soiled rat bait in old pigsties

[jackg 7]

My parents have 8 acre small holding and a house and about 20 feet away from the house are two old pigsties which are used to store wood and house a freezer and can of petrol and tools.

The rats come in when the maize two fields over is cut and I set bait on the top of the wall, 4 foot high.

Two tray on the field side and the bait is taken by rats and mice but I replenished the trays a couple of days ago and now there is a lot of rubbish on the top of the bat,

The rat holes are in the top of the wall about 2 feet from the bait trays and the rubbish includes a lot of small pieces of lime mortar as if the rats excavated the tunnel and dumped the mortar on the bait for some reason.

This is the second time I have seen this rubbish but I have no idea why the rats are doing this, how very dare they.

There is a lot of kind of excavated dust on top of the wall as well as if the bait encourages them to bring it up.

 

Any ideas folks?

Edited December 21, 2011 by jackg

[longnetter 32]

That sounds like mice trying to hide a food source........seen it a lot of times

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Nothing of the sort .Rats are obviously living in the blockwork which im guessing is of the hollow kind and they are merely digging out the old bedding which happens to fall on your bait trays .Re-site the bait and it wont happen .

[mole trapper 1,693]

[torchey 1,328]

Nothing of the sort .Rats are obviously living in the blockwork which im guessing is of the hollow kind and they are merely digging out the old bedding which happens to fall on your bait trays .Re-site the bait and it wont happen .

If the trays are a couple of feet away what they using shovels

[ratattack 111]

Nothing of the sort .Rats are obviously living in the blockwork which im guessing is of the hollow kind and they are merely digging out the old bedding which happens to fall on your bait trays .Re-site the bait and it wont happen .

 

i would go more with the mice doing personally, funnily enough mice do this in lofts, external bait stations etc etc etc in numerous jobs i go to! Usually when they are on their last legs, no more bait take afterwards Rats don't do it. The rat holes are probably mouse holes in the lime mortar.

[jackg 7]

Thanks for your replies.

To clarify the trays are the 6"x4" white plastic ones the bait is red coloured wheat.

The trays are on top of the wall or wall plate (the piece of flat wood which supports the bottom of the rafters).

So the rubbish has to be raised onto the bait about an inch or inch and a half so it is not accidental by clearing the holes out. I would think it is deliberate.

The walls are over 100 years old and the lime mortar does come away and there are lots of cavities in the wall.

It could well be mice concealing the bait, I'll have to monitor it and see whether the grains are taken wholely (rats) or eaten and the husks left (mice).

[moley 115]

rats will also cover food , i used to get it all the time with rat bait boxes, some of the stones carried in were bigger and heavier that any mouse could carry, exept mighty mouse or danger mouse obviously

[budgie123 163]

The activity is wood mice it is something i see all the time on jobs both internal and external.It is a natural instinct for the mice to cover the bait in order to save it for harder times.On commercial jobs the items found has to be seen with trays covered with screws suspended cieling clips all sorts.In domestic lofts trays are often covered totally with insulation.

There is a relationship between rats and mice and when you are seeing mice activity it is a good indicator there is no longer any rat activity.

Do not keep baiting for the sake of it and continue killing mice for no reason and risk secondary piosoning of non target species owls kestrels.

[young man 225]

Don't use poision mate

[moxy 617]

This is what mice can do!!

[moxy 617]

Mice again!! With some of the things i found in these boxes and the location where they were situated i thought somebody was taking the piss and had words with the bar manager