Why I Kill Rats

Awww! They ARE so cute. I love to watch them run around and play. However, here are my reasons for wanting them out of the coop.

1.  Once they establish, you will be overrun with them. All it takes is one litter to make a mess of your property.

2.  They chew holes through just about anything.

3.  They BM everywhere! You clean it, more BM shows up.

4.  They tinkle everywhere! You can't get the smell out of whatever they tinkle on.

5.  They shred insulation and carry it everywhere.

6.  They are fast! You can't shoot them easily. (This is a whole other post...maybe.)

7.  They eat everything except rat poison.

8.  They carry diseases, including rabies.

Yeah. I used to be a no-kill person until the day those 15 ran the rafters over my head. It would've been OK, but the roof was 6 foot high. The rafters were pretty low. The good thing is they are more afraid of me than I was of them and they ran like blue blazes. Now, if one would've fallen on my head, I'd probably have been institutionalized out of fright.

I hope you don't think bad of me for snapping them in a trap. They are REALLY a nuisance.

Take care.

P.S.  All bait suggestions are welcome. ; )

Drat that Rat! (Not for queasy stomachs.)

We have chickens. Therefore, we have rats! Yeah. The big buggers!

We don't have just any ol' rats. We have smart wood rats. We bought this to humanely catch and release them.

Humane Small Animal Trap

We baited with yummy peanut butter. We tried yummy bacon. We mixed peanut butter and seeds. We sprinkled a light trail to the trap. We did everything we could think of, baited with everything we thought a rat would find yummy, and the rats are way too smart to take the bait.

Then, we tried the rat poison blocks. I'm not keen on them because if your pet gets a hold of them, the Coumadin in the blocks could kill your babies. Now, if you have 15 rats climbing the rafters a few inches from your head when you walk into the coop, this sounds like a pretty good solution, right? Guess again. They wouldn't touch it.

Then, we tried the spring-loaded traps. We caught a few with these traps. This was our best weapon, but it wasn't foolproof. Yeah. They snapped the traps without getting caught and ate the bait. I even attached the bait with dental floss so they couldn't take the bait without snapping the trap. The rats wouldn't touch it so the fire ants ate all of that bait.

When's the best time to catch rats? In the winter when the fire ants aren't so active. Otherwise, you'll lose your bait to the ants by morning.

Sorry for the bad post, but such is the life on the little farmstead.

Take care.