Wild Rat Problem

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Goldenchaos
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Wild Rat Problem

Post by Goldenchaos »

Wild rats have been seen in my backyard, eating my birds' seed, and even, killing one of them (This was a while back)..thus, I want them dead and gone, and out of there.

They arent huge rats, so, those large rat traps arent working. I did the whole trap..thing, where you leave it unset for awhile, then set it, so they can get caught. Aint working, they get the stuff before the trap snaps. Ive set up sticky traps as well, one hasnt gotten anything yet, the other, the stupid dog in the back got to...causing dirt to fall all over it.

Anyway, I want to avoid commercial poisons, since that can end up killing other animals, besides the rat. So, short of doing that, as its my last resort. What else can I do? What foods are horribly poisonous to rats? Or anything poisonous to them? Again, the poison is my last resort. So, if other things don't work..:\ Ill have to go with this option..

And..how effective is coca cola to rats? ..I keep reading its a good form to get rid of them since they cant burp, but..thats kind of hard to believe.

Yea, I wouldnt do this if the rats were just ..there, and doing nothing, but they ARE, and I don't want a repeat of months ago, and find one of my doves dead from a rat.

Oh, yea, the backyard is pretty open. Theres an outside cage, which doesnt have any crevice a rat can sleep in. Though there is a blue plastic rolled up tarp that smells of rat piss, and a metal chiminey thing that was taken out from the one we had inside. They are VERY likely comin from the neighbors house, going across a wooden fence, and up to here. Since heres a cement wall between our house and theirs.

:| So, yes, there we go, any help is appreciated..and no, I don't hate rats..pet rats, no, I like them. Its the wild ones Im not too fond of.
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Jessi
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Jessi »

*cough* It's very hard for me to reply to this topic, because I honestly think you're being unreasonable. The rats are outside - in THEIR natural habitat, as far as a wild Norwegian rat is concerned. But either way. I would rather respond and hope you don't decide to torture any wild rats rather than just ignore this topic.

Rats can't burp, it's true, but they're also not stupid. A rat is not going to drink a carbonated beverage you leave out for them. Poisons or poisonous foods (which there really aren't any of) do not work on rats a lot of the time because one rat will try the food/poison, and when the others realize what it does, simply avoid it. Not to mention that commercial poisons are simply -cruel-. It can take the animal hours, even days to die from poison, and it would be a torturous experience for them.

If I were you, I would try using live traps, but then again, that would take ages. So would snap-trapping them - rats multiply like crazy. If you're really concerned, call an exterminator. You should also stop using the glue traps immediately, which are disgustingly inhumane. A rat will chew off its limbs to free itself from a gluetrap when caught, so you'll find a glue trap with a leg, some fur, and dried blood on it, and the rat wanders off to die a much painful death elsewhere.

Of course, I think any trap besides a live trap or a properly set snap trap is inhumane, and a lot of people would agree with me, I'm sure.
Goldenchaos
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Goldenchaos »

I wouldnt do this if they were just eating the bird seed. Bird seed is bird seed, and I can just replace that. Its that they have attacked my doves (Theyre outside in a huge cage..so they can fly around and all that, I know they did because one of was bleeding from the foot on the ground, with a rat there..), and even killed one of them. This I knew, cuz the bird had ..chew marks all over its back and head, it was disgusting.. its at this point that I didnt care what I did to them, I wanted them gone. I care too much about my doves to have it happen again to any of them..

I don't know if calling an exterminator would do any good, they arent in the house, so, theyre probably in the neighbors house...who is less than clean about their backyard, and probably the inside of their house as well. So there isnt a nest that they can get to

I havent found any place that has the live traps, I went to home depot, all they had was the snap traps and the glue ones, poison too.

I really, really don't want to come off as some cruel person because of this..Im not..

Would, removing the food source, be of any good? ..even so far as removing any place they can scurry down from?.. If can find live traps, Ill go ahead and use them..

