Rats, best approach

[THE GRIFF 8]

We have just gained 57 acres of rabbit, pigeon, crow and fox permission on the condition we do the rats in the buildings for the farmer.

 

I have never done ratting before with the ferrets and am worried about putting a ferret down a rat hole in case it comes off worst if there's allot of rats down there.

 

I have 9 ferrets in all sizes and sexes and presume the big polecat hob would be the best ferret for the job?????

 

I was wanting advice from someone experienced in ratting with ferrets and some reassurance that the hob is the right ferret for the job and he will be up to dealing with the rats. Is there any situations you wouldn't put a ferret down a rat hole, for example; if it looks like there might be loads of rats down there.

 

The plan is to put the ferret down and shoot the rats as they bolt, would this be the best approach????

I don't have access to a smoking machine and didn't really fancy sitting up all night with the air rifle and lamp, the farmer doesn't want to use poison, I suppose traps may be a last resort(if the farmer is OK with traps)!!!!

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Born Hunter 17,743]

Depends on the circumstances pal. If your ferrets have never seen rat before you cant garuntee they will do the job. The hobs probably the best choice but may have trouble working the tight spots. Sure you cant nock up a smoker? Or dig them out if possible. Where abouts are you? Possibly someone could come along with a smoker to help you out. We have had some great fun with a chainsaw smoker in and around outbuildings using various methods of despatch depending on the circumstances. If theres a few of you just use a decent ratting stick, often more productive than shooting, and safer.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Born Hunter

[RaiderBoy 19]

Ratting using ferrets can ruin a good ferret mate

 

Richard

[the ratcatcher 1]

ive used both hobs and jills for ratting and used the same for rabbiting afterwardssome of the rats holes are to small for a large hob thats why i use the jill at times but more often it will be the hob. you need to check your ground where the holes are the only time i wont use them is if i think the holes were connected to the drains in which case you will probably lose you ferret. i found that the rat would sooner run than stand and fight but if cornered it will put up a bit of a fight but ive never seen a rat get the better of a ferret. if you have a good ferret you will know even before it as entered the hole if it is occuppied with mine at the entrance of the hole the tail starts to wag if something is in the hole. you can buy rat purse nets buts you will only get one in the net and again ive seen 6 come out of the same hole like bullets from a gun so you wouldnt have a chance to renet and if shooting you wouldnt of got them all, but if you got a hessian sack and fashioned a funnel out of mesh place it inside the sack and fasten it securely so the rats can run in but have trouble getting back out the you may catch a few more again there are a few different cage traps on the markets these days that arnt gonna do any harm to the farmers livestock. ive used some of these trap on a farm i go to the lady there doesnt like to see anything killed so i have to catch them alive then take them away, hence i used to get a few to train the kits on

[markandrewhiley 0]

I have spent thirty five years hunting rats with terriers and ferrets, had a few ferrets that have had bad maulings, and a few that would refuse to enter a rat warren after the maulings, never lost one though. Jills make the ideal ratters just beacause of their size, but i have used hobs to bolt them from under hen houses or piles of rubbish, smokers are good but after a while the noise of a chainsaw motor drives me mad, and i think the rats are scared to bolt sometimes, yes i would always use a ferret to bolt rats but your terriers have to be one hundred pecent safe around them.

[stubby 175]

why not ask if any members living close enough to you, with a smoker wants a day out, you can normally find a few people with terriers up for the job, as stated, although ferts are used for rats, its not as simple as rabbits, Id be a bit worried on ferts and shotguns, but a smoker and guns could prob do it too,

 

failing that, as you say, a few fenn traps set up inside tunnels will do the job, but its alot more time consuming

 

 

where bouts are you?

Ive got rat attack and a 410, or terrier

[theferreter 311]

best thing use for rats is smoker and terriers most ferrets will jack after doing rats for a while but not all

[THE GRIFF 8]

Thanks for the replies,

I have been up to the farm today to have a look and have spoken to the farmer, he does use poison at the moment and does change the brand of of poison every couple of months and his terrier gets a few of them.

 

The rats are under the paddock where the horse stables are, you can see a couple of holes going under the concrete base of the buildings and he told me he see's them going in and out of a drain pipe that sticks out of the outside wall, they are also seen going into a drain pipe inside the buildings. We have told him we will have to pour some water down the pipe on the inside of the building to see if it comes out from the pipe at the other end, problem is this pipe might be connected to the main drains somewhere aswell, so putting a ferret down is going to be a big no. If these drain pipes aren't used for drainage then the best thing to do would probably be stick some poison down them and block them off.

