Rats & Mice games begin, Solutions?

[puckpuck8]

Have tried the usual methods, keeping food stored in metal garbage cans. The use of mint family sprays, even live plants, sometimes that does attract them more, than repel.
Use sticky traps, unfortunately a couple small birds got stuck. Poison works somewhat, the good stuff the environmental do-gooders ban the use. Tried a product rat-X, it is slow to work.
Not convinced ultrasonic devices work, supposedly good ones are a few hundred dollars to purchase. There are pros & cons, more cons that ultrasonic devices work well for the money.

A guardian dog, like a rat terrier or a cat may work, where do you get a trained dog or cat that won't go after the chickens?

Have considered either making or buying the parts to make those water bucket traps shown on various websites. Looks like the least costly method that works.

What has worked for you to protect your backyard chickens from these disease carrying rats & mice?

What solutions have the backyard chickens members found that really works?

Is it one thing or a combination of things used to get the results?

Thank you

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ive been using poison only thing that seems to work

 

[Folly's place]

For rats, it's been poison in bait stations, and down any rat holes then covered with a brick.
For mice, the old metal snap traps work, but can't be set where chickens can get to them.
Right now I'm dealing with mouse overload in our coop, and have found a WONDERFUL gadget! It's a Victor all metal live trap, listed as holding 'up to thirty mice'! Of course it doesn't but it has caught up to twelve at once!
I paid $15 at Ace hardware, and $10 on Amazon, for a 10"x 6" low box trap, and adding some chicken scratch and setting it up (now I have four of them!) at night, then taking them out when I let the birds out in the morning. Many mice each night!!! One week, 67 (!!!) so far! Never could have done this with snap traps.
I refuse to drown anyone, so I'm driving them to wild areas three or four miles from home. They had a nice last meal on me, and will have to start earning an honest living, or become dinner for a wild critter who needs to eat too.
Mice are easy to trap, rats, no.
Mary

 

[Geena]

This one, Mary? https://www.amazon.com/Victor-M310S-Trap-Catches-Geometric-Pattern/dp/B00004RAMU
If so, looks like they are $4.20 right now!
I usually keep a half a dozen snap traps set up 24/7/365, but I might have to get a few of those. I won't drown anything either, don't want to bother with relocation though... guess I could dump them out for the dogs to kill

 

[Folly's place]

It's listed at $13 on my screen. And you can also get those awful glue boards with them, and never will do that!!!
Yes, that's the trap. Once the trigger plates got stuck on some of the grain bait, so now I make sure they work before placing them back out there.
More mice today! I'll count when I release them. And our dogs aren't going to get them either.
Mary

 

[Geena]

It's listed at $13 on my screen.

Don'tcha just love their pricing algorithms? Still says $4.20 on mine.

Yeah, IMO those glue traps are disgusting and cruel. I've also had to remove those from multiple animals that have had the misfortune of getting those dang things stuck in their fur.

 

[Folly's place]

So eight mice in three of the four traps set last night. Total of 75 so far!!!

 

[montanabirdlady]

Have tried the usual methods, keeping food stored in metal garbage cans. The use of mint family sprays, even live plants, sometimes that does attract them more, than repel.
Use sticky traps, unfortunately a couple small birds got stuck. Poison works somewhat, the good stuff the environmental do-gooders ban the use. Tried a product rat-X, it is slow to work.
Not convinced ultrasonic devices work, supposedly good ones are a few hundred dollars to purchase. There are pros & cons, more cons that ultrasonic devices work well for the money.

A guardian dog, like a rat terrier or a cat may work, where do you get a trained dog or cat that won't go after the chickens?

Have considered either making or buying the parts to make those water bucket traps shown on various websites. Looks like the least costly method that works.

What has worked for you to protect your backyard chickens from these disease carrying rats & mice?

What solutions have the backyard chickens members found that really works?

Is it one thing or a combination of things used to get the results?

Thank you

If you raise a barn kitten around the chickens, that might be best bet. We have multiple barn cats, and we store feed by the cats food bowl. You can best the mice will be drawn out, and killed. They decimated our mice/rodent population .

 

[texsuze]

Snakes have been my best defense, honestly. Otherwise, if you can find the battery-operated, self-contained mouse zapper, those are nice. TSC has them from time to time. Hands-free, no mess, re-useable, no worries about chickens getting hurt.

I also use the old-fashioned Victor snap traps baited with peanut butter. I ALWAYS carefully place them inside a closed box (shoebox, cracker box, etc. the right size to allow for the snap arm to work) that can be secured shut, into which I've cut two different mouse holes (about quarter-sized) for mouse entry. That way, non-target critters and chickens won't get hurt, and I can either take the whole contraption to the garbage, or open box, extract dead mouse from trap, and repeat.

Sticky traps are nasty, inhumane, and can catch unintended victims, including chickens if you're not careful. The bait blocks are notorious for poisoning non-target species like owls and other wildlife--you know, those animals who do the best job of rodent control.

 

[puckpuck8]

Ive been using poison only thing that seems to work

Yes that did work here too. Until the environmental groups on the West coast banned a lot of the stuff that works each year. Some people go out of State to buy the products to use.