Rats bait

[JohnN]

Can anyone recommend a guaranteed deadly rat poison? My next door neighbour has just had his aviary destroyed by rats, knawing through a wooden wall. They killed 16 canaries and two nests with chicks in. He's been putting so-called "bait" down for ages - it disappeared steadily and he thought it was working, but then found a pile of it stored under a flower pot!
They'll have a go at anything - he saw a dove take off from his garden - with a rat hanging on to its foot!
Funny thing is when I put an old-fashioned trap down, only 15 yards from his aviary, it didn't catch anything.

[alan refail]

This is what I use. They eat it rather than taking it away. It can be wired inside sections of plastic downpipe to ensure they eat it in situ.

[Motherwoman]

Rats will keep storing bait rather than eating it at this time of year as there's still other food around so perversely if you stop putting some down for a few days they'll eat what they've stored.

[tracie]

Rats and Mice love peanut butter, mix some of the poison with this and they will eat it all. You can wrap the mix in cling film if you want to keep it dry this time of year, they will still eat it.

Tracie

[Geoff]

I use Tomcat too but it does suggest you don't use it continuously. Might be worth checking that the active ingredient your neighbour is using is different before switching to this. I use it tied into pieces of pipe as Alan suggests.

[robo]

I have been over run with rats around and in my chicken coup, I have tried all sorts of poisons even got the council rat man with his poison boxes but they will not touch them I have been using the cheap poison from wilkies £2 per box as fast as I put it down it goes and the number of rats has declined I can tell by the number of holes they dig but the best I have found is from these www.gluetraps.co.uk they are sticky cardboard rat catchers and they work I caught 3 in 2 days and a mouse but they are not cheap then again they are better than I am with my brothers riffle

[LittleShrub]

Rats and Mice love peanut butter, mix some of the poison with this and they will eat it all. You can
Tracie

That sounds like a great idea. I'll give that a go as they can't really store peanut butter so they'll have to eat it right away. All the other poisons I've put down I seem to find stored in a corner somewhere.

[Primrose]

Found this one accidentally on youtube. Interesting idea!

https://youtu.be/6SIlYiiCGLI

[robo]

Try pollyfiller mixed with breadcrumbs and a bit of peanut butter ,the rats can't regurgitate they eat the pollyfiller it's sets in their stomach kills and stuffs them all in one go

[nemo]

I have used this. get a bag of skim coat[hard wall] plaster mix I part skim coat with 5 parts whole meal flour leave a good bowl of water near feed they eat the hard wall drink the water hard wall goes solid inside them it kind of cruel but works like a dream. old type fluorescent tubes [these have mercury in them] grind them into a fairly fine powder add wholemeal flour . if you drill a 50mm hole in centre of a 500mm length of plastic sewer pipe the rat bait can be put in the 50mm hole . the pipe can be rotated so the 50mm hole is rotated so no rain can get in and only rats and mice can access the bait, use proper PPE gloves, dust masks etc

[Stephen]

I love the pipe idea with bait in the middle. Something like that could sit behind the shed very nicely. It would be precautionary, as they are only a minor issue. I have only seen dead ones but my neighbour says they are tunnelling in his compost (hardly surprising, that may be the warmest spot).

How would one make it accessible to rats but not hedgehogs?