4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[markphelan]

Hi Folks,

 

Wonder if anyone can offer some advice...

 

I believe we have rats that are entering our garden from a neighbouring football field. We've not had any eggs for a week now and have had quite a few holes dug under the run. Whether rats are stealing the eggs or the girls are a bit distressed I can't be sure.

 

My wife will not let me use any poison or kill the rats. I have explained how they carry disease etc but she refuses to let me do anything about them and suggests that we just have to ensure there's no food left spilt in the run for them to get at. I am at my wits end!

 

We have tried blocking up the edges of the run with bricks but holes continue to appear.

 

I have read that the ultrasonic deterrents do not work.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions before I just give in and call the council?

 

Thanks,

Mark

[jackieb]

We've had a problem with rats, the dogs let us know when they've taken up residence under the shed!!

 

On the two occasions we've had a problem I've called in the local council pest control and they have put poison down where it's safe for my dogs and any other wildlife and they have monitored the situation by coming back every couple of weeks.

 

I thought they would be very accusing of me as I have the chickens but they took a look around the garden for tell tale signs and said that it wasn't the chickens that had caused the problem.

 

It's a free service in our area and they really use the safest and most practical method for your situation.

 

I don't like killing anything either but they can kill your chickens if they get in the run or henhouse and you will be overrun with them if you don't do something.

[Chucky Mama]

You need to get rid of them as although it is lovely to have the live and let live approach, they carry disease and breed like crazy. Our most successful way of dealing with them was a husband with an air rifle. We also have a bait box with rat poison in but we had 1 rat that thrived on it and just got very fat We didn't have much success with traps and caught 2 small birds and not a single rat- too clever. There is someone on the forum though that has good tips re using traps and getting rid of rats who may come along and offer better advice.

[markphelan]

Thanks for the responses. You're pretty much echoing what I thought.

 

My wife is just too stubborn! I appreciate what she's saying, but at the same time I need to look out for the well-being of our chickens, and ourselves!

 

The rats seem to be quite elusive during the day, so not sure an air rifle is going to work, although it would probably be the most humane way to kill them off.

[C&T]

I agree with the above, poison is the way forward.

 

I understand the live and let live approach - but Rats breed like anything. Where you are seeing a couple, you can guarantee there are plenty more that you can't see, all bringing more rats into the world. The diseases etc are not worth the risk.

 

If you are considering calling in the authorities, then they will simply lay the poison instead of you - so the rats are doomed one way or the other!

 

If you do it yourself, use the bait boxes so other wildlife is not affected. And when bying the poison, we found the wheat based posion more effective - is more expensive but worth it. And buy plenty - they get through loads, and sounds as though you have plenty of the little horrors.

 

Putting food away at night will help - but hens aren't the neatest of eaters, and food will be dropped on the ground... And once the rats think they have found a source of food, they will keep checking it out.

 

The only other thing to do is to concrete the run to keep them from tunnelling in - but they can also get through the bars of the run when they are smallish. "Our" rat used to squeeze through the bars to get in, eat lots of food, and then try to tunnel out when too fat... Until the poison got him!

[Egluntyne]

Some general advice to be found **here**

[markphelan]

Some general advice to be found **here**

 

Thanks, I'd already had a read of that earlier on which confirmed my thoughts on the matter - it's convincing my other half it's the right course of action that's the problem!

 

I have been told that catnip can work as a deterrent, so may give this a go along with removing all the bird feeders and putting the chicken feed on a tray to catch any spills and remove any sources of food from the garden.

 

I can cope with the fact that rats are all around us - I just don't want them bothering me and my chickens!

[Kathy C]

We saw a huge rat yesterday when giving the girls their supper and shutting them in the run for the night.

 

My husband shot it with his air gun (1 shot, no suffering) the hens didn't even flinch at the noise, as we target shoot from time to time. As usual, we get them about 3 times a year, we bagged it up in a couple of carriers and put it in a bin bag in the wheely bin. We aren't sentimental about rats, they carry disease and could be harmful to the hens and other wildlife around here, and afterall where there is one there is probably more.

[Rhesus]

I've been in that position before we had chickens, caused by a neighbour's bird table and the fact that the meadow floods and drives them down. Air Rifle is okay but you do risk blowing holes in your shed and if you miss the kill, you are just introducing blood and disease to be more rapid.

 

You may know that rats are neophobic (fear of new things). This is a reason traps don't always get them first time. I tend to use poison but very careful to put this near the entry holes or along an edge where they may using as ther 'run'. I use the stuff that looks like blue wheat ( wouldnt use it near the chooks if you let them range, so may have to keep them to the run for a bit). Combine this with an empty and unsprung trap. The poison will go which starts to work. Keep topping it up each night and the rat should keep taking it. On say the third night, load a trap with peanut butter . The newness of the trap would have worn off and the rat less wary. Make sure the spring is not going to be stuck by vegetation or anything else when it flies off. The advantage is that the poison starts to slow them down, the trap should get them. You can tell if the poison is working as it will have blood in the nostril.

