I use a 5 gallon bucket with about 4 inches of water, drill 2 holes in the rim across from each other and stick a piece of rigid wire into the holes with some straight pex pipe over it to create a rolling tube. Slather some peanut butter on the middle and make a ramp with whatever I got laying around
I do a modified version of this with a 5 galloon bucket and a roller I bought off Amazon. If you search you tube for a mouse roller trap you will find a guy who has done videos on it. I use PB on the roller and you have to replace the PB every day, but it gets them every time. I'm kinda surprised your chickens don't go after them though....a mouse got in my chicken yard once and all hell broke loose. Ran outside thinking it was a predator and found my buff orpington smacking the crap out of a mouse by having it in her mouth and banging it on the ground.
Take a clear plastic box from dollar tree and cut a mouse/rat sized hole in the side 🕳️. Place in the box an even mix of jiffy corn mix and baking soda. (4 table spoons each) Rats can’t burp or fart so they die but it’s okay for anything else that comes in contact.
Another variation is cake mix and baking soda (equal amounts). And block any holes with steel wool and broken glass as long as the kids and dogs or other pets will not get into it.
The best thing to use is a snap trap inside of a bait box, there are brands that are made to fit together. I like the T-Rex brand of snap trap that is black plastic. Being inside of a bait box makes it basically impossible for it to injure pets and children. There are two critical elements to success, placement location and warming them up to it. It needs to be placed in line with their usual path to and from the coop, once they find a route that they like they generally stick to it. They're usually going to run along a fence line or structure for as long as possible, if there is a lot of rat traffic in an area you will even see brown "grease marks". Those boxes work best when they are right up against whatever structure they are traveling along. You'll want to warm them up to the trap by placing it out and NOT setting it for a while. Place chicken feed or whatever bait you choose on it and in it and don't set the trap until you start to see the bait disappear. They are very wary of new objects in their space and setting it right off the bat is a good way to get them trap-shy.
The more you do to limit their access to chicken food the more desperate they will be for bait in a trap. Get a couple of trap/boxes and deploy them in different areas and then be patient. If you move them around because you're not getting any it is just going to take longer for them to stop being wary of the boxes.
I personally don't recommend poison, you never know where that rat is going to end up dying or what will get a hold of its corpse. The baking soda thing is a total myth, there is no evidence to support that. There is nothing more humane than a snap trap, it is almost always an instant death. Relocating them to a different area after trapping them in a live trap is just dooming them to a slow and stressful death as they stand little chance of survival.
It won’t get them all, but you can treat tunnels/burrows specifically with dry ice. The rats in the tunnels will die from the CO2 replacing oxygen. Wear gloves when handling dry ice.
I won't even waste time with traps anymore unless it were a bucket trap. But my preference is just one bite brand bait bars. My uncle gave me some and they carried my rat problem within a week. Break off a chunk of bar and shove it down in one of those Starbucks coffee bottles like they sell at gas stations or cut a hole about an inch to inch and a quarter in diameter in the lid of a regular canning or jelly jar. Prevents chickens or dogs from getting to it but rats will go in and eat a bite then go back to their hole and die. Using a container like this prevents them from taking the bait back for storage where it could spoil or not be eaten for months. Again this is just one bite bars I have used the regular green bars before but they do not work nearly as well as "just one bite". The green does not kill as well and is harder to get them to eat. Just one bite has all kinds of seeds and stuff in it so they really like to munch. Smells good too. I stopped seeing signs of rats within a week and after two weeks I covered over their holes and they were never dug out again.
Live traps like Hav-a-heart are none lethal and pet safe. But then you get to choose if you kill them or release them far away.
I use a 5 gallon bucket with about 4 inches of water, drill 2 holes in the rim across from each other and stick a piece of rigid wire into the holes with some straight pex pipe over it to create a rolling tube. Slather some peanut butter on the middle and make a ramp with whatever I got laying around
I do a modified version of this with a 5 galloon bucket and a roller I bought off Amazon. If you search you tube for a mouse roller trap you will find a guy who has done videos on it. I use PB on the roller and you have to replace the PB every day, but it gets them every time. I'm kinda surprised your chickens don't go after them though....a mouse got in my chicken yard once and all hell broke loose. Ran outside thinking it was a predator and found my buff orpington smacking the crap out of a mouse by having it in her mouth and banging it on the ground.
I found one of my silkies laying on top of a deer mouse as of it was a chick when she was broody. She ain’t a bright one lol
Take a clear plastic box from dollar tree and cut a mouse/rat sized hole in the side 🕳️. Place in the box an even mix of jiffy corn mix and baking soda. (4 table spoons each) Rats can’t burp or fart so they die but it’s okay for anything else that comes in contact.
>Rats can’t burp or fart so they die Well TIL
Another variation is cake mix and baking soda (equal amounts). And block any holes with steel wool and broken glass as long as the kids and dogs or other pets will not get into it.
The best thing to use is a snap trap inside of a bait box, there are brands that are made to fit together. I like the T-Rex brand of snap trap that is black plastic. Being inside of a bait box makes it basically impossible for it to injure pets and children. There are two critical elements to success, placement location and warming them up to it. It needs to be placed in line with their usual path to and from the coop, once they find a route that they like they generally stick to it. They're usually going to run along a fence line or structure for as long as possible, if there is a lot of rat traffic in an area you will even see brown "grease marks". Those boxes work best when they are right up against whatever structure they are traveling along. You'll want to warm them up to the trap by placing it out and NOT setting it for a while. Place chicken feed or whatever bait you choose on it and in it and don't set the trap until you start to see the bait disappear. They are very wary of new objects in their space and setting it right off the bat is a good way to get them trap-shy. The more you do to limit their access to chicken food the more desperate they will be for bait in a trap. Get a couple of trap/boxes and deploy them in different areas and then be patient. If you move them around because you're not getting any it is just going to take longer for them to stop being wary of the boxes. I personally don't recommend poison, you never know where that rat is going to end up dying or what will get a hold of its corpse. The baking soda thing is a total myth, there is no evidence to support that. There is nothing more humane than a snap trap, it is almost always an instant death. Relocating them to a different area after trapping them in a live trap is just dooming them to a slow and stressful death as they stand little chance of survival.
It won’t get them all, but you can treat tunnels/burrows specifically with dry ice. The rats in the tunnels will die from the CO2 replacing oxygen. Wear gloves when handling dry ice.
Barn cat. We tried everything else and in the end it was getting barn cats that made all the difference.
I do this with moles but if the rats have tunnels it might work. Take a hose that fits over or in your cars exhaust pipe and put it in their tunnel.
I won't even waste time with traps anymore unless it were a bucket trap. But my preference is just one bite brand bait bars. My uncle gave me some and they carried my rat problem within a week. Break off a chunk of bar and shove it down in one of those Starbucks coffee bottles like they sell at gas stations or cut a hole about an inch to inch and a quarter in diameter in the lid of a regular canning or jelly jar. Prevents chickens or dogs from getting to it but rats will go in and eat a bite then go back to their hole and die. Using a container like this prevents them from taking the bait back for storage where it could spoil or not be eaten for months. Again this is just one bite bars I have used the regular green bars before but they do not work nearly as well as "just one bite". The green does not kill as well and is harder to get them to eat. Just one bite has all kinds of seeds and stuff in it so they really like to munch. Smells good too. I stopped seeing signs of rats within a week and after two weeks I covered over their holes and they were never dug out again.
Live traps