One word. Cheese.
Just a small BB size piece on the trigger. Squish it on so the rat can’t pull it off.
I’ll try it tomorrow. What kind?
Put some hay around the traps tonight to cover the shape and smell. Don’t have high hopes but I’m weirded out enough at this point to not want the horses in overnight with the rats, so might as well keep the traps set.
Spoke with my farrier today about rats as he has some problems with them with his chicken coop and barns. He’s the kindest, most gentle, most soft spoken man you’ll ever meet–he’s amazing with the horses and they love him for his very quiet manner–and he says the only thing that he’s found to work worth anything is poison. I think we’re probably heading that route, but I’ll let the pros manage it.
Squeeze cheese works, cheddar or american.
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Yup, orange cheese, american or cheddar.
Good luck, jingling for full traps in the morning.
We also have an invasion and are struggling to eradicate. We had a snake but the fiance doesn’t like snakes so he went bye bye… Can’t do cats as we live too close to a major road and don’t want them hit. And can’t do poison because of the dogs. So we went with the traps above.
These work great! I have found that when baited the smart rats have figured out how to eat it without setting it off. I assume they are using their handle to pick up the bait. However when put along their active paths it is great at catching them.
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My husband will gladly come stake out in your barn and night and shoot the little buggers.
Of course, he’s an avid hunter and hates any type of rodent. (He did the same thing when the raccoons were eating all of the sweet corn in our garden).
Ditto to getting some sort of rat trap. Cats can and do catch rats (usually won’t eat them), but you’ve got to find a pretty good mouser who will do it (not all will). My parents are lucky that we did also have really good farm cats. They’d bring a gopher to the front door to “exchange” it for cheap hard cat food! “Mamma Kitty” holds the gopher record at 11 in one day. I was messing with the horses one Saturday and I watched her bring one after the other back to the yard in one afternoon. She even caught a small rabbit one day! Rats were a piece of cake for her.
Poison works too, but sometimes it can be hard to find them where they die, and then you have a stinky situation on your hands. At least with a trap, they will be in the trap.
Yeah, I do have a few of those big black traps. Have been setting them…nothing. Same as the big snap traps. I have where they’re running on the cam, and set the traps on those paths. Nothing. They’re smart. They’re not even stealing bait.
No surprises, nothing in the traps again last night.
Not as much evidence of activity last night as previous nights, though. I think because the dog flushed one and ran it from one end of the barn to the other at late check. Maybe I can close the dutch doors and lock her into the barn overnight or for a couple hours after dark. She’s just SUCH a house dog, though, she would see it as punishment 
beau, yes, please–send your husband out! We have a guest room and a hot tub. I will gladly cook wonderful meals in exchange for rat eradicating. What does he like to eat and when can I expect him? 
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Following this along.
My parents had a horrible rat problem in their barn. When it was all said and done, I think they had killed somewhere close to 80 rats. Try sardines on the traps. That was the wonder snack that the rats couldn’t resist in my parents’ barn. Once they starting putting down sardines, it was ON!
We have border terriers, and they were able to battle with some of the rats, but there were just too many for the dogs to keep up with.
Nada with the cheese last night, although not a lot of evidence of incursion, either. I stupidly put the cam in the aisle instead of in a stall and didn’t get any pics at all.
Hmmm. We have the big Norway Rats. They can’t resist cheese. Perhaps Pack Rats have a more eclectic palate?
When we had rats I rigged up a really simple trap by draping a light small blanket (think saddle blanket) over a large empty garbage can, sprinkled some grain on the blanket and in the morning had two rats in the can. Dispatched those and continued setting it up every night until we ran out of rats.
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I’m doubtful we have pack rats after further investigation. Pack rats have a furry tail–ours are definitely the typical hair-free tail.
Still nothing last night. Less activity in the stall I’ve been setting most of my traps in…they’ve moved across the aisle again. Few pics on the cam, which was set in that trapped stall.
Pest guy comes tomorrow, so curious about his ideas. Will hold off on any real changes (like putting the dog in the barn) until he’s weighed in and seen the evidence of their overnight partying.
Guessing these ones are just smart and wary. They didn’t even eat the small amount of grain Blush had dropped last night.
I can’t imagine any self-respecting rat passing up cheese and grain. Could this be the work of more than one type of creature?
As I posted earlier - the Orkin guy didn’t put out strong enough bait to kill them all - we had to go get out own from the farmer’s Co-op and sign and give i.d. and this is strong, they eat lots, but rat carcasses must be underground.
They mummify fast, so any odour is quickly gone. It is a horrible job and the thought of a rat swimming itself to death is disturbing to me - tummy ache from poison is awful, too, but does the job quickly. Dispatching them also makes me queasy.
Best thing is to get a program going that does not allow them to re-multiply…using more than one line of defence.
These! I use them for mice as well. Be sure to keep the batteries up. Mine is the rodenator brand. I think it has a new name now.
For bait, in my opinion, you can’t beat bacon. Get the already cooked stuff from the grocery store, and you don’t even have to cook it.
No it’s quite clearly rats from the HUNDREDS of pics I have of them on the trail cam. It takes two shots with movement after a 60 second reset, IIRC. Activity from ~ 10 pm - ~ 4 am yields a whole lot of images.
In speaking with my farrier, whatever he uses (Just One Bite, maybe? The green blocks…) kills them quickly enough that they die around their chicken coop and he picks up the carcasses first thing in the morning before letting the chickens out. I am not super excited about that, as we have fox and likely a variety of other interesting wildlife and I really don’t want anything finding the carcasses before we do. Will be interesting to see what the pest guys say. We don’t use Orkin.
Bacon and sardines are both novel :lol: Will look through the fridge and pantry and see what we can come up with
We have used Just One Bite - but now are using something that is red (not my department btw - hubby’s). We have about ten bait boxes that need a key too open them and can tell just how much they are eating and the stuff seems pretty tasty to rats so far.
