Rats and the ultimate indignity

[IFG]

Today I had my allergist appt with complete testing. I have been up front that I have my horse at home, and I have a dog (though a less allergenic poodle).

I had allergy shots years ago, and they worked great, but when I moved to California, all of the allergens were different so I quit. Now that I am back east and starting to have asthma issues, I am ready to start the shots again.

So, he does all of the testing, talks to me about the game plan, and as I am getting ready to leave, he says, "I don't suppose you have a rat problem in your barn"?

Well, yeah, I live next to a swamp, and even though I only have a three stall shed row, I have been fighting the battle of the burrows. I am ahead lately since I have been filling all of the burrows with rocks, but I know that I have just won the battle, not the war. So he says, "you are really allergic to rats, but I don't think that we'll add that to the serum. And getting a cat wouldn't help because you are really allergic to them too."

Honestly, isn't it enough trying to keep them out of the hay and grain. Do I really need to be allergic to them too?

[JSwan]

They test for rat allergies????????

We had rats when I moved here - in the old barn. People left bags of grain out.

After overcoming the heebie jeebies, I set out traps. Those worked for a while but rats aren't stupid so they started to avoid them.

So I went to poison - put in a dog/child proof bait dispenser thingy.

Poor rats died IN the walls.

It was a very very long hot summer....... bleh.

I started shooting them with my .22

They were Norway rats.

Is that what type you have?

[Hilary]

That is NOT fair.

Can you get a barn cat? I'm allergic to them too but we still have them.

Jswan, apparently my family had done the same thing back in the 40s. In the HOUSE. It was two full summers before the stench went away and occasionally when renovations happened there are mummies and skeletons..

Apparently snakes are excellent rat removers, but I don't like them either. However, I suspect you won't be allergic to snakes.

Last winter (2007/2008) we had a lot of rats and they ate hay strings! Whole bays of hay would have bales with the strings chewed through. That was a PITA.

[IFG]

A snake might work. The allergist didn't like the idea of a cat. I think that they test for rats allergy because lots of kids who live in lousy housing have asthma.

I think that the allergist was scratching his head, trying to figure out why someone who had a good job, and didn't seem to live in a tenement would test positive for rats. I also worked in labs wit them so the exposure is not necessarily from the barn.

[kookicat]

Get someone to come in with a pair of good working terriers. No more rats, no need for a cat! :)

Sorry you're having such rough luck!

[AKB]

We had rats until a local fox moved into our back yard. Within days, our rats were eaten.

[equusus]

Couple of suggestions:
Black Rat Snakes
Hairless cats
Poison (before it gets hot!)
Terriors/Daschunds- although they will dig and leave a huge mess behind, the barn will be clean!

[CatOnLap]

hairless cats are definitely indoor animals.
I vote for JRT's, or mini daschies. Yes, they dig. But they are so darn cute!

[Lilykoi]

And its really fun to watch the pups work their magic. It is a thing of beauty!

[MistyBlue]

Check around for a working JRT and hire them to come over and de-rat your place. They are astounding to watch a REAL working JRT is action!
Put out muck buckets with 6-10" of water in them and throw grain to float on top. Put a board up the outside of the bucket. Remove dead rats and water every morning. Oddly they can swim for a LONG time but when they feel trapped they panic and drown much faster than that. Check for safe poisons to use. Shoot them. Snakes work well but be advised many snakes only eat once every few days to a week so they're not likely to eat all your rats. But rats will move out when a snake moves in.

JSwan...norway rats? Those are HUGE...look like puppies running around.

[CatOnLap]

oh yes, norway rats. we used to see them coming out of sewers near the river- they looked the size of small cats at times. Our rats are the smaller grey brown variety with fuzzy tails--I think they call them squirrels.

