rats!

[beanie3]

Houston i have a problem!

I have rats under the chicken house....i guess they run the chicken run at night as well as there are about three tunnels from under the house to the run......anyone got any great ideas to get rid of the little blighters?

thanks gill.

[Old bird]

Hi I have got rats on my allotment without any chickens yet.  I too am hoping to get chickens in the next few weeks and worry about them a bit.

I suppose I am going to have to try rat poison - but I am not very happy about killing them as they don't appear to do any harm to my veggies!

I found a dead one by my rhuabard just after those storms last week or was it the week before - I lose count.  And another lottie owner two plots away found a very pretty white and black one - obviously let loose when an owner got bored.  I don't expect they come that colour in the wild!

So - sorry to say - I am probably going the rat poison way!

Old Bird
 

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've been poisoning mine for years, with no discernable harm to the veg.

[ipt8]

Rats carry nasty diseases that you can catch if you handle anywhere they have urinated. Kill them one way or another before you are over run with them. Cant remember the main disease, is it Weils disease? I know its not nice and I think can give you lock jaw. I exagerate not.....

[Robert_Brenchley]

Weil's disease (http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/communicable/leptospirosis/fact_sheet.htm). You don't want to get it as it can be fatal. The big problem if you get overrrun is the amount of damage they can do; I've had them chew their way into empty beehives and destroy everything inside.

[teresa]

Are you sure they are rats have you seen them?
Years ago I had a run under our chicken hut it turned out to be a hedgehog and she raised babies. Freda never bothered the hens and vice versa.

But if you do have rats B+Q did a good rat poison years ago just put it down the hole and fill the hole in. Keep doing it untill the holes are not opened again. Do it before they decide to have babies as the younsters will always return to home to breed.

[big J]

i would put some rat traps down there about ten pounds on ebay

[shirley B]

looking out the dining room window 2 years ago, saw what i thought were squirrels in next doors apple trees, turned out they were rats, they all got poisoned, i am an animal lover but that is one thing i cannot bear, gives me shivers!!

[alan42]

but I am not very happy about killing them as they don't appear to do any harm to my veggies!
RATS urinate as they walk around i bet you have handled veg with rat pee on it but luckally washing/cooking has killed the bacteria. weils disease is deadly ( also called the rat catchers yellows ) a local man to us took his kids to play football next to a lake ball went in water he went in only up to his ankles to get ball two weeks later he was dead from weils disease, on his way out he put his hand on the ground were rat had peed and he had a cut. i would poisen without hesitation you are also legally bound to clear all vermin infestations.
Alan

[caroline7758]

If it's a council allotment, does the council have a duty to deal with them?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I don't know, but our Council rat man puts in an appearance now and then, and we've got a big bucket of poison in the committee hut.

[denis trundle]

If you keep chickens, poultry etc or have a compost heap and create a food source you will have rats,if you take the food scource away they will move on. Also if you dont control them then you will be over run with them, if you dont want rats dont keep chickens

[teresa]

if you dont want rats dont keep chickens ?

At our other house we had rats they moved from the railway lines to under our garage for the winter and to raise the young. Our greenhouse was next to garage and they tunneled into it. The rat man told us not to feed the birds ( wild ones) and make sure no containers that could collect water were left in the garden. The tunnels into greenhouse would provide central heating for the rats acording to the ratman they are very cleaver animals.
  Our neighbrough said they were my rats as they were under our garage and she carried on feeding the birds.
The ratman poisoned on a regular basic but I got B+Q's poison what a shock to find a rat looking asleep ( dead) I will never forget it.
I dont live near the railway lines now and I do have chicken and feed the wild birds but only enough for them to eat in the day. I do use urine in the compost bins and have a couple of neighbroughs tom cats who scent the garden plus two dogs ours. No rats here I do have some mice but the cats have them and squirrels.
Rats will go where food is available so make sure its not thats my only advice.

[goodlife]

I set traps into my chicken pen every other night....they like peanut butter!!!
And I always make sure all feeders are put away for the night and no food is kept in chicken shed (rats will smell it and you'll end up with holes). I also try to be very careful not to over feed my girls so that they eat what is given..little and often...I have always had rat problem with poultry feeders,,you get too much waste on the floor. Now I feed my girls from small plastic bowl and things are working much better...less unwanted visitors...
If and when things go bad..I have/use poison, mixed with drop of cooking oil to wheat grains...and place it under shed where my girls cannot access to it...if not traps then this bit of "cookery" will get them.
You just have to be on alert all the time..hunting season is all year round..

[Columbus]

Hi all, 

I have traps in all my sheds and greenhouse.

I set spring traps with peanut butter, chocolate, or whatever I take to the plot
in my sandwiches.

My potatos are chitting in a wooden box between sheets of glass, surrounded by
traps. Its the only way to protect them.

I have more rats now that someone started keeping chickens on our site, but he also has ferrets and I`m thinking of asking to have them over to play in my greenhouse one day. I think the ferret smell will keep rats away ??

I found poison became too expensive for continuous use. It goes damp if its not taken and there seems to be a lot wasted.

Col

[flowergirl]

I had Rats at home under the decking....or so I thought    Turned out to be a water rat aka water vole.  Didn't realise until it was too late.  We found it almost dead when we realised.  After googling we found out that it was a protected species we had to call the RSPCA...very embarrassing and devastating as we love animal and wildlife...oopsy!!

[ktlawson]

Our council provides rat poison in small bags. I  throw a bag under the chicken cree and under my shed about every 6 weeks. I have wire netting around the base of the cree so the hens can't get at the poison.

I have had hens for just short of 3 years and seem to have done OK so far.

[hazelize_uk]

I know poison works but apart from being expensive it also kills ALOT of owls that eat the poisoned rats and become poisoned themselves.  A 'friendlier' and cheaper way is to use sugarbeet.  It is available from horse feed suppliers.  Basically the Rats stuff themselves on it as they love it, once it reaches the stomach it swells and explodes their insides! This equals dead rats but also edible stuffed rats for anything higher up the food chain 

[gunnerbee]

We have a rat  that lives in the rockery, funny though, we always get rats lurking, even long before we got the chickens, rats are everywhere, ill try the sugarbeet though, at least he will die happy and full up!

[Robert_Brenchley]

What type of owl? Rats are a bit big by their standards; they'll normally take the odd juvenile, but 99% of the prey is mouse-size or smaller.