Same experience with the bucket trap. Snap
Traps are the only thing that have worked for me. And my over zealous female dog. The barn cat is good too. I lock him up at night in my large feed room to avoid coyote predation.
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I’ve used XL buckets, and I’ve also gotten those pre-made traps of this type that have a bucket lid with a tippy door.
Nothin’. Nada. Not even with black sunflower seeds!
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Has no one used contraceptive bait? Not as satisfying as whacking rats with a shovel, or using rat shot for the firearm aficianado, but it will pretty quickly slow or stop any new rats from being conceived.
Snap traps and contraceptive bait would be my choice, as like @clanter, barn cats in my location are regularly picked off by coyotes.
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Have not heard of it.
And honestly, I doubt anyone really likes having to kill them. They just do not want them in their barn.
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Yeah, me neither. Not a damned thing in bucket traps, ever.
I think rats in urban areas are a lot different than rats in wild open wilderness. Rats here have seen traps. They’re smart, and wiley, and just aren’t going to fall for that shit.
Even with snap traps, I only catch young ones, or–rarely–will snag an adult if I set the trap behind a pinch point, where they have to cross to enter and can’t see it until they’re on top of it. Even with extensive pre baiting with high value food.
They just know better.
I’ve also never had such a load as 30+. It’s usually one or two that tries to make a home once it starts to get cold. Different ballgame with a hoard. A hoard is hungry.
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We used regular plastic buckets like the Home Depot ones in size?
I had some pictures with heaps of dead rats on the bottom, but they were so disturbing to come across I deleted from my album, sorry.
We used the cheapest plain smooth peanut butter smeared on a pop can twirling on the wire in the middle and long wood stakes or smaller tree branches for them to climb up there.
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I had a noticeable rat problem in my barn over a year ago. No food source for them but there they were, breeding like crazy – population explosion.
I bought rat birth control – bait stations that only rats/mice could enter. Non toxic to cats, hawks etc that could catch and eat the rats or mice.
The birth control stuff isn’t cheap and you can’t let it run out; constant supply necessary for success. It took awhile, maybe 8 months, but there are no rats in my barn – and though the birth control isn’t rated for mice, the mouse population has significantly decreased.
The stuff works! Senestech ContraPest is the company.
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Now that I said I don’t have a problem, I walked down to the barn this AM while it was still dark. I had a busy day yesterday and I did not put the lids on the feed cans. I heard a rustle - and there was Mr. Rat sitting in my bag of Ration Balancer. I called Gretel. She told me she did not go to work until after she had her breakfast. So it slithered away. But I feel confident she will get it in the near future. Fall is here and they are looking for warmer housing. And I have a problem getting flax seed out and grinding it without spilling some so I have been feeding them.
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I always get snakes, which breaks my heart because the snakes are the one thing that makes a dent in my rat population!
But this summer I did get quite a few rats in my snap traps.
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PSA If you have rats, check your vehicles often. My 350 burned up a few months ago. Fire investigator determined rats ate the insulation in the engine compartment which caused the fire that started while I was driving down the highway with my trailer.
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At least you saw it. I never saw a sign of a rat in the barn that I recall, until one day I was scooping out feed from a barrel (in a poorly lit area) and scooped up a rat to go with it. Yes I screamed like a girl. I believe the feed went flying…never saw another rat, though I’m sure they were hiding somewhere.
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we had rats in the barn, got a pellet gun shot a few, tried posion killed a few, got a good barn cat and the rats were gone in a week
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My pro tip is a big, fat rat snake.
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My area never had rats until COVID…some think it was the shut down of restaurants and cities sending them to the suburbs.
Anyway I had no luck with traps but this feral kitten showed up with double paws…I trapped her and got her fixed and she rid the barn or rats for a good year. I do see some signs that they may be back but I am sure she is working on it! She doe not eat the rats just leaves the bodies around for me.
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Nothing eats rats around here. The cats certainly do not, but the occasional raccoon or possum traveling around to see if they can find something or get into garbage - they don’t eat them either. Only crows eat rats so I try to throw the carcass far enough out in the pasture so the crows can get to them and clean them up. They are providing a service for me. I think the buzzards would eat them but they are too small for the effort.
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I lost my old ban cats (who were THE BEST ratters) a couple of years ago and the rat population exploded. I put RatX everywhere (only affects rodents, and is safe for all other species - cats, dogs, hawks, owls, etc.), and that’s helped a lot. Also, it makes them stop drinking, so the carcasses mummify instead of rotting…great when you have an infestation in places like your tack room walls (where my rats seem to prefer building nests). But nothing has worked as well as the great ratting cats.
I will periodically use traps, but they seem to only ever catch teenagers (I’m sure they’re the rats that roll their eyes at their moms and say things like, “gawd mom, I KNOW how to not fall for a trap”) and pretty much never the giant adults. My rat population seems to be down now, but my daughter does most of the night checks and says that she still sees a couple of big rats scurry away when she flips on the lights.
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Is your spouse allergic to Jack Russell Terriers? They are pretty lethal to most small animals. And they are cute, especially the wire hairs.
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I have one cat (came from a feral cat colony) and I have never seen a better rat or mouser. He is quick and efficient. There was a rat on my porch and I opened the door and it was dead in under 30 seconds. Never had a chance. He goes right for the neck.
I think he has hunted out the mice as I have not seen one in a long time. Haven’t seen any rats at all since that last one. Now he is going for the geckos. But they can climb and have a good chance of escape.
One source of food most people don’t think of is hay. That nice premium alfalfa you have in the barn, a hungry rat will probably chew on or nest in and there’s not much you can do if your horse drops grain at feeding time. The best thing I have found is to feed grain in the pasture and not the stall. If they are running across the field it’s easier for a rat to get caught by a bird of prey.
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I will say the worst barn I have ever seen for a rat infestation, fed an entire scoop of sweet feed twice per day (and had unsecured grain in a wheel barrel). They had the biggest, fattest rats you have ever seen and some of the most obese squirrels.
Let’s just say they were feeding the wildlife in addition to the horses. Those rats were so well fed, I doubt poison would work.
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