My barn cats did a good job of getting rid of the rats.
I do not think they killed any ADULT rats, but they killed LOTS of baby rats, and teh adults decided to move elsewhere.
I never had a rat problem in my barn for almost 15 years until one of the girls who helps with evening chores killed a rat snake in my feed room. A population explosion followed. I tried the snap traps and the electric ones without much success. Since then we’ve released several rat snakes in the barn and used live traps to catch and relocate them. The traps work well for awhile, then the rats get wise to them. We stop for awhile and then start again. This has been very effective. The population is under control now and hopefully the snakes can keep up with the babies.
A bit of an update on Battle: Rodent. No rats on the cam or in any traps. I’ve been getting a mouse a night, though!
So, it has been awhile. Any updates on the rat problem?
No news is good news!
No signs of rats in several weeks, no signs of mice over the last 10 days or so. I have my storage stall trapped pretty heavily, and bait boxes with Terad3 out in a few convenient locations.
I don’t doubt this is going to be a chronic issue given our location and the open space around our place, but I think we have a pretty good handle on how to deal with it now 
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Good.
After the rat plague two summers ago, we have only had the rare rat, plenty of mice, but not nightmarish numbers.
Maybe yours will get the message and stay away, if there are not rat trails to your barn.
Didn’t want to start a new topic about rats since there is already one going. Glad to hear the oP has their situation under control.
My farm has recently been invaded by rats. They are BAD - so many they are out in the day time and don’t run away when they see you etc. If you turn around - you will see at LEAST 1 - maybe 2-3 scurrying away somewhere. They are burrowing under the barn. We do NOT keep feed in the barn so they must just like the barn to live in. I do not want to put poison out because we have dogs etc. around and other wildlife like foxes and hawks etc. that might also eat the dead poisoned rats and I do not want that to happen.
An idea popped into my head and it seems brilliant but wanted to toss it out there to get some feedback on if it’s a REALLY dumb idea or something worth trying?
The barn is not very big and there are several tunnels going under the barn. I thought to block off the openings to some of these tunnels and then get our truck pulled up to the barn with a hose attached to the tailpipe and then pump carbon monoxide into the tunnels to kill the rats under the barn. Do you think this might work? No? Yes? Bad idea? worth a try???
Any other ideas besides the others listed in this thread?
Bad idea.
Call you fire department and ask why.
what about getting dry ice and stuffing it down all the holes and then plugging them up?
I had a horrible rat infestation in MN. My chicken house was in the front part of a huge fully insulated milking barn ( rest unused) that was a perfect place for them. Because of my dogs and cats I opted to place bait trays in the chicken house ( where I saw the rats in action).
I put the trays where they tunneled in and had a chicken wire cage over the trays. I put new ones out as soon as the old were empty. I started finding dead rats a few days later in many places and outside too. I just picked them up as I found them and by 4 weeks the trays were untouched.
I too hated using the pellets but sometimes you must when they won’t stay out of places they don’t belong. Plus they were really bold and getting really big.
Forgive my dumb question, But when you say rat, you actually mean RAT. not mouse. I ask because in all the years of having property, horses and barns I have NEVER seen a rat. just field mice. I guess I should call myself lucky. :yes:
This is an old thread, but yes, I really do mean rat. I think I even posted pictures of them earlier in this thread?
Boxes with Terad have done a fine job of controlling them without negative impact to the wildlife. I’d never seen rats before, either.
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For the first time in 32 years we got some rats in November. Rat people came out. Traps, bait…caught many. My question is to those who have gone thru this is this: I saw a slow moving rat and so did my Southern Black Mouth Cur female. She cornered it and started to pick it up. I got a pitch fork and lifted the rat up and told my dog to “leave it”. Then removed the rat. SO, if she had tried to eat it would the poison the rat ingested poison my dog?? My female weighs about 85 lbs.
yes
https://www.petmd.com/dog/emergency/digstive/e_multi_rat_poison
We keep our dog away from the barns… mainly because she will roll is some great smelling poop if given the chance other reason is we have coyotes roaming about and our dog kind of looks like one (but she much larger and prettier)
I just killed two rats last week. Will not use poison because I know it will kill wildlife too. I read stuff on the internet and learned: 1. Do not handle traps with bare hands–or the food you put on them.
2. Let the rats get used to the traps by setting them where you want them and just leaving them alone for several days.
3. Teach the rats to eat off of them by putting food on them (use grain not peanut butter) and NOT setting them. Do this for at least a week.
4. When the rats are reliably eating off the traps every night, start baiting them every other night or so. It makes them want to show up more.
5. Set the traps one night.
6. Find dead rats caught in the traps in the morning.
That is what I did.
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It depends on the poison.
This is WHY I use Terad3. It’s not going to kill my dog if she eats a poisoned rat. It’s not going to kill the hawks. It’s not going to kill momma fox and her kits.
Nearly all other poisons are killing all those things.
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