[MistyBlue]

Sewer rats or water rats are the names we always called them. They do love wet areas, those big freaking things. The barn I worked in as a teen had those around...they don't really scatter when you turn on the lights. They just kinda look at you and tell you to turn the dang lights back off, LOL!
Isn't it amazing how you can add a fuzzy fluffy tail to a rat, call it a squirrel and it's a lot cuter. :winkgrin: I don't mind squirrels...got them in spades here. Chipmunks too. They're cute and I toss nuts out for them. But then I don't have them in my barn...then they wouldn't be so cute.

[CHS]

For a JRTerrorists. I have four, and three minpins. I never had a rat/mouse problem until this winter. It was very wet and muddy and I didn't let the dogs down by the barn. The rats ate a 50lb bag of grain. The WHOLE thing!!! I was furious. I never realized what good ratters my dogs were until then. It was still muddy so rather than having to bathe all the dogs I put out poison. I killed 14 rats. YES 14!!!! It's drying up and the poison and poisoned rats are long gone so I will again unleash the beasts on the barn rats. From now on I'll opt for bathing the dogs rather than letting the rats overtake the place again.

[CC]

We also had a fox move in and feast quite well for a while on the rats. Mr. and Mrs. Fox did a great job but are still hungry. They just discovered the chickens. : (

Norway rats...yuck. Ours were reddish brown rats. I called them "country rats" and call norways "city rats"!

[seeuatx]

I have a JRT... but no rats. He hunts worms. I kid you not. He goes out and STARES at the ground, ears perked and head cocked, and then digs. After a few seconds you'll see him sluuuuurping something and looking very proud of himself. I am sure he would be thrilled to chase down something with legs ;)

[Little Valkyrie]

Isn't it amazing how you can add a fuzzy fluffy tail to a rat, call it a squirrel and it's a lot cuter. :winkgrin: I don't mind squirrels...got them in spades here. Chipmunks too. They're cute and I toss nuts out for them. But then I don't have them in my barn...then they wouldn't be so cute.

We had them in the barn.... two to be exact. After destroying about $50 worth of supplements and ambushing me while I was mucking stalls (they were attacking or playing with each other and fell out of the rafters into the stall I was picking before I could react..... terrifying experience, let me tell you.)
Since we have also had a rat problem (despite housing grain in safe containers they still invade in the winter.... even eating through the asphalt tack room floor), I went Havoc crazy and two deceased squirrels were outside the barn, so I think it got rid of them.

Hopefully they stay adorable and outside your barn :winkgrin:

[spookhorse]

I have a JRT... but no rats. He hunts worms. I kid you not. He goes out and STARES at the ground, ears perked and head cocked, and then digs. After a few seconds you'll see him sluuuuurping something and looking very proud of himself. I am sure he would be thrilled to chase down something with legs ;)

I used to have one that hunted crayfish :lol:

[MistyBlue]

Hopefully they stay adorable and outside your barn
I'm hoping so too. I do have one chipmunk that uses my barn as a storage room, but doesn't live in there. S/he has a series of holes in the slope and woods behind my barn. But it comes in my barn every single day and either drops off food or comes to pick some up and bring it home. Weird little thing...it gets under the corners of 2 different floor mats and stuff acorns and beechnuts and seeds under them in separate piles. In really bad winter weather I do close my barn doors and there's been a few winter mornings where the little bugger is waiting at the corner of the barn for me to open the doors so it can come in and pick up that day's groceries. It's never gone after the horse grain...it's a really odd little chipmunk who's been doing this for almost 5 years now. :lol: So I let it be...it tends to crack me up most of the time.
Not sure I'd be happy about squirrels landing on me in the barn, LOL! I have enough fun trying to stay out of the way of the baby swallows every year during their flying lessons. I spent one morning doing barn chores with one hanging onto the bill of my baseball cap in a death grip peeping for mom and dad! I finally just took the hat off slowly and placed it on a rafter. :lol:

[county]

Fastest way I've found to get rid of rats is set out pans of anti freeze they love the stuff and kills them very quickly. Just set them where a cat or dog can't drink it.

