Roadrunners!
Here is one, helping himself to a big brown rat, bowling it around, then taking off with it:
I board, so rats and such are taken care of by the Barn Owner, but I have often wondered if someone trained a ferret if they would clean out a rat population. Also, can you attract weasles? How would you go about that? Weasles would be death on rodents and move on when the food supply diminished.
or how about this guy?
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/farm-confessional-minks-escape-farms-train-hunt/
You lessen the risk of secondary poisoning by putting the bar bait down the hole. Those smoke bomb things are great too but be careful in a barn.
[QUOTE=Altermyne;8614617]
I board, so rats and such are taken care of by the Barn Owner, but I have often wondered if someone trained a ferret if they would clean out a rat population. Also, can you attract weasles? How would you go about that? Weasles would be death on rodents and move on when the food supply diminished.[/QUOTE]
I had this happen at 1 barn. I had a rat problem until a weasel moved in for a few days and cleanedthe rats out.
I have a very good barn cat. Kills rats. He even brought me a weasel once! Tough little bugger, all 6 lbs of him!
I’ll agree that rats have been an issue this year. We’ve had good luck catching rats and mice with the traps below. We thought we had put a dent in them until a few weeks ago I had to fish a floating rat out of a water tank… I want to try the peanut butter on a bucket trick.
I think what got us was we had quite a bit of carryover hay from last year and they set up residence in there. Feed is kept in metal containers or a freezer. But we don’t have any barn cats and the fiancé shoots any snake he sees (I let them live).
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/revenge-press-set-rat-trap-p-3657.html
www.domyownpestcontrol.com/revenge-press-set-rat-trap-p-3657.html
I tried the snapping, jaw closing stuff, (including the one above) and none of it worked. The Tomcat Bait box is the only thing that worked because they can go inside and pig out at their leisure on the poison bait. Then they get thirsty and water + the consumed bait = dead rat. Works fast, too. We must have had over 50 rats at the barns and the shed, nothing got rid of them but the Tomcat Bait box.