 

I mentioned a smoker to him and this is not an option, he doesn't want smoke or noise around the horses(daft i know, he could put the horses in the feild for an hour or two).

 

We may be able to put the ferret under the building where there is a well used hole and see what happens, maybe rig some sort of live trap up with a pipe and a sack.

 

I think the best thing to do would be to use fenn traps for the long term control as well as poison.

[willum 89]

well if he has got running water from a bore hole or a water bowser try flooding them out its very effective and silent we have used this on cover crops (flooding out) bolts every time then you can either use terrier or other method as guns wouldnt be an option either as would spook horse i would think.

[stubby 175]

a "rat attack" smoker is niether noisey or use's harmful gasses,

have used mine on loads of stable blocks housing some very expensive horses, with no ill effect

do a google search for the info on them, and see what he says, totally different to an old chainsaw engine

 

[willum 89]

yeah as stubby says rat attack ok but sometimes they will sit in smok and wait ya out had this happen quite a few times at least with water they have got no option but to move just a thought if your on a farm and water handy. and plus its cheaper .

[stubby 175]

 

 

The rats are under the paddock where the horse stables are, you can see a couple of holes going under the concrete base of the buildings and he told me he see's them going in and out of a drain pipe that sticks out of the outside wall, they are also seen going into a drain pipe inside the buildings.

 

If these drain pipes aren't used for drainage then the best thing to do would probably be stick some poison down them and block them off.

 

 

 

the only downside to that idea, is what if after blocking the pipes off, rats chewed their way back though, and as rats tend to grab a mouthful of food and run, theres a risk of rat poison being trail across stable floor, which horse's would eat, Id be very careful about that idea

[THE GRIFF 8]

I will quiz him again about the smoker, I cant see why he couldn't shift the horses for an hour or two while we get the job done, at the end of the day this will probably be the best method and if he wont let us do it that way then he is a fool to himself and the job wont be done the best way.

 

As far as the water down the pipe situation goes, I already told him last night we could try pouring water down it and rig a trap/sack up on the outlet pipe(presuming its all connected).

He already uses the poison and doesn't have an issue with it, so after doing the water trick a few times over the next few weeks, I think long term it would be best to block it off with some poison down it to finish off any that have been missed.

 

One problem is we dont know exactly how many rats we are dealing with, it might be half a dozen or it could be three dozen, until we find a way of flushing them out we dont know how big the problem is.

 

I have seen some live cage traps on fleabay, has anyone used these before and are the cages that can be entered from both ends better than the the ones that can only be entered from end, I am thinking about these traps so i can use them for catching mink on my boat mooring at york once the rat job is done.

 

Thanks again for all your advice, I will let you know how we get on.

[the ratcatcher 1]

I will quiz him again about the smoker, I cant see why he couldn't shift the horses for an hour or two while we get the job done, at the end of the day this will probably be the best method and if he wont let us do it that way then he is a fool to himself and the job wont be done the best way.

 

As far as the water down the pipe situation goes, I already told him last night we could try pouring water down it and rig a trap/sack up on the outlet pipe(presuming its all connected).

He already uses the poison and doesn't have an issue with it, so after doing the water trick a few times over the next few weeks, I think long term it would be best to block it off with some poison down it to finish off any that have been missed.

 

One problem is we dont know exactly how many rats we are dealing with, it might be half a dozen or it could be three dozen, until we find a way of flushing them out we dont know how big the problem is.

 

I have seen some live cage traps on fleabay, has anyone used these before and are the cages that can be entered from both ends better than the the ones that can only be entered from end, I am thinking about these traps so i can use them for catching mink on my boat mooring at york once the rat job is done.

 

Thanks again for all your advice, I will let you know how we get on.

 

 

i use the cage trap with good results what area are you in

[the ratcatcher 1]

you can get single catch traps and multi catch. i recently set up some single catch and caught 6 polecats in four days with them. im not keen on the sliding door type, in fact the agent that came to see me asked if i had any problems with them to wihich i pointed out the sliding door one you can easily cut your finger on it and the piece on the inside needs to be slightly longer to prevent this, plus as it is there is a chance of being bit i much prefer the squirrel traps they are more sercure and easy to set