How can I kill rats in my backyard when I have dogs that run the yard...

[ikemay]

Anyone have any experience with equal parts of this plaster of paris/fixall, flour, and sugar/baking soda combination either in mixed powered form or with water to harden and place strategically in travel locations?

I like killing them in place, I don't want them crawling off to die and stinking things up or my dog finding one and eating and maybe getting sick or rolling all over it.

 

[Alexx1401]

I like killing them in place, I don't want them crawling off to die and stinking things up or my dog finding one and eating and maybe getting sick or rolling all over it.

My dogs have caught a few to bring into the house over the years. Thankfully they don't eat them. Just bring them in to show us they caught them. Stand there all proud of themselves when they do. LOL

 

[teflon6string]

Rats are EVERYWHERE, yet we're often surprised when they emerge in "nice" neighborhoods as if they should only inhabit loading docks, abandoned warehouses, homeless camps and Chipotles.

I recently moved out of a toney locale in Moldnomah County. Won't miss my next door neighbor at all with one of those miserable shrieking little swiffer dogs. When I noticed heavy rat traffic on her lawn in broad daylight, I offered that one of my boys would leap at the opportunity to set up with a folding chair and BB gun if she'd sport him a 6-pack of Dr. Pepper.

Turns out this idiot knows that a huge block of bird feed on her elevated balcony generates chunks of bait falling onto her lawn, luring rats up out of the ivy to feast all day/night. And she's fine with that, a-hole. Point is, your neighbors may be inadvertently (or perhaps knowingly) contributing to your rat problem.

Sadly, even with active extermination in progress, rats will continue to populate any area to some degree. But some targeted rodenticide (whichever method you choose) might help slow/reverse the occurrence of an out of control infestation.

 

[ikemay]

My dogs have caught a few to bring into the house over the years. Thankfully they don't eat them. Just bring them in to show us they caught them. Stand there all proud of themselves when they do. LOL

Oh yeah, my dog has gotten a few rats, along with rabbits, squirrels. That's why I don't use anything to poison them in case he gets them. I mean, I have nothing against the guy getting a snack every once in awhile, he is after all a carnivore. LOL!

 

[jbett98]

In SW Portland the sewer system is old and the rats have free run inside the pipes.
When I found a rat tunnel coming out of the ground at my apartment building, I would smash up a glass jar and shovel it down the rat hole, then tamp some dirt on top of it.
They would move on to some other location and not come back.

 

[teflon6string]

Large garbage can or bucket full of water with suspended bottle and a ramp like these videos.
...

+1 on the (chunky) peanut butter coated roller wheel over a bucket of water. I know it works for mice. Just make sure it's large/deep enough for big rats.

Mouse traps aren't worth a darn on big rats. They'll scamper away with a little trap stuck on a leg and chew it (the trap) off somewhere else.

Big traps (the kind that could break a careless finger) work well as long as you can keep innocent domestic pets away from them. Especially if you set them up right in the bin where you collect those sweet smelling empty beer bottles.

 

[clearconscience]

I use sticky traps in my garage for mice though. Works great

 

[billdeserthills]

Unless you are talking papering the device it's not really worth risking many years in prison to kill some pests.

I heard an empty plastic pop bottle works ok, but I can't do the time or the fine

 

[Sgt Nambu]

The only thing I'd like to add is that rats are extremely neo-phobic!
They hate, fear and avoid new things, so some folks I know place the unarmed traps and baits out for 2-3 weeks before baiting them! Good luck, I hate the neked tailed disease factory's!

 

[Stomper]

There is a large number of rats in the back yard so I am thinking of a way to mass kill and or driving them out of the yard????

If they're in your woodpiles, easy fix..... FIRE!!



