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

[Koda]

I live in West Portland and have found evidence of rats in my wood piles, under my shed, under my deck, and bordering on the other side of my neighbors fence. Any ideas how to kill off these pests and not kill my dogs with poison or what ever? Night vision and 22 air rifle will not work but end up having my snowflake neighbors calling the police on me. I think there are a lot of rats in the back yard. The yard is completely fenced in with wood fence and chain linked.

Can I use D-Con protected in a housing so dogs can not get but the dead rats would die in the backyard???

Any ideas?

you cant use poison if you have pets that can find the dead mice or the poison. You don't want to poison rats anyways cause they crawl off and die where you can never reach them but they will stink for months.

The only way is to use a live trap or those large spring traps, you can set spring traps in a location that pets cant get to. Ive had equal success with both but found that one rat might never take to a spring trap but will the other so get both. Typically that rat is one that escaped a close call once, usually they get thumped from a spring trap and will never approach those again so I ended up having to buy a live trap, If they trip the live trap but escape they will try it again. Its common for mice/rats to escape with the bait but not set off the spring trap or even pull out fast enough. Some spring traps Ive had to tweek the trigger with pliers to make more sensitive. Rats are smart and will avoid the traps at first, be patient with either trap it does take them a while for them to get used to maybe a week sometimes. The best bait you can use is peanut butter but in a pinch most any food scrap can work.

note: with live traps its difficult to get them out live without them getting away, if you have a pellet gun you can finish them off point blank inside the trap in your garage where your snowflake neighbors cant hear the gun. Put a dab of peanut butter on the muzzle if you have to.

Caught this guy on his third visit to the trap. Even caught he still ate the massive scoop of peanut butter on the trigger plate...

 

[BillGabby1]

They do?! That's creepy

Meat's meat!
Don't let it go to waste!
Gabby

 

[BillGabby1]

+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.

Fill the bucket 1/3 to 1/2 full so they have to swim and can't jump, drowned rats!
Just make sure and dispose of the carcasses regularly they will start to stink, I even change the water for the same reason.
Gabby

 

[tkdguy]

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.

Given that you have dogs in the back yard where do you post the Contract Box? Thanks a bunch!

 

[teflon6string]

...
Even caught he still ate the massive scoop of peanut butter on the trigger plate...

In a way, so did Gary Gilmore.

 

[jsparks747]

You could wait until your neighbors are gone and then shoot them with a CO2 pistol . I would use baited rat traps and put them in the shed and under the deck so the dogs can't get them. That way you kill the rats, can reuse the trap, and you don't have dead rats all over your property.