i hate rescue.

You need a Maine Coone. A great, big Maine Coone.

i'd lend you my ginger doofus if i knew he wouldn't happily wander off. he loves mousing... it's his way of making new friends.

how about mixing a little bit of nutella or peanut butter in the bait. Our northern rodents love it. Just enough for them to appreciate the smell and taste. Personally I love the single sex gay comment and the PF solution. Would apps and HV apply? Source of revenue with adoption fees? OT how are the Hound Gals doing?

Part 2
This was my solution: I placed a plastic garbage can next to the roosting platform and put dried corn in the bottom. I removed all the food from the hen house.
The next morning and every morning for about a week there were between 5 to 6 rats in the bottom of the garbage can. They could fall in for the corn but not get out up the side of the can. I slammed the lid on and drove them to the forest and let them go...sort of a meals on wheels.
End of problem and end of chickens.

When I made the mistake many years ago of deciding to have laying hens I built a fabulous home for them...fully insulated, warm and dry with good grain and fresh water. The chickens loved it but so did the rats. They made tunnels through the insulation and I could watch them, eventually dozens of them, making their way to the food and water. Con't

Put them on Petfinder with photos and little bios.

Besides, rats are highly intelligent. And they communicate among themselves. Once you've trapped a couple the rest will avoid the trap.Ditto with poison unless they ALL eat it when its first put out.

Trapping them and moving them somewhere else is just making them someone else's problem. That's not really fair.

Don't call Ted the Terminator Inc.

Perhaps it is time to call in a professional exterminator.

How about live traps and move them somewhere. A land fill or a forest?

I have sonic things that you plug in in my foods classroom. Since I installed those I have had no mice problems because I too hate traps and sticky paper. The sonic things work great for mice not sure about rats or if they would bother the other animals. They are available at walmart.

On another subject, Cape Breton SPCA is sneaking up on Turtle Gardens in the Shelter Challenge again.

Forgot the link

http://www.senestech.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=view_template&templateID=29

Hopefully this is available, This could work for what Carol wants

Carol - I just sent you an email containing some info that might help. :)

don't laugh..i asked one of the vets about that a few years ago. i am already on the thin questionable lunatic thread and there was real horror very apparent that i would even think of bringing wild rats into the clinic...(disease and all of that.)

You could always trap the rats and spay/neuter them. LOL

what about your regular domestic house cat or two that are comfortable to stay in the barn area??? cats love to be outside and as long as they have f/w and dry shelter, straw bedding etc they would be the happiest cats around - perhaps installing a small pet door so they could come and go - rats know cats are around and they will stay no more.

See you at 4!

feral cats won't work very well..they will not stay because the dogs will chase or bug them outside...then we will have starving feral homeless cats outside and loose with no safe home to go to.

won't use the sticky pads or the snap traps either for that matter..tried them once before..it was horrible with the poor little things screaming and trying to chew off their feet or just laying trapped there passively starving to death or waiting for us to find them and end their suffering.... horrible way for them to die.

feral cats! great idea!!!

Feral cats work wonders....and you get to help some cats too

there are feral cats who might be very happy as a barn cat who could easily keep your rat population under control. Would this be an option? Check with other rescues if they have some ferals who would be very happy as a barn cat

a wall/pathway full of the sticky traps perhaps? I have those in my garage and they work like a charm.

rats are very good climbers, putting food up won't help.
we tried the locked boxes years ago..we use the same poison..it is warfarin..no secondary kills and the rats bleed out..relatively painless.
the barn rats never touched it...however the chicken coop rats and feed shed rats did eat some of it. but it is the barn ones i need to get to...at least 2 of them are obviously fully pregnant again...

Did they eat it at all? If so perhaps they went somewhere to die.

my exterminator places LOCKED boxes around which contain what he calls a "rodenticide". I can call them on monday and find out what it is because with this product there are no "secondary kills" (which is of supreme importance here what with 3 dogs and a toddler). It is not POISON... it screws with and somehow depletes their blood and then they die. Yea!

can you not put gideons non poisioned food up, like hang it from the wall somehow, so he could still eat in the nighttime?