Rats, Rats, Rats!

[so lucky]

I was looking for some rat/mouse poison recently, and couldn't find the stuff with warfarin in it. The price of the poison has gone up tremendously, and apparently it doesn't work as well as warfarin used to.
We are having a war with voles in the yard and garden. I thought maybe some "Just One Bite" sprinkled down their runs would do the trick, but I can't find it anymore.
On line, one site suggested putting up a hawk perch for vole eradication.

 

[ducks4you]

When I moved into my property we had NO cats, but there was a garter snake living under one of front cement steps. Have you considered garter snakes? They are harmless to people but they love mice and baby rats.

 

[digitS']

I think warfarin is not the just one bite stuff.

It is a blood thinner so the rodents kill themselves over several days and, maybe, several meals. The other rat poison, I don't know what it is.

Voles -- Wiley Coyote has helped me out there. Two Tom cats were around last year. Yes, I know that these security agents aren't compatible. Spring cultivation probably pushes a lot of the voles into migrating and, I've had some success with flooding their tunnels with a slow trickle from the hose. Am I talking "dribble," again?

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

I have been looking for the rat poison in small pieces. No store by me has it, all in blocks. The block rats can move friend had put poison in her attic, rat bought it down to basement where her dog ate it and died.

 

[ninnymary]

Mary I would plant mint in container with tree. Warning some mints can be invasive. Really pack the mint in and move tree where they can't jump on it from some where else. They would have to cross mint to get to trunk of tree.

So far the trees that are in containers have been left alone. It is the 2 trees that are in the ground. The fig tree actually has a sprig of mint that is growing there that has come from my neighbor's yard. I've left it there since it's still only 1 sprig and I like to nibble on a leaf when I'm out there.

Mary

 

[ninnymary]

I've been fighting a losing battle with rats here for quite some time.
I might try wrapping the bottom of the trunk in hardware cloth, and then try fashioning some kind of metal bell-shaped barrier right above it (like what people use to keep squirrels from climbing the bird feeder pole). I'm putting hardware cloth barriers all through the dirt floor of my chicken coop.

Meanwhile, I've resorted to poison outside. I want to make sure other animals won't access it, so I had to put it in a cage that only rodents can access, and it was never touched. Then I tried putting blocks of poison in the rat tunnels, and they still ignored it.

This winter, I had a rat tunnel through the snow bank that led to my chicken fence, which was a perfect inaccessible-to-other-animals place to put poison. I chopped the poison blocks into fine pieces and mixed it with peanut butter, and then molded the concoction around a stick, like a corn dog. I was able to slide the corn dog through the fence and into the tunnel, and it disappeared over night. I think they've gone through 4 corn dogs so far, and I still have rats, but I'm hopeful that it might help.
Good luck with your poor fig tree!

My lemon tree has had it's new tiny growth on it for several weeks now. This makes me believe or hope that there may be less rats. I'm hoping that the poison we put out has gotten to them. Though we haven't seen any dead ones in the yard, I'm hoping they were polite enough to die elsewhere!

I'm still very scared to plant my spring garden. I just hope they don't eat all of my starts. I was lucky to find 3 free earthboxes and those are on my deck. I think those will be safe there.

Mary

 

[ninnymary]

I've googled warfarin and it said manufacturer had stopped making it.

Mary

 

[baymule]

Wow. No matter how many rats you get rid of, the city terrain will just breed more. the One Bite stuff is very good, you can order it on Amazon. I use it here. Also you can call Terminix, they have a very good rat poison in a locked, child and pet proof container that you can set out for the rats. We use Terminix for ants and rats.

 

[Nyboy]

Home depot sells the boxes, makes using poison much safer

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't think you can get Just One Bite in CA. They won't ship it there even if you order it online.
Not positive about the shipping, but I think that's how it works with outlawed chemicals.