Rats

[Anonymous]

How can I control rats? They’re on our property in what would probably be the hundreds.

Rat zapper doesn’t work, as they outbreed the rate at which I can remove the dead rat from it.

Are there any poisons which are safe to animals? I wouldn’t want our chickens to eat a poisoned rat.

Ta

[Bel]

Sorry, can’t help you DJ-Studd, but I’m interested to hear the responses. We’ve got tons of mice near the chicken coop, and they’re eating our tomatoes! Like you, I would like to find a good way to be rid of them without harming the chooks.

[recyclingdiva]

old post has some good advice

from bazman

https://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=8&thread_id=5432&pid=63939#post_63939

hope link works

cheers Kate

[Gianna]

I’ve gone through $80 of rat poison in a very short space of time. Racumin is a solid bait and you put it into a small container that rats and mice can get into to eat it but nothing else can get in. Most rats probably only need an opening the size of a 10c piece while I’ve caught mice dislocating their bodies to squeeze through wire that is about 2.5mm, yes hard to believe but I saw it with my own eyeballs.

If you go to a horse feedstore, they sell special black containers to put the poison into.

Oops, I just measured the wire and made a boo boo. It was 1.2cm or about half an inch.

[Ashram]

Gianna,

Not so hard to believe as I once caught a mouse that squeezed through the 4mm hole in the catch & release tilt trap I had. Trouble was the damn thing only got half way through then got stuck. Had to cut the trap apart to get the damn thing out :@

I know, should have cut the mouse in half, but just can’t do it with those beady eyes staring at me.

[bushy]

Tomcat brand poison is brilliant, weather proof and very effective, but like most good things costs $s.

Not sure what effect if any of something eating the deceased rat.

Rats are my number one pest in the garden here, even stripping the fruit off the trees and eating the bananas.

[ejanea]

We have rats outside (and around the chooks’ house) and mice inside. They are seasonal. and this is the worst time… after the grain harvest. They are all looking for food. In a few weeks when the weather turns cold there’ll be another onslaught… I suppose they are looking for a good winter spot. They are also variable in numbers over a period of about 3 or 4 years. This year is not the peak.

I have found that it is necessary to change brands of poison every so often. These animals are not silly, and they seem to learn about poisonous food and begin to avoid it. Poisons that depend on warfarin don’t seem to work either… the belief around here is that they are immune. It may be taht it is the actual waarfarin that is detectable, as I can’t see how they could deal with the chemical.

We do have some problems with vegetables being eaten, though the most amazing sight I’ve seen is a “family” of rats running out on branches of kurrajong trees to eat the seeds from the pods. I saw them in the twilight on one beautiful evening as I sat at an outdoor table… the rats appeared as completely blaok silhouettes against a pink-purple sky… it would have been wonderful had it not been for my annoyance with the rats.

The mice and rats here also attract snakes… we have a brown snake under the house and I have seen a red-bellied black snake sunning itself on the front verandah. It left more quickly than I did!

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys.

So it seems that we ‘permies’ still like to show our domination on those who eat and destroy our properties 😡

I’ll stop at the produce store on the way home tonight and get some rat poision. Perhaps I’ll avoid eating eggs for a week to be safe.

(They chewed through the charger cable for our Logitech all-in-one tv remote last night, what the heck???!)

Cheers

[Gianna]

Feed ’em quick before they eat the telly. 😆 I’ve been jamming silver foil in every gap I see, trying to stop the mice from coming inside.

[cedar]

You don’t need poisons! A long necked bottle with it’s neck greased up with butter or oil can be anchored poking off the edge of a bench or whatever with a folded strip of newspaper, anchored each side of the bottle with bricks or some other heavy weight. Put a 20 litre bucket half filled with water under the bottle, and put some bread and eg. peanut butter in the neck of the bottle so it’s poking out. The rats/mice walk out to eat the bait, but can’t turn around to get back to the bench, and fall into the water. You can catch quite a lot of the critters in one night using this method. Please don’t use poisons – the rats usually go outside to die, and get eaten by something else higher up in the food chain, such as our beautiful owls. And please don’t support those nasty chemical companies. Drowned rats are compostable, poisoned ones aren’t.

[FeyWind]

Even better cedar – drowned rats can be fed to the chickens!!

[Gianna]

It’s a plague. Mice are now ripping up my carpet to get under doorways. The softly, softly, slowly, slowly approach is not going to work. $80 worth of poison in less than a month and they’re still coming. :rip:

[cedar]

Maybe lots of buckets set up outside (each one can catch a lot of mice), so less get inside in the first place, and can you borrow some predators? I was thinking of a cat, or are there some little dogs could come from friends for a few sleepovers at your place?

Mice/rats become immune to the chemical company poisons very quickly. You need to set up a balance of predators and prey. Maybe you could get a dog such as a jack russell, which is a bit more versatile than a cat. They are good little doorbells too.

Good luck.

[kerrieb]

I can remember seeing old B & W photos of set ups similar to cedars description with 44 gallon drums overflowing with mice that is not the sort of mouse plague I want to around.

[Bel]

cedar – I like your idea but can’t exactly picture what you’re describing. Any chance you could post a piccy? My problem mice are under the shrubby plants/herbs, so is there any way I could make your method work?

[Author]

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