The wierd thing in all this is that we never, ever had any kind of rat problem(just mice inside the house) till this year. And we've lived here for 14+ years
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checkers
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by checkers »

Not sure how much help this is, but simply googling 'How do I get rid of Wild Rats without hurting them?' a list came up that I found quite nice, it offers painful ways and alternatives which seem harder but will help; http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/pes ... sfull.html
Single-catch live traps do what you'd expect: catch one rodent alive. These are particularly popular among people who hate to hurt animals, because the mouse will be scared, but unharmed. You'll just have to deal with what to do with the mouse once you've caught it. If you live in an area where its likely that endangered rodent species will invade your home, get this kind of trap - that way, you can avoid a potentially hefty fine. Here's some more information about these humane traps.
That sounds best to me, http://www.abundantearth.com/store/mousetrap1.html it doesn't look painful, it may be scared but if you keep it in there and just release it into an open field or somewhere it would enjoy, it shouldn't be too upset. I don't think you should kill/put it in pain, (wild)Rats are annoying and can carry illness but none the less they're animals. I suppose you could ask your neighbour to clean theirs and do the same if you suspect that it's from them, but if you're really worried maybe checking where the rats come from and blocking it off and making sure they can't get into your Doves caged area.
Jessi
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Jessi »

Removing the food might help, but it might not. Rats are known for going after birds if they have the opportunity. Maybe you should consider putting chicken wire around your aviary. It would make it so the barspacing is no longer big enough for the rats to enter, essentially solving your problem. This is the problem with having an outdoor aviary - or ANY sort of animal outdoors in a cage or run, really.

Many times branches of the humane society will lease you live traps to use.

I won't comment on anything else, because I don't want to start drama here.

ETA - Oh, checkers, I feel the need to correct you, because the things you're saying are completely untrue.

First of all, a mouse trap like that won't work on a rat - they're too weak. If a rat were to get caught in a mouse-sized trap, it will not die instantly, but most likely end up breaking its neck of its own accord or suffocate to death.

Also, wild rats are NOT mean, nor do they carry disease. Wild rats are the exact same species of rats that people keep as pets - obviously just generations away from being domesticated. They are more scared of humans than interested in hurting them. Hunting mice, birds, etc is -natural- for a rat. They are not being cruel. They are trying to survive. There's a reason why I keep my budgie in a completely separate room from my rats. A rat killing a bird is no different than a cat killing a bird. It's natural in their eyes to do so.

As far as carrying diseases - sure, wild rats can have fleas, or mites, just like a dog that's outside can have fleas or mites, or a cat, or a bunny, or human, or any creature with hair. Rats rarely have diseases. They are seen as 'unsanitary' because they breed so fast and create waste, not because they carry disease. There has never even been one recorded example of a rat having rabies. The most dangerous diseases a wild rat could have - things like SDA and Sendai - are effective only to other mice and rats for the most part. Not humans.
Last edited by Jessi on 04 Nov 2007 06:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Goldenchaos
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Goldenchaos »

Yea, I think Ill do that Jessi. We have a large roll of wire..Ill use that to seal up any hole the rats might get into it., so at least that will stop them from getting into the cage.
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zebru
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by zebru »

I'm very sorry to hear about your dove Nyau, that must have been an awful sight to walk in to :(

Would a rat repellant work perhaps (without affecting the doves too)? A friend of mine uses a cat repellant for her yard with great success, maybe you could look into rat versions?
If you enter "rat repellant" in google quite a few different ones come up, but maybe it's best to check your local pet store/pharmacy first?

