# Rat bait recipe???



## Willowynd

OK final straw happened last night. The crippled duck that was attacked by rats a couple weeks ago and was in a wire rabbit cage (with small square mesh) to recupperate and keep him safe was attacked again last night. They ate his feet through the cage wire! Hubby found him bloody and saw that a good portion of his feet were missing and decided the most humane thing to do at that point was end his suffering. Now someone posted a bait of plaster and peanut butter...but how much of each? Hubby thinks it will freeze in this weather...true or not? Where do I place it? In the coops? Outside? In a cage or something? I would rather go with that as it is safest if the dogs should get ahold of a dead rat. I have to do something- this is horrible!


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## Cat

Looking online it says 1:1 ratio PB to Plaster of Paris. 

Yeah, rats are some of the most resourceful critters around; if they weren't rats it would be admirable how resourceful they are!


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## roolover

Willowynd, I make small batches at a time. 

Stuff you'll need:
1 Cool Whip or similar plastic container 
1/2 to 3/4 cup of plaster of paris
1/2 to 3/4 cup of peanut butter
chicken feed, bird seed or ground corn (optional, but effective)
rubber or latex gloves 

Pour the plaster of paris in the container. With gloves on, work enough peanut butter into the plaster of paris until you get the consistency of cookie dough. If it's too dry it will harden fast, so you want it pliable and slightly sticky. Form small balls (about 1 inch) and roll in the feed/seed mix. My experience is that the cracked corn was much preferred by the rats. Your mileage may vary. 

I placed about 8-10 balls on a bucket lid or feed sack and placed it in areas of the coop/barn where the birds would not access it. You could put them into a critter cage if it makes you feel more comfortable. You will be amazed how fast the rat balls disappear. I made fresh ones every few days and added more as they ate them up. We've had VERY cold temps here (near zero) and freezing was not an issue. I think most of the rats die in their little rat holes. I only found one or two dead, fat rats. And no, they did not have peanut butter breath! 

Time for Rats to Party :dance:

Good luck! This was VERY effective for me...


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## tamsam

When all else fails find a bait call Final Bite. It works and no more rats. Good luck. Sam


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## Willowynd

Thank you! Going shopping today when I wake up...the rats will get a valentine's day treat they could just die for!




roolover said:


> Willowynd, I make small batches at a time.
> 
> Stuff you'll need:
> 1 Cool Whip or similar plastic container
> 1/2 to 3/4 cup of plaster of paris
> 1/2 to 3/4 cup of peanut butter
> chicken feed, bird seed or ground corn (optional, but effective)
> rubber or latex gloves
> 
> Pour the plaster of paris in the container. With gloves on, work enough peanut butter into the plaster of paris until you get the consistency of cookie dough. If it's too dry it will harden fast, so you want it pliable and slightly sticky. Form small balls (about 1 inch) and roll in the feed/seed mix. My experience is that the cracked corn was much preferred by the rats. Your mileage may vary.
> 
> I placed about 8-10 balls on a bucket lid or feed sack and placed it in areas of the coop/barn where the birds would not access it. You could put them into a critter cage if it makes you feel more comfortable. You will be amazed how fast the rat balls disappear. I made fresh ones every few days and added more as they ate them up. We've had VERY cold temps here (near zero) and freezing was not an issue. I think most of the rats die in their little rat holes. I only found one or two dead, fat rats. And no, they did not have peanut butter breath!
> 
> Time for Rats to Party :dance:
> 
> Good luck! This was VERY effective for me...


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## Terry W

hey, Golden Malrin mixed with 'something sweet' (soda) is instant death to the varmints!!! put it down at night, take it up in the morning, along with the intended victims...


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## Willowynd

Terry, I was looking for something that would not harm my animals should they get ahold of a carcass.


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## gold'nchocolate

roolover said:


> Pour the plaster of paris in the container. With gloves on, work enough peanut butter into the plaster of paris until you get the consistency of cookie dough. If it's too dry it will harden fast, so you want it pliable and slightly sticky. Form small balls (about 1 inch) and roll in the feed/seed mix. My experience is that the cracked corn was much preferred by the rats. Your mileage may vary.
> 
> I placed about 8-10 balls on a bucket lid or feed sack and placed it in areas of the coop/barn where the birds would not access it.
> 
> Time for Rats to Party :dance:
> 
> Good luck! This was VERY effective for me...


Well, I'm going to give this a try!! I have a major rat problem and I hesitate to use poison because of all my other animals. I actually did put some poison pellets in a bucket and placed it in the outside area (right near their entrance/exit holes) and made sure to pick it up in the morning but they didn't even take any of it. I also tried a rat trap that electrocutes them when they step into it. Again, nothing . I'll be sure to post my results.


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## doigle

Hi everyone,
Any new insights or results of raticide? We are in a major rat mess here. But also with chickens, cats, dogs running around and the chipmunks I don't want to kill off. I hate to admit this and will probably take some ribbing for it, but I'd rather the rats didn't suffer a long painful death if possible. Judging by how many I see in the evenings though, we must have zillions. The coop is an old granary with a lot of busted areas and so they get in all over in out of the way places.


