For several hundred years, mankind has been waging a war, which it is ingloriously losing. This is a war with rats. During the fight against these rodents, many ways were invented to exterminate tailed pests, up to the creation of the so-called rat wolf. But long-tailed rodents continue to exist next to humans. This is a synanthropic species of animals that has perfectly adapted humanity to its needs. The question "how to get rid of rats in the house" is asked by all, without exception, owners of private houses. Especially those with livestock. But no one has yet succeeded in completely eliminating the rats. The destroyed rodents are replaced by new rats born in another territory.
Even in cities, there are 10 gray rodents per inhabitant. The fact that they are not visible means only the good work of the pest control service, and not the absence of rodents. These animals are nocturnal, and if rodents are noticed in broad daylight, this means that the spotted individual is sick. Or the number of rodents in this area has exceeded the critical mass. All that a person can do is to reduce the food supply of rats and control their numbers.
Food supply for wild rodents
The owners of decorative domestic rats are deeply convinced that this rodent is a granivorous animal and does not eat meat. Moreover, animal protein is harmful to rats and shortens the already short life of a rodent. Perhaps everything is exactly so, but wild rats do not read websites on the Internet and have no idea about wholesome healthy food. But they are well versed in delicious food. Wild gray rats are in fact omnivorous, and rodents compensate for the short duration of the rat's life with high rates of reproduction. Moreover, in fact, animal proteins are vital for the gray rat precisely for high productivity.
In a private house, long-tailed rodents will always find something to profit from. Animal feed, food waste, dung, chickens and rabbits are all good for rats. These rodents are even able to chew on the hooves of large animals.
Breeding gray rats
In the house with an abundance of food, the rat is able to bring up to 8 litters per year. Moreover, each litter will contain from 1 to 20 pups.
In nature, the rate of reproduction in rats is significantly reduced. These rodents are capable of breeding only in the warm season, so they can bring no more than 3 broods per year. You can compare the difference in the rate of reproduction of animals living in the house and in nature.
It will not be possible to permanently exterminate the rats in the house. Young rodents that have grown up in a different territory will leave to look for a new living space and will inevitably find your home. To completely get rid of these rodents, you need to completely exterminate the entire population of these animals, at least on the mainland. Then people will have time for a quiet life, until rodents get to the cleared space from other continents.
In part, humanity should be grateful to the rodent for this. Larger and stronger, but less susceptible to the bubonic plague, gray migrants drove out a weak competitor - the black rat: the main carrier of plague in cities.
Although the gray settlers suspended the plague, these animals are still unwanted guests in the house, since rodents have enough other diseases dangerous for humans. Over the centuries of coexistence, humanity has come up with many ways to get rid of rats... True, all of them were not very effective, but they allow you to control the rodent population.
Ways to deal with rats
All rodent control techniques can be divided into:
- mechanical;
- chemical;
- electronic;
- biological.
In a private home, a mixture of mechanical and chemical methods will be most effective against rodents.
How to deal with rats. (Personal experience)
"Mechanical" methods of rodent control
Among the tips on how to get rid of rats in a private house, you can find a recommendation to mix flour with gypsum and put water next to this mixture. It is believed that the rodent will eat flour, want to drink, and after the animal is drunk, gypsum mixed with flour will freeze in the rat's intestines. In fact, rats will eat flour unless they are hungry.
A more effective way to keep rats out of your home is to find and concrete all the rodent burrows. Moreover, not sand, but crushed glass should be mixed into concrete as a filler. Sooner or later, rats will even gnaw through concrete (or make moves elsewhere), but a certain number of rodents will die from crushed glass.
Rat traps are not as effective as we would like. At first, rats are successfully caught in them. Then the rodents realize that the free piece in the rat trap is for the second rat, and they stop crawling under the drummer. The situation is similar with a trap from a bucket of water and a plank on it. The first rat gets caught, the rest of the rodents will begin to avoid such an invitation to dine.
Rodent glue is even less effective than rat traps. Even mice quickly cease to fall into it. In addition, you will have to manually rip off a corpse or a still living animal. And in comparison with a rat trap or poison, glue from rodents turns out to be more expensive and its consumption is very high, although, at first glance, packaging of glue against rodents is cheap.
Therefore, the most effective remedy for tailed rodents is still storing food in packaging inaccessible to rat teeth. In particular, animal feed is stored in chests lined with sheet iron. It is also important to maintain cleanliness in the house, when the rodents will simply have nothing to look for on the floor, table and in the sink.
Chemical methods of protection from rats
Actually, the chemical way to get rid of rodents is rat poison. Rat poisons for rodents range from fast-acting to delayed-acting drugs. It is better not to give out rat poisons of quick action to rats. Smart rodents very quickly understand why relatives die and stop eating poisonous baits.
Nevertheless, it is possible to poison the rats. For this, rat poisons based on medicinal anticoagulants are often used today. Anticoagulant-based rat poisons are a clear confirmation of the statement "there are no poisons and no drugs, there is a dose." The same warfarin is given to people after stroke and fed to rats. The result is very different.
Now they use the second generation anticoagulant - Bromadiolone, which is also called super-warfarin. It accumulates in the rat liver. The death of a rodent occurs only after 5 - 7 days. Other animals cannot compare the rat poison eaten a week ago with the death of a member of the pack.