Last year I actually found a fairly good sized wild turtle (native Oregon turtle) in my back yard trying to bury itself in the dirt to get away from the dogs... I'm at least a mile from any free flowing water sources. We drove it out to the local river and set it on the bank to do whatever it would do. (Karma bank)

 

[Captain O]

Employ the old "2-liter bottle as a silencer" trick and clean off all the adhesive from the barrel of your .22 LR when you are finished.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

One of my most fond memories was back in the Military on a weekend pass. Me and a buddy went to his mothers apartment in Harlem that overlooked a loading dock. After dinner out came pump BB guns and we sat on the fire escape and shot rats. We killed numerous amounts of them. Come morning not a dead one was visible as they carried off their dead. Get the picture. Bring the dogs in. Bait the yard and have a Rat Shoot.

They do?! That's creepy

 

[Stomper]

They do?! That's creepy

They actually eat their own.

 

[Connor Murphy]

No rodent left behind.

 

[Mikej]

If they're in your woodpiles, easy fix..... FIRE!!



Last year I actually found a fairly good sized wild turtle (native Oregon turtle) in my back yard trying to bury itself in the dirt to get away from the dogs... I'm at least a mile from any free flowing water sources. We drove it out to the local river and set it on the bank to do whatever it would do. (Karma bank)

You know Stomp, that's illegal? I had a "Brush Rabbit", (Sylvilagus bachmani). A native in the NW, that was making my backyard it's home. FAST little bunny! I called ODFW just for the heck of it and they informed me it was against the law for me to find some brush to release it in. Go figure huh?

 

[Stomper]

You know Stomp, that's illegal? I had a "Brush Rabbit", (Sylvilagus bachmani). A native in the NW, that was making my backyard it's home. FAST little bunny! I called ODFW just for the heck of it and they informed me it was against the law for me to find some brush to release it in. Go figure huh?

I rarely ask for permission anymore, it's easier to just do what needs doin'.

 

[Alexx1401]

I rarely ask for permission anymore, it's easier to just do what needs doin'.

I did this years ago here with a Possum. Got up one night and a young one had come in the dog door and made a home above the PC in the window. I carried it out back and dropped it on the other side of the fence. Next day it was back. So again over the fence and put a live trap there. That night I heard the trap and there it was again. So I took it to a local park and green belt and let it go. I was told this was also illegal for me to do. I have lost untold nights sleep over it.

 

[01rednavigator]

I hate using poison, if a neighborhood cat or dog gets the mouse or rat after it's eaten the poison then they are going to get sick or die. Also if you poison them and you can't find the carcass then you will be dealing with a horrible smell for awhile.

I just use the old school wood and spring traps and I have always had good luck with them.

For bait I use a piece of cheese covered in peanut butter.

I also attach a small length of chain to the trap and secure it to something, I have heard that rats can run away while stuck in the trap before they die.

 

[SynapticSilence]

The damn things got into my daylight basement walls and ceilings. Cost me $10K in repairs. Took a good pest control service a month to kill them all while in the mea time I had dead rats stinking up my basement. Kill them. Kill them all.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Make sure the rodenticide is a non secondary poison. Doubt decon is, read the label though.

A bait called "Contract Blox" is a NSP type of bait. If the rat dies in the open and the dogs snack on the rat, the dead rat in turn cannot poison the dog.

Also, make sure you clean up after your dogs. Rats can live exclusively on dog fecal matter. If you have bird feeders/squirrel feeders, get rid of them. Permanently. Those are magnents for all kinds of unwanted pests.

Unless you were trapping in a home or crawlspace (closed, protected areas) the chances of non target pests setting off your traps are high.. Then, getting a false strike or flat out making the rats trap shy because they got winged instead of directly hit can cause them to never go near the traps again, they can also teach their young to never go near the traps again. Live trapping is also a waste of time as they'll squeel and let near by rats associate the trap with danger and theres a good chance you'll never catch a rat from that area again.

However, yes.. There are many variables and some home owners truly luck out when they successfully trap rats without knowing about rat neophobia or animal trapping in general. In the ten years Ive been doing pest control, Homeowners often make the problem much worse due to their inexperience and poor google-fu skills. Outdoor trapping is always a last resort for us because too many things can go wrong.

For mass outdoor ousting, baiting is your best bet for mass removal. To better coax them to come to the bait, smear on peanut butter. Check the bait daily and consistently replace it and the peanut butter lure.

Any further pest questions send me a message.