tinkkletoes Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Hi All my gilrs largish run has over the last few weeks become home to a family/families of rats.. there are many large holes under the bushes, trees , shrubs, under the chicken wire boundary, concrete fence panels on my boundary walls with other gardens with many areas of fresh dug out soil. i am tring varous snap traps & so far only got chunks of fir & not a Rat. live traps with no luck, poison, but only in areas that the girls cant get to, poison put down holes & then filled them up. & my last result sticky traps only put out at night so as not to catch other wildlife. one rat caught with that. no matter where i put a collection of traps each night, im failing on catching any rats. i have even put my wildlife camera out to see where they are at night & even that is not Helping i dont leave food out at night my other issue is that they are borrowing under large shrubs & trees & i am concerned that they are being undermininded & could cause then to fall in bad weather or weight. please does anybody have any ideas as i can only see this getting worse. thank you in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grey_lady Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Council pest control to come and put down poison would be your best bet, otherwise pick up all food unless the hens are actually eating, so put a small amount of food out twice a day and clear away any remains - rats will come out during the day and esp dusk clear up any fruit/nuts that have fallen from trees traps - rats are smart and suspicious of new things, i doubt you will get more than one or two this way and not on the first night you put out, or if you move them around, only poison worked for us and they still came back annually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 As grey_lady has said, unfortunately at this point I think your only option is some sort of fairly serious poison regime. And carry on with your good husbandry of not leaving any food around. The only other option I can think of would be to replace your chicken run with one that has small mesh all around including on the floor which would be very expensive and would perhaps not actually get rid of the rats anyway. Food luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Slab under the run to prevent them digging in and use sturdy weldmesh on the sides to stop them getting in that way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Chick Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Do you know what is attracting them to your garden? Bird feed on the ground (including wild bird feed) can attract them as can compost heaps etc. Could it be a neighbours they are being attracted by? Sorry I know you have probably been through all that already just would be great if you can eliminate the problem without using poison as it can kill peoples pets too. Lost a lovely cat who ate a rodent that had eaten poison 😢 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkkletoes Posted October 23, 2019 Author Share Posted October 23, 2019 Hi All thank you all for your suggestions. the run is a large part of a well stocked garden 5m x 10m approx . i do have wild bird feeders in the garden. the rats seem to be nesting in the roots of my well established trees & shrubs that the hens use to shelter under. they have only recently made there presence known, but in a big way. i did think that now i have houses rented out around me, garden maintaince is not big thing & it has not helped. also they seem to be coming into the garden from 2 boundaries. i am also trying not to use poison as i worry about the hens finding a dead rat & i have a cat. and there are a lots of neighbours with cats that might find the dead body, but so far they havent even eaten the bait. i have tried to fill in the holes, but new ones appear the next day. wondering if flushing the runs qith the hosepipe would help to get them to move rhen block the holes up. ? i try to garden for wildlife, so i guess i am doing a good job if they have moved into my garden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bea Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 I'm considering re homing my girls as we are overrun, I will not use poison as local cats and wildlife would die too if eaten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...