# Rats



## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Always an issue around a farm, large or small, if you grow grain they will come. After a societal collapse carefully hoarded food is at risk not to mention seeds stock for planting and harvested crops. What they don’t eat they contaminate in various ways.

I searched old posts but didn’t find one specifically dealing with this threat. Lets have a war on rats. I’m looking for ideas, the tried and true. How do we combat this threat in a grid down situation? Either ways to protect our supplies from them or how to go after them.

I read about a couple of “homemade” rat poisons on the net. One was plaster of paris based. Mixed with potato flakes or flour, milk to form a paste. I assume the rat eats some before it hardens. The mix hardens internally… no more rat.

The other was a similar mix but used baking soda as the “poison”. When ingested it produces carbon dioxide which rats can’t pass. Both novel approaches.

jeff47041 posted in another thread about using water, feed and buckets. I’ve seen rats accidentally trapped in such, another good idea.

Both dogs and cats are useful in this cause. Other ideas?


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

Ferrets are good rat killers. Also don't kill the snakes around the farm unless they are poisonous and a threat to livestock and family. Let the foxes live but secure your chickens. Same with birds of prey. Buckeye chickens will kill and eat mice and small rats.

Take an old soda can and put a 1/2" copper pipe through it. Place the pipe over a 5 gallon bucket. Fill the bucket 1/3 to 1/2 full of water. Place peanut butter on the soda can. When rat or mouse attempts to get the peanut butter the can will spin and drop them into the water where they drown.

I would not use poisons as your pets or livestock and other beneficial animals may ingest the dead rodent.

The other option is to secure your grain storage facilities and mother nature will sort things out to an acceptable level.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Jack Russell Terriers ...

They love to bark and dig and chase small animals (rats)

We have had her for 8 years now (a gift from out daughter ) She lives in the barn and will take out any rat she can find. We have been lucky with her and she minds well but when she is on the trail of a mouse/rat she will do what is needed to get it. (And all that is left to do is fill the hole back in.)

I know you were looking for other ideas but ... I don't care for poisons and never had much luck with the bucket trap.

Best of luck.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I have seen the damage rats can do, not only in houses and old buildings but especially on farms

Most people in Alberta have no idea how lucky they are in that aspect (no rats in Alberta).

For most similar pests I try to let the animals do their job as much as possible, then there are always good traps (and the tricks to good trapping).

After that come the big guns like "giant destroyer" smoke bombs, and even strychnine, propane and anhydrous ammonia (insert legal disclaimer here ) I *hate* the "poisons" that they have to eat several times and people leave around indefinitely.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

I don’t want to use commercial poisons, herbicides, pesticides or any such here on the farm on a good day. In a grid down situation most would be unavailable anyway.

I get over run by rats here every couple of years and am currently going through such. In desperation I was going to buy poison tomorrow but decided to hold off. Maybe there is a way to use this as a learning tool to share with everyone.

Speaking of poisons, how about natural ones? I can think of more than a few plants deadly to humans. Yellow jasmine comes to mind, since it depresses nerves it might just work on any mammal. How would I get a rat to ingest a single drop of tincture? Theoretically of course!


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Cotton said:


> I don't want to use commercial poisons, herbicides, pesticides or any such here on the farm on a good day. In a grid down situation most would be unavailable anyway.
> 
> I get over run by rats here every couple of years and am currently going through such. In desperation I was going to buy poison tomorrow but decided to hold off. Maybe there is a way to use this as a learning tool to share with everyone.
> 
> Speaking of poisons, how about natural ones? I can think of more than a few plants deadly to humans. Yellow jasmine comes to mind, since it depresses nerves it might just work on any mammal. How would I get a rat to ingest a single drop of tincture? Theoretically of course!


cnsper mentioned an old trick that I've heard really works good, the only thing I would add is to use a little dish soap to break the surface tension of the water as to make the drowning quicker, their hair will get soaked and they won't be able to swim for very long.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Grain storage has never been a problem with the rats. I just make sure they can't get to it (all grain storage is metal devices and blue poly drums anyway)

It's the other crazy destructive damage they do.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*I have no solutions*

My family has been small grain (wheat, milo and cane) farmers and cattle ranchers for decades. There were always graineries for grain storage on the properties, complete with rodents, and the snakes that eat the rodents. Any grain that is spilled supports the rodent population, and then the snake population.

One summer I was tasked with mowing around a set of 5 graineries set in an L shape with a hand mower. The rats were everywhere and the mower was problematic. It was hot as hell and once the mower ran out of gas, I could not get it to restart! (I hate those tools with the pull cords!)

The snakes that hung out there were all sorts, including rattlers, bullsnakes, and who knows what else. They were well fed snakes. I once ran over one with both front tires at the same time. I know they eat the rodents, but yuck!


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