# Rats! Need creative suggestions!



## ladyrua (May 26, 2006)

Hello all!

I'm hoping I'll get some creative suggestions on killing rats. Here's my problem: My hen house is wire bottomed, raised up about 18". It's attached to the chicken run, which is 6'x12'. Two sides of the run are against a dry-stack stone wall. Two sides are buried hardware cloth. The chicken food and water is in the run. We've noticed rats coming in and out of the run via the stone wall, and from beside coop (also against a wall). It's a weird set-up, and I can't really move the run from where it is because of the yard layout. DH has been shooting the rats with a .22, but it's difficult from the vantage point he has. I'd rather not use poison, on the off chance that even a nibble gets left behind and a chicken gets it. (or my dog, who has two rat kills under his collar, but likes to wiggle under the coop). 

Any ideas? Need more details?


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

Just shootin in the dark here, but wouldn't a bag of cement-mix mortared into the stone wall cure that problem? As to the space between the hen-house and stone wall how big a space we talking about??? If not that big why not fold over chickenwire and force it into the crack as a filler. 
Or maybe put out a solid type rat bait block overnight in the chicken run, removing it before you let the chickens out in the AM.
Short of that - maybe buy the DH couple more boxes of shells.......


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## CSA again (May 2, 2007)

Are your feeders on the ground?
I hung mine up about 4-5 feet high so the chickens can only reach them from up on the roost. 
This helped a lot, but the rats will come as long as the food is out.

As for poison I have to use it to keep the rats out. I use a 5 gal. bucket with a good fitting lid, I put 4 - 2" holes it the bucket with a hole saw. around the bottom about 3-4 inches above the bottom. I put the poison in this bucket and replace the lid . most animals can't get into it but the rats will go through the 2" holes to get the poison.
I then put the bucket in the shed next to the chicken house. The chickens can't get to it , but the rats will tunnal into the shed to eat the poison. I like to add a little corn and blackberry jelly to the bucket to get them started. I also change brands of poison every year.


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## ladyrua (May 26, 2006)

Mortaring up the holes is a good idea, I suppose i could fix some plywood up against it till it dried so the chickens didn't peck it out and eat it while wet! 

The 5 gallon bucket idea is genius!! I'll make one tonight! 

Thank you very much for your ideas!


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## Menglish (May 7, 2009)

Make a bucket trap. Here's how:

Materials needed

1 five gallon bucket

Two sticks

1 plastic pop bottle

water

peanut butter

Directions:

Cut one stick (you can also use wire like a coat hanger for this) just wider than the bucket. Drill a hole on opposite sides of the bucket just big enough to run the stick through. 

Cut both the top and bottom out of the pop bottle. Run the stick through one hole in the bucket and then the body of the pop bottle and then through the other hole in the bucket.

The other stick is used to make a "ramp" up to the stick. Now you add 6-8 inches of water in the bucket and put a good smear of peanut butter on the bottle. Place the bottle about 3/4 across the bucket from the ramp. 

Sometimes I use a few sunflowers or a bit of chicken feed on the peanut butter. 

How it works:

The rat climbs up the ramp and goes after the peanut butter. When it places its paws on the loose pop bottle the bottle spins and the rat goes for a swim. It can't swim indefinitely and after a short time it will drown. I've used this on rats and mice and hear that it will work on chipmunks as well.

Mike

PS On the poison if your dog ingests a rat that has ingested poison it will die. I raise dogs as well as other animals and won't allow poison on my homestead because of this.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

What Menglish said ,will catch the whole rat family.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

+1 for the bucket/water trap


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## ladyrua (May 26, 2006)

THanks Menglish - I'm going to try that one! 

Yeah, I bought poison, but I'm too afraid to use it because of the dog and/or chickens! I dont' know how long it takes a rat to die after eating it and if they carry it out of the run and *then* expire, the dog might find it before me! So I'll try the water trap first!

Thanks again everyone!


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## SweetwaterClyde (Aug 12, 2009)

In the past I have used two weighted sticks wired to a 55 gallon drum filled with 15 or so gallons of water. I started by baiting the ends of the sticks with PB, but found that a rats curiosity was enough to cause him to dunk himself without even being baited. This will clean an entire area of rats in no time. If you decide to do this, just weight the stick (1x2) with lead fishing weights stapled to the underside of the stick at the end hanging over the water. Test it with your finger so that the slightest amount of weight will cause it to tip up. ****Also I only put enough water in to drown a rat or mouse and not a cat.****

PS The electronic rat traps work too, place them against a wall inside the coop under a long board leaning against the wall.


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## megafatcat (Jun 30, 2009)

Bucket traps per Menglish are great! Mine is a little less evolved. No pop bottle, just a 1x4 ramp, a smear of peanut butter just above the water line. And a thin layer of sunflower seeds on the water so the rats think that it is a bucket of seed and not a trap.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

I had a field rat prob this past winter. We use an old mobile home that was out here for storage & they got in & into EVERYTHING. I did manage to get several pairs with those jumbo snap traps & hubby even set some leg hold traps that we used to catch ****, bobcats & such with. It worked also. Key I found is peanut butter, they cant resist & to sweeten the deal, I mush a big marshmellow into it before setting so when they pull on it...snap. Then I got bored one day & made a giant glue trap & caught some that way too.


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