[equusus]

Fastest way I've found to get rid of rats is set out pans of anti freeze they love the stuff and kills them very quickly. Just set them where a cat or dog can't drink it.

Make sure you use the "old green stuff" NOT the new "safe" stuff!!

[Guin]

Antifreeze poisoning is a sinfully cruel way to kill anything, even a rat. My sister's dog died of antifreeze poisoning on her way to the emergency vet and it was horrific.

Better to shoot the rats or get a terrier that will kill them quickly.

[dalpal]

I wouldn't want to poision, except as a last resort. I would worry about secondary poisioning with other animals.

I agree with the snake or terrier idea. My friend has a 25 pound mutt rescue..but it is evident that she has terrier in her...let me tell you, that little girl has single handedly killed over 8 rats out in the fields this winter....if she spots one, it's dead.

[Calamber]

My JRT killed 18 rats in one week! We were keeping score on the white board just to see how many were living in that barn. The dumb buggers were breeding and keeping warm behind the sliding doors up against stone walls, all I had to do was slide the doors closed suddenly each day with Clancy in pounce mode on the other side. He could kill two or three at a time. This was a barn that had been abandoned and left very dirty before we moved in.

Dogs need to be up to date on Leptospirosis vaccination and you do need to attend to the bites that they sometimes can get on their mouths.

I would try that water bucket method, it is a surefire way, no poison needed, no hired terriers or guns. All you have to do is fish them out with a shovel and bury them. Might seem cruel but they are a very pernicious species and need to moved out quickly.

[copper1]

JRT's are the best! Worked at a barn that had taken over a place that hadn't been used for a few years and the rats had taken over the feed room and the grain that had been left there. We would trip over the dang things as they meandered around, owning the place and laughing at our poor attempts to trap them. Then the dogs came. One was a biggish collie mix, the other a JRT. The big one would flush and the little one kill if the big one missed. One rat took off with both dogs in pursuit and ran up a drain pipe and was working it's way along the gutter of the overhang. I picked up the JRT and threw her up on the roof where she nabbed Mr Rat and flipped him into the waiting jaws of the collie. They were a great team and the rats were eliminated in short order.

[IFG]

So far, the rats have not been back since I filled their burrows (under the rubber mats) with rocks. Am I too naive to hope that I have licked the problem?

I know a woman who breeds JRTs, but I don't know how to keep one in the barn area overnight when the rats are out...

[ShelterMeInc]

For the woman with the rat allergy/cat allergy problem:

The co-founder of our rescue organization (www.sheltermeinc.org) has terrible allergies but is a dedicated animal lover. Not coincidentally she has a barn with eight horses that her children ride (she cannot touch the horses) and she also has a barn cat (she cannot pet the cat) that has lived in the tack room for about 12 years. In her case, having cat in the barn does not mean that she cannot enter the barn. It means that she cannot touch the cat and cannot be in a closed room with a cat.

I mention this because we have placed about 50 otherwise "unadoptable" cats in barns in Massachusetts in the last year and the vast majority of them have been very successful mousers. The fact that these cats are not classic 'housepets' -- means that they don't ask to be petted or try to sit on your lap. So, you might be able to keep a barn cat of this sort...There is of course, an acclimation period for these animals, and the caregiver needs to be close to them and bond with them, and I don't think that person could be you...

We are glad to share our learnings about barn cats - placing them (for free), acclimating them (loaning out cages for free). If you would like to check out our website, click this url...check out Barn Cat Wisdom http://www.sheltermeinc.org/forum/
and if you live in the New England area, I could possibly bring you barn cats myself. Contact sandy@sheltermeinc.org

[Ibex]

And a JRTerrorist will also nicely solve any 'possum issues that you may have... my trainer has one that wipes out a family a week.