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## gold'nchocolate

gold'nchocolate said:


> Well, I'm going to give this a try!! I have a major rat problem and I hesitate to use poison because of all my other animals. I actually did put some poison pellets in a bucket and placed it in the outside area (right near their entrance/exit holes) and made sure to pick it up in the morning but they didn't even take any of it. I also tried a rat trap that electrocutes them when they step into it. Again, nothing . I'll be sure to post my results.


I didn't have any luck with using the peanut butter/plaster of paris recipe. If anything, it made them healthier :shocked:. 

They did love the peanut butter balls so I started adding the D-con pellets to the mixture (like chocolate chips in a cookie dough) and fed the PB/PP balls to them that way. In about a week I started to notice dead rats all over the place (don't want to gross you out). I have 5 dogs so I was watching for any rats dying where my dogs could get them and twice I found my little golden retriever with a dead rat in her mouth. The rats had become so numerous I felt that this was the only way to finally get rid of them. I had tried a Rat Zapper and that didn't work either. Good luck with whatever you do to get rid of them.


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## CraigMeade

I just wrote a post about this on my blog.

In 1990 an EPA scientist fed rats a 50/50 mixture of plaster of paris and dry feed for 14 days.

None of them died, but they did shows signs of a sore rectum from passing the hardened plaster.

So if you need to be more than just a pain in the butt, you'll need a different approach.

Craig Meade
Pioneer Handbooks blog


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## pancho

Most of the poison I see nowdays does not harm any animal eating a mouse or rat killed by poison. I have seen my chickens eat many mice killed by poison. So far it hasn't harmed them.


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## Oxankle

Use rat poison. All "home remedies" are just so much hokum. A terrier works, but one would be badly outnumbered.

I use "One Bite" but any of the commercial rat and mouse baits use the same ingredients, a fourth generation blood thinner causing internal bleeding.

You can use rat bars or pellets. I use the blue pellets in a bait station that my animals cannot get to. 

Go to any Lowes, Home Depot or any similar dealer; buy some 4 inch corrugated drain, the flexible kind. Cut four foot pieces, bend them into a "U" and drop the poison in so that it is centered. Then lay the pipe down flat next to a wall or rat hole or any place that the rats run. Check the pipes/bait stations often enough that you do not run out of bait in any one of them. You will soon be free of both rats and mice.

If you use the little plastic packets of "one bite" you do not even have to openj the packet; just drop one into the bent piple and lay the pipe down flat again; the rats will chew the packet open and die outside someplace.

I keep these packets along the walls in my equipment barn, in the feed building and in bait stations under the feed building. I never see the packets chewed open any more except when the field mice move inside during late fall. I've not seen a rat in ages.


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## ntjpm

I have to agree with the majority here. I tried the PB and plaster of paris and it did nothing, I tried the bucket with the tin can in the middle with PB on it and nothing. Here is what I have learned, rats are smart that is why they use them for testing stuff. They also do not trust anything new so if you are having to pick something up and put it back down every day then forget them every going near it. "New things" have to be around for 4-5 days for them to try it out. 

SO I had to bite the bait I guess you could say. I bought the "Just One Bite" and I have it wired inside a 3" pvc pipe that is about 2-3' long. (this is so my chickens and cats won't eat it) it is wired so that they rats can't take it with them and leave it somewhere that my other animals will find it. This pvc pipe is then placed along the side of the run (because rats hug walls when they run) So they find themselves with a meal in front of them and then they get to indulge.

The good thing about Just one Bite is it takes 3-4 days to work, rats figure out if something killed there buddy right away and then stay away from it so with this stuff they have no idea what caused them to drop dead. The other positive is that even if they drop dead in my chicken run or where my cats can find them, they would have to eat like 75 of them for the poison to have any effect on them. I will leave a pvc pipe with this stuff in it under the coop all year long. I will pull it out in the fall and spring to see if I need to add more bait. However I will get rid of these pests if it kills me. :duel:

I wish I could tell you that any of the non poison things worked, but I am so frustrated right now with these rats and I feel like I am just helping them out. I now put any extra feed away at nightfall so they don't get an easy meal. I am losing somewhere between 1-4 eggs a day (which just ----es me off:Bawling so these rats need to GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! 

Good luck to you and if anyone has a better plan please share. 

Tracy in WA


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## eross230

I use "Just one bite" and it does the trick. The dogs and chickens don't seem to have any effect from it. I try to put it in a crack, or space where I think the rodents are getting into the hen house so the other animals can't get to it.


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## akane

We tried every type of commercial and homemade trap we could come up with baited with about a dozen different things and got nothing despite rats running around everywhere. We tried picking up feed at night and putting less out at once but it made no difference. They became numerous enough to start killing things considerably larger than them and wiped out both chicks and litters of rabbits. Finally we bought a bait station that held square or round bars on metal poles fitted inside so that even if the dogs carry it off (which has happened despite stacking bricks on it) they still can't get the bait to fall out. In 2 days no more rodents after 2 years of doing everything else. Sure I'd be happier if they had neatly gone in to my little repeating live trap so they could be dispatched quickly or even in to the regular traps that are likely to kill them without a risk of harm to other animals but it came down to the rats or everything else on the property. Their own intelligence caused their suffering and we don't mess around anymore. By the time you actually see a rat(s) you are too late to control the population by any slower means and they are already upsetting the smaller animals and damaging feed or buildings.


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