 

If you get one, just make sure you wear gloves to get rid of it when you prize it out and throw them away (I've got some disease control barrier gloves that hospitals use but you can pick up some chemical resistant ones from Screwfix or B&Q fairly cheaply) Double bag it and throw it in your bin. Hose down the area with some Flash and that should minimise any disease or blood from the trap. It will make it better for pets or chooks in the garden. Just make sure there is no poison left.

 

I'm not an expert in pest control, but I have got a 100% success record so far and nothing seen since April this year (but I hate rats!)

 

- Doris

- Hilda

- Marjorie

[sjp]

I can recommend roban we'vs started useing it on the allotment they 're taking it really well . unlike to hedgehog friendly one we had first it went for a while when the weather was dry but as soon as the wet weather arrived they stoppeed taking it. it also gets damp very quickly

[CluckyBucks]

Stupid rats

We have a mouse that sometimes rents out the underneath of the eglu, it doesnt bother the chickens at all. I think a rat might though, some of them are HUGE!!!

 

xx xx

[hilda-and-evadne]

My wife will not let me use any poison or kill the rats. Mark

 

Poison in a bait box is the way to go. Does your wife know how quickly rats breed, and that they can cause house fires by gnawing through electric cables? Does she realise how irresponsible it is - for the whole community - if she allows them to feed and live in safety in your garden?

 

Although rats are the primary host of Weil's Disease, other animals can become secondary hosts after drinking water or licking grass that has rats' urine in/on it: eg dogs, rabbits, cows, sheep. The symptoms of Weil's Disease in humans includes meningitis, liver damage and renal failure. There is no human vaccine against Weil's Disease.

 

Do you have neighbours? If so, how would they feel about your feeding the rats and exposing them to disease and damage?

 

One of my neighbours (on the non-hen-owning side) has a garden shed under which dozens of rats made their home. Even though that is where they were living, my neighbour did not think it was her responsibility to do anything about it. I have had to carry out two poisoning sessions, and she did not even offer to contribute to the cost of the carton of poison. She doesn't justify doing nothing, she just avoids conversations about it.

 

Please just do the head of the household thing and poison them, for the sake of everyone else. It is the only responsible thing to do.

 

Oh, yes, and rats could harm a sleeping chicken if not a wide awake one. When my hens saw a rat, they would all spring up on the perches that are about 2 feet off the ground.

[sjp]

 

One of my neighbours (on the non-hen-owning side) has a garden shed under which dozens of rats made their home. Even though that is where they were living, my neighbour did not think it was her responsibility to do anything about it. I have had to carry out two poisoning sessions, and she did not even offer to contribute to the cost of the carton of poison. She doesn't justify doing nothing, she just avoids conversations about it.

 

.

Does she own the property?. if so she as a duty to control vermin if she won’t report her to the council I bet she'd report you if it was the other way round

[hilda-and-evadne]

Does she own the property?.

 

Yes.

 

if so she as a duty to control vermin if she won’t report her to the council I bet she'd report you if it was the other way round

 

I didn't know that she had a duty to control vermin. Yes, I am sure that she would report me if it was the other way around. (She is very "controlling" - recently, she "joked" about reporting me to the RSPCA for dunking my broody hen in a bucket of cold water.)

[urbanchick]

It's a bit extreme but I'll never forget reading about this last year. Never really took the threat of rats seriously before.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055269/Animal-lover-dies-days-scratched-trapped-rat-trying-free.html

[markphelan]

The "discussion" reached a peak this evening, and my wife outright refuses to have them killed. Despite clearing up all traces of food, laying bricks around the run, and making sure everything's closed up after dark they are still digging holes and getting in to the run.

 

This evening we went out to check everything and Sarah even said "I just saw one, it was huge!" but still she won't let me do anything to kill them off.

 

I've tried explaining that they cary diseases, and I strongly suspect the lack of eggs for the last week is down to the presence of the rats and their digging each night, so the girls obviously aren't happy.

I'm at my wits end with it all, I don't know what to do.

[sjp]

you could resort to plan B call the council see if they will come out to advise you on the right way to proceed

or plan C have you got a neighbour that you can get to 'complain' to yuor wife about the rats and remind her that she as a duty to control them. or they will go the the council and that the coucil will charge you an arm and leg to due the job. plus the Embarrassment of having the rat van out side 3 or 4 times

both ways once the council are involved the rats have got to be delt with

[Egluntyne]

I would encourage your wife to read up on the subject. Rats aren't sweet fluffy creatures, they are vermin ( unless of course, they are pet rats ).

 

I'd put bait boxes down and fill all the holes in every day.

[urbanchick]

I think your neighbours will be more than a little angry with you if the problem escalates (and it will if nothing is done about it). They will probably call environmental health and they could then take action against you if they felt you weren't cooperating with them. I'm sure your wife would not want to put your neighbours children at risk of being bitten by a rat or making their gardens a no go zone.

 

I would leave it a day or two and if she's like me, she'll start off stubborn then come round to being realistic!

 

Putting the eglu onto slabs would stop them getting in by tunnelling underneath.