My neighbor just told me he’s killed 3 rats in the last week. His barn is only about 300 feet away from mine and so he thinks I probably also have rats. I’ve never seen any but of course that doesn’t mean anything. I have a couple of holes that are somewhat suspicious but I know I have a couple groundhogs as I have seen them. So - what to do? Short of putting out traps, any suggestions?
And a barn cat is not an option as my spouse is very allergic.
We have used rat poison for short stints but be very careful if you have dogs/cats (and lots of other wildlife) because if they eat a “tainted” rat they can also be killed.
Lock up your feed and do your best with rat proofing chicken coops and such. Snakes are your friends!
The most important thing with rats is to remove attractions. What are they eating? And where are they living? Brainstorm on what you can do to elimination food and access.
Rats are so smart, but snap traps sometimes work. Some people have luck with bucket traps. I use Terad3 which has very low to no risk of secondary poisoning. It’s vitamin D. Accidental primary poisoning is still possible, so follow the directions and lock it in an appropriate bait box (same goes for ANY poison, never just leave it out.)
Best of luck. It’s been a heavy rodent year here. I’d never dealt with rats before moving to CT and it was such a surprise. Mine are mostly here for housing–they like to live next to the concrete barn foundation, or under the run in–but do snack on dropped grain and shred horse manure for undigested bits. Super frustrating.
Snap traps and poison in bait stations.
For the snap traps, bait them but don’t set them for a few days. Then bait and set them all.
Rats aren’t stupid like mice - they’re cautious and much harder to catch.
And be prepared to catch things you do not want to catch. I swear every time I try to use a rat snap trap I get more chipmunks than rats. I hate it.
Why “short of putting out traps”? If you want to get rid of rats, putting out traps would be your first and easiest option to consider IMO. There are snap traps which kill instantly. These are a problem if you have cats loose while they are set, but it sounds like you do NOT have cats, so no problem for you. I don’t know about groundhogs, whether they would also be caught and killed, or if you would care if they did. (perhaps they are your friends?). There are live traps, with a teeter totter which secures the rat in the trap alive until you come and decide what you want to do with him. There are bucket traps, where the rat falls into a bucket of water that he can’t get out of, and drowns.
Cats don’t usually DO rats, they are too big for a cat. Jack Russell terriers are “ratters”, catch and kill with a single snap. You could consider getting a dog that will do the job for you.
And, be prepared with a shovel to dispatch, as the traps are not always lethal. That always sucks.
Electric zap traps with a bit of cat kibble. They’ve outperformed any other method for us. Be sure to place them along a wall where rats scurry, not out in the open.
One advantage to these is you never have to touch the dead rat. Just tip it out. Another is we don’t catch any other wildlife in them, only rats and mice. And finally, humane, quick and painless kill.
Also, it’s awfully hard to get rats in traps or even eating bait if they have food elsewhere. Eliminating any and all food sources you can pushs them to risk food sources they would not consider otherwise. They are SO SMART. :-/
Depending on your location, someone like Jreed https://themongrolhoard.com/ or a local terrier club may be available for rat control. If you elect poison, please please avoid bromethalin. Have seen cats and dogs come in with fatal neurotoxicity and there is no antidote. Often secondary toxicity in animals doing their “job” catching rodents that had consumed the bait.
Truly I feel like this applies to the anti coagulants too. Sure, there are reversal agents for the dogs and cats that get caught in time, but so much wildlife dies from secondary poisoning 
The cholecalciferol baits work and are such low risk. No reason to not use them!
Definitely applies to anticoagulants --but at least we can probably treat the dog/cat IF we know what happened and it comes in before it’s bleeding. I really wish people would just use cats and traps. And don’t even get me started on strychnine
The problem is, rats are smart and most cats will not bother with them because they are so big.
The barn I know that has the biggest rat problem also has a lovely feral (maintained) cat population, but yet they still have rats.
Cats here are just a good source of coyote food, there are no roaming or barn cats alive or small dogs anywhere near me, just a pack of coyotes that check the place out nightly and even daily.
The only natural predictors we can count on for rodents are the hawks and owls.
I totally get it and totally wish I could just use cats and traps. I even do have a cat that rats, which is a rare thing.
But the rats that show up around here are very, very habituated to traps. It’s so rare that I get one, even with extensive pre baiting.
So we do all the things on keeping grain and feed locked up, and limiting housing as much as possible with hardware mesh around buildings, and do set traps, mainly at pinch points of ingress.
But cholecalciferol bait (Terad3) in locked bait boxes is a really key control measure for us.
Last I looked, there wasn’t a single report of secondary poisoning in the literature, although there were some reports of accidental primary poisoning. I’d so much prefer to not use any poison, but it’s just not tenable around here.
Highly recommend any cholecalciferol bait for others that just need more than environment modification and traps for control.
Bucket traps for rats have never failed us to control rats and many mice also.
A few inches of water at the bottom of bucket is enough.
Picture from the internet, we use a soda pop can:
I have to say that even at the barn with an outright infestation of rats, I have never successfully caught anything in these traps. I don’t know why!
We had an infestation of rats after we had record rains one summer.
We set two buckets in the quonset barn, one at each end.
First night we caught over 30 mostly rats, some mice in each bucket.
We caught many more for about a week, then just a few every night, until it was rare to find one anywhere.
Those seem infallible traps to us?
I’ve tried all sorts of types, baits, etc. No luck! I have better luck than most in the snap traps though
I feel like the standard five gallon bucket that you can buy anywhere is just not quite tall enough to keep a rat in, let alone more than one rat.
@Bluey, are you using some type of extra tall bucket?
The bucket in that image looks extra tall.
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