persuade the blighter to leave.
It's war!

 

[HorseGuy]

Immune to bait, and able to sabotage my traps. Can't use the pop pop due to neighbours and public footpath. Plus he's damm quick..more than me!
I just can't persuade the blighter to leave.
It's war!

You're starting to sound like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

 

[Mandelised]

Found a new entry exit point in use. I blocked these up with chicken wire last spring, as I knew the critters were using them.View attachment 103460 They must be getting into the pipe from elsewhere. Dammed if I know where.
Also discovered a rat hole next to the fence. Obviously in use. I had let the grass grow in this one small area fir no mow may. Cutting the grass(with scissors!..don't ask!)
I found this ... petrol and a match?

View attachment 103461

Place kitche towel in the hole first, then the schickjen wire and wire wool, add some spray foam. If you see shredded kitchen towel you know they got through

 

[Mandelised]

These work really well

and are not indiscriminate like poison which accumulates in slugs etc and the rats may be immune to. Please note some Rats and Mice have evolved to see bait boxes and snap traps as predators this is hereditary just like snakes and raptors and they actively avoid them.

 

[Mandelised]

Sorry to multiple post but everyone trying poison should read this first https://www.thinkwildlife.org/crru-uk/

 

[Woody girl]

You're starting to sound like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

Who?
Is he as peed off as me? Bet I could beat him in that game!
I've been chasing the blighter all round the garden today.
Mowed every bit of grass, He's presently holed up in the coal bunker area. I'm too exhausted to pull 15 ×25kg bags of coal out to find he's zipped out between my feet before I can do anything! He's now surrounded by snaps, and bait boxes at every available point, and I've gone to bed with a large bar of chocolate. I'm done!
I left the snaps unset today, and He's had a few meals of peanut butter, and chicken skin, now they are set to kill. Hopefully he will be lulled into a false sense of security, and get over cocky.
He knows I'm hunting him. We've had eye contact a few times today. He waits until I'm close then zip! He's gone!
This one seems to have nine lives. I'll 'ave the blighter yet I swear.! He only has the coal area left to hide in. I'll get that re sorted this week at some point.
I'm on a mission now.
Want to try the bucket trap, but don't have a usable bucket.