[IFG]

For the woman with the rat allergy/cat allergy problem:

The co-founder of our rescue organization (www.sheltermeinc.org) has terrible allergies but is a dedicated animal lover. Not coincidentally she has a barn with eight horses that her children ride (she cannot touch the horses) and she also has a barn cat (she cannot pet the cat) that has lived in the tack room for about 12 years. In her case, having cat in the barn does not mean that she cannot enter the barn. It means that she cannot touch the cat and cannot be in a closed room with a cat.

I mention this because we have placed about 50 otherwise "unadoptable" cats in barns in Massachusetts in the last year and the vast majority of them have been very successful mousers. The fact that these cats are not classic 'housepets' -- means that they don't ask to be petted or try to sit on your lap. So, you might be able to keep a barn cat of this sort...There is of course, an acclimation period for these animals, and the caregiver needs to be close to them and bond with them, and I don't think that person could be you...

We are glad to share our learnings about barn cats - placing them (for free), acclimating them (loaning out cages for free). If you would like to check out our website, click this url...check out Barn Cat Wisdom http://www.sheltermeinc.org/forum/
and if you live in the New England area, I could possibly bring you barn cats myself. Contact sandy@sheltermeinc.org

I seriously considered doing this (and I am in Mass), but I haven't because 1) we are really close to a road, and I see way too many squashed kitties, and 2) we have a very healthy coyote population. I would feel just awful to put a cat in harm's way (even if I am wildly allergic to it).

[jordiensyd]

The rats in my barn ate my leather tack! Had to get barn cats and install rubbermaid container to store leather in!

[Ozone]

We had them in the barn.... two to be exact. After destroying about $50 worth of supplements and ambushing me while I was mucking stalls (they were attacking or playing with each other and fell out of the rafters into the stall I was picking before I could react..... terrifying experience, let me tell you.)
Since we have also had a rat problem (despite housing grain in safe containers they still invade in the winter.... even eating through the asphalt tack room floor), I went Havoc crazy and two deceased squirrels were outside the barn, so I think it got rid of them.

Hopefully they stay adorable and outside your barn :winkgrin:

Let me tell you ... I laughed when I read your post but if I was ambushed by chippys I would have freaked out, locked the barn doors and never come back!

I worked at a barn with Norway Rats. They were huge and they knew it. Red eyes... scary! They would challange you while you were cleaning the stalls. Always felt like I was being stalked by a friggin RAT! I think they can attack you if they want, no? I think that's why I completly dispise the buggers!

At my current barn I Havoc at least 1X per week. I feel it is safe from the horses and other animals. I will see a rat maybe 2X's per year at random and usually when I do see them, they are doped up from the Havoc. Rodents have never touched any of my bagged grain or barrels.. I consider my mental/physical well being lucky as I would not beable to handle an infestation!

[Christa P]

I had a rat problem at one barn and a local black weasel/ferret/something that looked like one moved in for a few days. I saw it twice peeking up from between the walls. It cleaned out the rats and I didn't have a problem after that.

Maybe you could get one released near your barn from a rehab facility.

Christa

BTW, this is near Buffalo, NY and it looked like a solid black ferret.

[de echte critter]

I'm thinking it was a mink. Was it on the smaller side for a ferret? Mink are amazing little predators.

[Guin]

My sister had a weasel in her barn, but all it ate was the colony of garter snakes. Then it moved on, having exhausted the food supply.

[IFG]

I am leery of being too hopeful, but since a pair of nesting hawks moved in w/in 50 ft of the barn, I haven't seen any rat activity...

[STNS]

Border Terriers are also excellent ratters, I may know some working BTs in your area if you're interested.

[FootPerfect]

A friend brought her 2 working JRT's to find a mouse loose in the house. Worked wonders! If you have the space, I'd say get two of 'em. It is definitely worth it.

[STNS]

One of mine with his latest find :)

http://inlinethumb44.webshots.com/42283/2688321040043490245S600x600Q85.jpg