redcharlie43 Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Well I have finally got round to the pre-winter clean of the cube. It was dirty and messy and I have decided to leave the girls on the lawn over the winter to iradicate the moss. In the meantime I have uncovered where Mr mole has been living over the last few months. I was aware that the run floor was no longer flat but when I pulled up the stable mats I was shocked to find a Labyrinth of tunnels. If I hadn't caught one a few weeks ago I would have thought it was the rats that chewed off the back of my grub last week! So its now war. One mole down but another has taken its place and the rats really have to go. Unfortunately we have some neighbours who chuck all their garden mess over the back of the fence (along with lots of empty alchol bottles!) and this backs onto the chicken run. This is where the rats are living. I will clear this out and ask them not to do it but I suspect they will blame the chickens! So I can handle the moles. I have become an expert mole catcher but have never dealt with rats in the garden. I used bait once for an infestation I had in my old flat but was thinking never again. (Dead rats rotting under floorboards is never good!). So I need my fellow omleteers expertise....... Bait or traps(Not humane ones. I don't want to give someone else the same problem!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 For the rats I would use a combination of traps and poison. I found the traps caught the young, unwary rats, and the poison finished off superwary mum and dad rat Not nice, but the traps were at least quick and better they were gone than moved on elsewhere. I put the traps behind some mesh fencing surrounding our pond on their favourite route so that the rats could get through it but not the chickens. For poison I used the tunnel type bait boxes on their routes and I still check them regularly and refresh the bait. Haven't seen any now for over a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amys garden Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Oh what awfull neighbours Hope you manage to sort the rats out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken shack Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Well I have finally got round to the pre-winter clean of the cube. It was dirty and messy and I have decided to leave the girls on the lawn over the winter to iradicate the moss. In the meantime I have uncovered where Mr mole has been living over the last few months. I was aware that the run floor was no longer flat but when I pulled up the stable mats I was shocked to find a Labyrinth of tunnels. If I hadn't caught one a few weeks ago I would have thought it was the rats that chewed off the back of my grub last week! So its now war. One mole down but another has taken its place and the rats really have to go. Unfortunately we have some neighbours who chuck all their garden mess over the back of the fence (along with lots of empty alchol bottles!) and this backs onto the chicken run. This is where the rats are living. I will clear this out and ask them not to do it but I suspect they will blame the chickens! So I can handle the moles. I have become an expert mole catcher but have never dealt with rats in the garden. I used bait once for an infestation I had in my old flat but was thinking never again. (Dead rats rotting under floorboards is never good!). So I need my fellow omleteers expertise....... Bait or traps(Not humane ones. I don't want to give someone else the same problem!) Mu neighbour cought Mr Mole in his garden early this summer. Another has relplaced it, in my garden again. How do you catch him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzzboy Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Must say the only way to go is poison with the rat problem found the rat dead after a month what a smell but have not had seen any evidence of rats since but I also remove the chicken feed at night as for the mole good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