Also this might sound very simplistic and naive of me (I live in a flat on a third floor so my only pest problem are bugs) but would a large crate propped on a stick on one side with a long cord tied to the same stick and some food under do any good? Feel free to laugh if it's ridiculous. I guess it depends whether rats come out for food only at night or are cheeky enough to go out in the daylight if the spot some ungourded food - how timid are wild rats anyways? Naturally this would take someone looking over it and holding the cord so it's not an easy and fun solution by all means, but maybe it's worth a try? :/
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Wingsrising
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Wingsrising »

zebru wrote: Also this might sound very simplistic and naive of me (I live in a flat on a third floor so my only pest problem are bugs) but would a large crate propped on a stick on one side with a long cord tied to the same stick and some food under do any good? Feel free to laugh if it's ridiculous. I guess it depends whether rats come out for food only at night or are cheeky enough to go out in the daylight if the spot some ungourded food - how timid are wild rats anyways? Naturally this would take someone looking over it and holding the cord so it's not an easy and fun solution by all means, but maybe it's worth a try? :/
That's pretty much how a live trap works, except that you don't have to man it. :-)

I don't know about rats. I know the downside of live traps with mice is that your house actually IS their natural habitat. They're not meant to live in fields (unless it's a backyard with plenty of food) so if you release them into the wild, I gather they generally die unless they find some other building or backyard to go infest. I don't know if the same is true for rats.

My parents had a big problem with mice living in the backyard (and moving into the house for the winter) until a feral cat decided their mouse-filled backyard seemed like a nice place to raise a family. Of course, now they have a feral cat problem. :-) I don't know realistic it is but I might also be concerned that something that eats rats might decide to move in, which would be an excellent solution to your rat problem but probably not such a good solution to your somethings-eating-my-pets problem.
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Cranberry
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Cranberry »

My backyard was full of rats in the summer of 2006 -- we fed birds both in front of and behind the house, and the rats loved the birdseed. They mostly lived under and behind the garage (right next to Scout's fence -- they didn't seem scared of the huge dog at all), with an occasional foray into the front yard for food. I didn't mind them (I thought they were cute) until they started chewing on electrical wires around the base of the house, chewed a hole into the garage and left a huge mountain of seed shells and droppings behind a stack of stuff, and became braver about running into the front yard, so my neighbor saw them, freaked out and nagged us constantly about killing them. My dad, not caring for rats as much as I do, trapped a few, but they soon learned to stay away from the traps. Scout caught one or two. I brushed Scout and the cats and stuffed their fur around the electrical wires and in a couple holes under the doorstep where we didn't want the rats to go, and they avoided those places. We also took away the birdseed. The rats eventually left when food wasn't as easy to get... I haven't seen one in months.

One thing I read about was wild animal pee... bobcat and/or fox. Rats don't like that smell at all and will apparently avoid it. You can buy tubs of it, both liquid and powdered, I believe.
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Goldenchaos
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Goldenchaos »

Okay, I reinforced the bird cage, so now, it has two layers of wire, so they wont fit in there..also moved the dogs water dish to the side of the house where they come from..so they wont be too keen on showing up. Moved a bunch of junk, where they go under..AND, I purchased smelly foxpee powder, online. SO..thats will be used instead of traps and the like . I intend to put this around the house as well, just in case.
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Ziggy
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Re: Wild Rat Problem

Post by Ziggy »

I've been told that if you actually put a supply of food down for them elsewhere, away from the birds, like at the end of the garden, they'll stay there and eat and not bother anything else.
They come to your garden purely for the food thats there, no other reason.
If you can offer tham an alternative food supply that is away from your birds, it might work.

Really, though, the only effective way to get rid of rats is by removing the food source which attracts them. That really is the only remotely effective solution. Poison and traps and simply abhorrent, and shouldn't be used on a rat any more than you'd use them on a feral cat or dog. Live trapping then relocating them can work, but they tend to come back if not released far enough away. And plus, you wouldn't want to relocate any mothers who may have kittens, so that opens the door to you having to be able to sex them and tell if they're nursing and all that stuff.
Not what most people want to be bothered doing.

Hopefully, just reinforcing the birds enclosure should work fine and they should just be content to mill about but not bother attacking the birds. One thing about rats is that they are essentially quite lazy. If there is a better food source which is easier to get to, they'll go for that rather than waste time and energy trying to get into awkward places to get food.
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