Therefore, you need to keep poisonous baits in a place inaccessible not only to children, but also to animals. These rat baits smell very good of vanilla. They release rat poison in the form of a paste, tablets or loose grains. The form of release of rat poison will need to be selected depending on the availability of the place where the bait will be located for other animals.
In particular, it should be borne in mind that a rat can “share” a tablet of rat poison, for example, with a rabbit, if the rodent decides to drag the bait to its hole, but on the way gets scared of something and throws rat poison. Rodents will eat the grain on the spot, but chickens can eat it. Therefore, rat poison tablets can be used in some hole, if there is confidence that the rat will not pull the rat poison tablet out, and the grain is poured behind a closed door, where there is no access to pets, but where gray pests walk.
It is better to use grain or pasta in the feed storage, placing them in a corner away from the feed. Of course, one grain that gets into the feed will not bring harm, but if there are a lot of grains, animals can be poisoned.
When using rat poison on the basis of these funds, you need to keep a supply of vitamin K preparations in the house in case one of the animals decides to eat the pleasantly smelling contents of a bag of rat poison. But with careful and competent use, rat poisons are a good way to get rid of rats at home. In addition, the anticoagulant that has passed through the rodent's body is no longer dangerous, even if a cat or dog eats a dead rat.
Since these are slow-acting poisons, the already poisoned rats will eat the new bait immediately after eating the previous one. Even as a preventive measure, a new portion of rat poison should be placed a week later, after the previous one has disappeared.
Electronic rodent repellents
These are ultrasonic rodent repellents, theoretically capable of driving rats out of the house. In principle, rodent repellents are intended not only for rats, but also for mice. But rodent repellents have a lot of disadvantages due to which the devices have not gained popularity:
- ultrasound is not able to penetrate walls, therefore, a separate rodent repeller is required for each room;
- ultrasound reflects well from hard surfaces, but "sticks" in soft ones, so rodent repellents cannot be used in a room with upholstered furniture, they are better used in warehouses, which will also not help much if it is a warehouse with bulk feed or hay;
- rodent repellents are declared as harmless to humans and other animals, but the manufacturers of rodent repellents themselves do not recommend staying near the device for a long time (less than 2 m);
- if the rodents have not disappeared within 2 - 3 weeks of continuous operation of the device, the manufacturer of the rodent repeller suggests exterminating the rats in some other way.
It's easier to immediately apply another method of killing rats. In addition, the practice of those who tried to use the rodent repeller in private houses and on livestock farms shows that it is useless to get rid of rodents in this way. When trying to use the rodent repeller next to other animals, it turned out that either it did not work, or we were harassing other animals with the rats.
The latter is not surprising, since ultrasound and infrasound have the same effect on all mammals, including humans. Sound and, in some models of rodent repeller, flashes of light will have a depressing effect on any mammal on the planet. That is why the manufacturer does not advise being near the rodent repeller.But a person can finish the work and leave by turning on the device, and the animals in the barn have nowhere to go.
In addition, the best rodent repeller is suitable for removing rodents from an empty room, where rats already have nothing to do.
Biological methods how to get rats out of a private farm
This is the use of natural enemies of rats. Usually cats are used to hunt rodents. But an ordinary cat can only cope with rats, which do not go outside very often. A rat catcher, capable of killing an adult rodent, is highly prized in the villages and is not usually sold.
To learn how to catch rats, a kitten must live with its mother for at least six months, adopting hunting skills. And even in this case, there is no guarantee that the entire brood will catch such large rodents. Usually, kittens are distributed at 2 - 3 months, and sometimes even younger. To a 2-month-old kitten, the mother is just beginning to bring dead prey, and the kittens' teeth are not always able to cope with this game.
By the age of 3 months, the cat brings the offspring of half-strangled animals, but kittens are still far from full-fledged hunting. A kitten selected from a cat so early has nowhere to learn how to hunt rats. All hope is only for the presence of wild instincts. Such a kitten usually remains wild, not even getting into the hands. But much more often today among cats there is such as in the photo.
Weasels fight well against rodents. When a weasel appears in the courtyard, you can be sure that it will overfill all the rats. Unfortunately, the weasel will exterminate not only wild rodents, but also poultry and rabbits. It is impossible to explain to a wild animal why it is necessary to catch only rats.
A terrier from the working line of hunters can be a good help in the fight against gray rodents. Moreover, it is much easier for a dog than even for a cat to explain that it is necessary to catch only rats, without touching pets.
Terriers against rats
And, rather, just an interesting fact, the creation of the "rat wolf". The method was used on ships during the absence of poisons and today it looks more like sea tales. The sailors caught 1.5-2 dozen rodents and put them in a barrel, leaving them without food or water. These animals are cannibals by nature, and deprived, moreover, of food sources, the rats began to fight among themselves until there was only one, the strongest individual. This rodent was released. Having tasted the taste of meat of congeners, the "rat wolf" ceased to be interested in ship supplies and began to hunt for fellow tribesmen, harassing them all from the ship. But on land, this method is hardly applicable.
Conclusion
Fighting rats in a private house is, in fact, a protracted positional war, in which hardly anyone will be able to win. Therefore, the question of how to destroy the rats is not even worth it. We only get rid of these animals for a while and can partially control their reproduction. To minimize the number of rats in the house, remove all food from free access, clean out areas where animals are kept so that rodents cannot feed on leftover food, and constantly keep rat poison in a secluded place.
