Rats...Mice....Rodents....whatever

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Mshane6542

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Looking for advice on how to keep these creatures out of our barn, Our barn is a working barn, and we buy feed by the pallet, but the mice are over taking it as a 50lb bag was completely empty the other day. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance
 
You really won't get on top of it until you can physically stop them from getting access to your feed, silos, sealed bins and drums. Shipping containers are vermin proof once door closed. Once you deny them access to the feed poisoning is easy. I always just use the short acting warfarin, coloured green here. They have to feed on them for a few days to bowl them over but are safer for my dogs if they happen to chew on a block. It is easier to administer the vit K antidote. The later generation long acting warfarin sticks with the dogs longer and you have to keep administering oral vit K for several weeks after the initial treatment. These blocks are coloured pink here.
Buck might like to comment on my thoughts, I have been out of the business for over a decade now so things might have changed.

Ken
 
We try to keep a fixed cat around. We give them just enough feed at first to know where home is and let them do the rest.
I some cats (unfixed) that help with the problem. By the way, does anyone need a cat I now have plenty? 🐈🐈🐈🙀

BTW, careful with the rat poison. It is normally just warfarin and if a dog or cat gets hold of a rat that has ingested it, it will kill them deader than 2 o'clock.
 
We use the tomcat poison that comes in the green waxy cake. I keep several tons of wsc and several more of wcs pretty exposed. Not only does the tomcat kill mice and rats but coons as well. It will kill your dog to.
I put out the whole cakes so if I feel the need to gather it up it's easy.
 
Ive always heard a well fed cat will kill more than a hungry cat. They have energy to waste hunting and chasing. But who knows.

I'm needing a cat or 3 as well. Our dogs will kill them in short order im thinking though. Gonna have to try something.

During the summer we have barn owls. One momma who raises her young in our shed. But they leave by fall. They kill all kinds of mice and rats. Wish they'd stay there year round.
 
?? I thought the new poisons could not hurt our pets if they ate a poisoned rodent. Am I wrong?????
Yes. If anything, the new poisons are more dangerous because they've been formulated to last longer. I've seen cattle poisoned when they found some bait that a rodent cached in the bedding. Be very careful with it.
 
Original rat/mice poisons were anti-coagulants. Blood thinners. Worked by making the rat bleed out internally. But they have to eat enough poison to build up the concentration in their blood. If your dog ate that type rat poison, heavy dose of vitamin K could counteract it. Newer generation of rat poisons are neuro-toxins. Vitamin K is not an antidote for these. These newer generation poisons can kill with one feeding. Recommendation for heavy infestation is to use the neuro-toxin poison to knock the numbers down and then switch to the anti-coagulants to maintain control. There is a concern about developing resistance just as with dewormers and antibiotics. The newer poison active ingredient is bromethalin. One of the Tomcat products has it. Place the bait chucks in a bait station to keep them away from pets. Cats are the best "organic" control after you knock the numbers down.
tomcat-animal-rodent-control-0363410-64_1000.jpg
 
During the summer we have barn owls. One momma who raises her young in our shed. But they leave by fall. They kill all kinds of mice and rats. Wish they'd stay there year round.
Barn owls kill an astounding number of rodents. Leased a place for years that had resident barn owls and more recently in a new place that had a nesting pair for a few years but sadly have now disappeared. Never used poisons for fear of killing non targeted species/dogs/cats. Research indicates putting up appropriate nest boxes (google it) will encourage residents to return and draw newcomers.
 
I agree with wbvs58 that your first step needs to be isolating you feed supply so it is not accessible to the rodents. If they went through a 50 lb. bag of feed overnight, you probably have a really big population of rodents there. Cats will help a great deal but I have seen younger cats run away from large rats, so trying to find good hunting cats that are going to stay at you farm may be a challenge by itself. I would recommend the use of poisons if you don't have pets that you need to worry about. Next alternative would be to get live traps. I have seen commercially made traps and some creative home made traps that catch several rodent at a time. Good luck
 
During the summer I se them out in the fields, over the winter they come into the shop. No food in there but have cought about 25 mice on flat white gluetraps since summer ended.
 
I am not sure about the new poisons, but Rat poison used to be just a mega-dose of Warfarin. It is an anti-clotting drug that causes animals and humans to have a hemorrhagic stroke if too much is ingested. It is dangerous stuff and that is why, if it is prescribed to a human (which it still is), it must be routinely monitored to ensure that the clotting factor (the INR) is maintained within an acceptable range. It is rarely just a "take a pill a day drug". You may be told to take one pill one day, 1/2 pill the next, and no pill at all on the third. The newer classes of drugs are more forgiving but still have their risks.
 
?? I thought the new poisons could not hurt our pets if they ate a poisoned rodent. Am I wrong?????
Jeanne the new generation anticoagulants as in the pink Tomcat cubes because they are long acting can kill a rat in one feeding. A small dog eating that rat with a belly full of the pink pink cubes can also succumb to it with the one dose. This is why I only put out the green blocks with the older warfarin as it has to be consumed over a few days to have an effect and you will usually see the green dye in their faeces before they get crook. The antidote vit K only has to be given for a short period compared to several weeks if they consume the pink blocks.

Ken
 

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