Rats!!

[MaryN]

O.K., you guys, I need some recommendations. I have started to notice an incursion of rats recently. Obviously we have them anyway - we live in the country - but these things are getting a bit too big for their boots. One nearly ran over my feet yesterday and that is too close for comfort. We can't really bait - I don't want to risk pets and other innocent wildlife, and OH is talking about shooting the blasted things - for that we need some sort of firearm. I know nothing about firearms, but I am sure some of you have a few recommendations. Are there online sites for comparison, and what would a good price be? You know, all the usual stuff. All info gratefully received. We don't want to pay a fortune, but I don't have any comparisons to fall back on.

[Midnitemo]

Air rifle would be my first choice , followed by a small bore shotgun .410 most likely(possibly (9mm RF)....look on guntrader if you decide shotgun...from about £25 and up used to about £150 and up for new.....if you go with a cheap air rifle then the trigger is the most important thing...all cheap air rifles are decently accurate and fairly robust nowadays but a good trigger makes all the difference.

---

Chiappa badger is an interesting little shotgun...might be worth a look...folds up quite compact and weighs very little...only down side is the 9mm rf cartridge is not very manly and can be difficult to source and pricey comparatively...failing that there are many singles to choose from and you can't go wrong with a Baikal.

[Barneyboy]

Hi ,peanut butter ,and rat traps ,the metal ones I have found much better than the plactic traps, spread the peanut butter in a big smear ,on the traps and in places low down we're they run at the side of the fence and wall ,it might take two to three days to get any rats ,the idea of spreading the peanut butter were they run is it rubs off on there fur ,when they go back to there nest the other rats will clean each other and will get used to the taste and smell ,a rat will not eat anything it has not tasted before hope this helps ,they are smart littles buggers so don't get too mad if you don't get any for the first week ,just keep the traps baited and the runs baited ,when you do get the rat don't handle it with out gloves ,good luck

[Midnitemo]

sorry its the little squirrel not badger...2 for sale at £150 on guntrader at the moment....search shotgun then select folding in the type section then .410 and 9mm rf followed by search...tis a very light load and will not destroy anything inadvertently....which makes it quite good for ratters.

[Devonian]

I agree with Barney on this, you are going have to use traps or poison to control them properly.

You may get a few with an air rifle, but it'll be time consuming and not overly effective.

[Barneyboy]

Very true dev ,spent along time sitting there with my gun ,only to see them run off when I had to go for a wee

[MaryN]

I'm not sure where exactly the blasted things are coming from. They are attracted to the feed in our chicken runs - although I don't leave it out at night - and they are quite blatent. I haven't spotted any runs yet, so I'm not too happy about the idea of poison (we have hedgehogs in the garden and the poor little things need all the protection they can get! not to mention our own cats). I suppose we could use traps, but then we have these flippin' pigeons as well.......

[Scythe13]

Gorse - £0.00 if collected from the wild. Trust me with this. In the Victorian era they used to use gorse to stop rats getting into barns and attacking food stocks. It really works. Just chop a load and lay it to stop them going over it. Best used stuffed into rat holes and placed around areas you don't want them in. Only issue will be if you surround your house/barn/whatever, you'll not get new ones coming in, but you'll also be trapping the current ones you have into the vicinity.

Guns, poison, traps, snares, whatever…I shoot over 50 rats a week, and there is still plenty more where they came from. One gram of prevention is worth more than a tonne of cure…or a tonne of rat poison.

The ones that are trapped, a whippet, jack russel, or other farm dog would be a good place to start. For the guns, you'll hardly find many out in the day. If they are, then they're very gutsy. For a gun you'll need a night vision system too. Pretty much any air rifle, whether .177 or .22, it doesn't matter. I've used both and neither has made a rat more dead than the other. As for power, it doesn't take a load of power to take out a rat. 6ft/lb would do it fine. But I use my 9ft/lbs Crosman 2250 indoors, and outdoors. But if going longer range, I go with a stronger springer, closer to 12ft/lbs (the legal limit for non-FAC air rifles).

Personally, if I didn't have the rifle and set up I have, bare in mind I hate dogs (even though we have 3) I'd gorse it up, then set bait boxes down. Check them daily, keep them topped up. Put them near rat holes. Then relax. Either that or I'd get the gorse in place and borrow a friend's ratting dog or ferret, and do it that way.

An interesting note, if you catch 4 or 5 rats and lock them in a relatively small blacked out container together, and starve them of food, they will eventually eat each other, until only 1 rat is left alive. This one rat has then produced cannibalistic tendencies, and if added to a rat infested area, will start killing and eating all the other rats. No joke, it will favour eating other rats, than eating any other food in it's path. Sounds sick, but it works.

[Barneyboy]

As long as you use peanut butter there will be no probs ,for me poison is not the way to go ,if you are worried about hedgehogs getting trapped ,then cover the traps with a box and cut a hole in all four sides ,small holes ,rats will stick to the edge of the Fence of walls so that is there runs

[Scythe13]

Rats will zigzag through grass until they feel confident, and then you'll get rat runs. Until then don't waste too much time looking for runs. One of the best ways to spot a run is to get lower to the ground. Crouching is always a good way to make runs clearer, in my experience. "If you have chicken, you have rats." These are the words of my best made who looks after one of the top chicken farms in the UK (over 100'000 chickens on one site, and the other has around 70'000). After you kill a few with a rifle, they'll become gun-shy, and as soon as they hear a shot, the smarter ones will run away. Then you're trapped with just a load of very intelligent rats in the area.

---

Totally forgot, if they're indoors, put a little sprinkle of flour on the floor, and they'll leave tracks in it. Sand will do the same outside.