Rats living UNDER stall mats???

[spotnnotfarm]

@Horse Rider

Do you have any friends with indoor cats? Bear with me.

I live in a townhouse community where my neighbors tend to leave trash out and I admittedly have a bird feeder. Rat heaven!

Rats burrowed under my shed, so I collected some of the used kitty litter (urine soaked, if that isn’t clear) and tucked it down the hole. Immediate fix. I use the clumping, smell controlling type, so it’s not overly smelly to me and it dries to nothing fast enough that I wouldn’t worry about odor or ammonia in a barn, but if you lift the mats, line some entrance areas with litter and go about your business, the rats will move elsewhere.

Yes, it won’t fully remove them from your barn but rats can really tunnel and a bumpy, lumpy stall mat is a tripping and cleaning hazard all over the place. Also, once you kill rats, more move in, so I just prefer to make myself an unfriendly neighbor so they pass through quickly.

Please be aware that the cholecalciferol poisons we are now limited to are untreatable toxins. An exposed pet either survives with supportive care or dies. There’s no antidote like we had with the Vitamin K related products. I won’t allow it on my property because I’ve got a couple of seriously food motivated dogs who were bred to tunnel after rats. If the rats can reach it, so can they. They’re personally very disappointed that the kitty litter worked, as they like rat catching and don’t quite understand my shrieks…

This is the best idea!!! Also, I have a friend that breeds snakes, I wonder if she could find me two ratters.

[Simkie]

@Horse Rider

If the rats can reach it, so can they.

Yeah, certainly–if a locked bait box is not enough of a deterrent for your dogs, no rat baits are going to be safe. Terad3 can certainly cause problems via PRIMARY poisoning if non target animals get into it.

I don’t think it’s very attractive for most dogs, but if yours are determined enough and have access for long enough to chew through a bait box … :eek: :eek:

[TMares]

@Simkie I bet she’s responding to the ‘just put it under the mats’ and has not noticed your link to the boxes, at least I think that is possible.

I can say from experience that cats don’t tackle rats. I will get a couple of those boxes , Simkie. That will be good to bait and leave in place
.

[16_Hands]

@Simkie

Yeah, of course they do. They go in, eat the bait. And die.

Handle the bait boxes with gloves and mess with them as little as possible. I check mine and rebait quarterly or so now.

Same goes with the traps if you go that route. Glove up, leave them alone (other than rebaiting.)

The more you move and mess with this stuff, the more rats will avoid it.

These are the ones that my barn uses and I’ve only seen one rat and that one was on its way out and I don’t mean packing its bags and moving. I think they have a company that comes and replaces the bait every so and so often.