Most effective rodent pellets for mice and rats?

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spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#306013 20-Jun-2023 16:48

We've got a bad rodent problem happening on Waiheke and have tried using the Kiwicare No Rats & Mice and it works about as well as most Kiwicare products - which is to say, "not at all".

I know there's a service on the island and they have been really effective because they are using a different bait that is, as they say, "like lollys for rats." Of course, they are keeping their secret source under wraps.

Anyone here have any experience with the various rodent pellet products on the market and can advise what's the best? And also, what's a good bait station so the rodents can get into the bait, but not any local dogs or cats?

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3092672 20-Jun-2023 16:57

i find talon effective. i use another brand at work which is ok but harder to use.

best thing is to use one with hole in the centre. you can either screw a block to a board, or run a bit of fencing wire through them and bend the ends up. a bit of downpipe makes a bait station with the wire clip over the ends. main thing is that they can't drag the bait away so they will chew it. but the bait still moves around.

prefer the waxy type as the dry types tend to leave a powdery mess behind.

the big thing is also knowing where to put it.

snowfly

543 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092720 20-Jun-2023 17:01

We've just managed to get rid of a rat (we think) that took up residence in our garage, using Kiwicare No Rats & Mice One Feed blocks.

I had a spare PoE camera running in the garage (for testing), and by luck it detected the rat.
In the following weeks we tried traditional traps, first ones were too small (camera caught rat feeding then jumping out of trap), and then it never went near bigger trap.

First night of setting Kiwicare bait, it took it, and 5 days later, no more rat movement detected, so fairly sure it worked.

In the past we placed rat/mice bait in a short piece of pvc pipe (like a downpipe offcut), so cats/dogs couldn't get into bait inside.

tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3092722 20-Jun-2023 17:07

to add, rats are very wary. can be very trap shy. they do not like things that move when they walk on them or boxes to put there heads in. so with tubes make sure its weighted down and a wide open bait station. mice they don't care, they are a bit stupid.

most of mine is simply a hunk of wood with a bait block screwed to it with a big enough screw so they can't pull it off the screw head. up against a wall somewhere warm and cosy and behind stuff hidden away.

Mattnzl

281 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092756 20-Jun-2023 19:28

I wish I'd taken a photo! This stuff: https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/kiwicare-no-rats-mice-one-feed-rodent-bait-blocks-160g/p/232953

Once the rats had finished the two blocks I'd screwed down on the garage rafters, they ATE their way through the plastic container and made off with the rest of the blocks from the container!

Found two dead ones on the lawn when mowing, and definately a bad smell in the garage for a few weeks from how ever many other ones died in hidden places 🙄

vexxxboy

4244 posts

Uber Geek

#3092762 20-Jun-2023 19:53

i used kiwicare rat bait blocks and just left a couple where i had seen Basil the rat (my wife saw it thought it was cute and named it) running and out of reach of pets . I was worried it would die behind something and i would find it by the smell and have to break something to get it, but luckily i found it dead in the middle of the kitchen floor and easily removed before the wife could give it a burial .

Common sense is not as common as you think.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3092802 20-Jun-2023 21:52

I use the Double Tap that's meant for possums which the rats love too with peanut butter prefeed, as @tweake mentioned it has a hole through the centre so you can thread it onto #8 wire and they have to eat it in place rather than hauling it all off to a hole somewhere where it won't get eaten. You buy it by the bucket load and it's cheaper by weight than any of the stuff you get at M10/Bunnings, I usually get a 4.5kg bucket which lasts a year or two.

I would also recommend the Traps NZ forums which is where the serious trapping experts hang out. For rats I'd be more inclined to use traps than poison, of which the T-Rex seems to he highly regarded, or a DOC200 if you can afford it.

paulgr

888 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3092838 21-Jun-2023 07:43

Rats are an ingenious lot.
Toilet started to leak around the base.
More sealant didn't work so called in a plumber.
After removing the toilet, plumber told me a rat had chewed through the rubber seal and showed me the teeth marks on seal and drain pipe.
He said we were lucky it didn't surface inside the toilet.

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johno1234

2806 posts

Uber Geek

#3092854 21-Jun-2023 08:57

tweake:

i find talon effective. i use another brand at work which is ok but harder to use.

best thing is to use one with hole in the centre. you can either screw a block to a board, or run a bit of fencing wire through them and bend the ends up. a bit of downpipe makes a bait station with the wire clip over the ends. main thing is that they can't drag the bait away so they will chew it. but the bait still moves around.

prefer the waxy type as the dry types tend to leave a powdery mess behind.

the big thing is also knowing where to put it.

Have used the same - the rats quickly find it and eat it. Next thing, no rats for a month or two. We have a creek over the boundary so it's a natural rat environment.

Silvrav

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#3092855 21-Jun-2023 08:57

Mattnzl:

I wish I'd taken a photo! This stuff: https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/kiwicare-no-rats-mice-one-feed-rodent-bait-blocks-160g/p/232953

Once the rats had finished the two blocks I'd screwed down on the garage rafters, they ATE their way through the plastic container and made off with the rest of the blocks from the container!

Found two dead ones on the lawn when mowing, and definately a bad smell in the garage for a few weeks from how ever many other ones died in hidden places 🙄

Yip, can vouch for this product as well - it works specially where you have kids and other animals. We do combine it with a massive rat trap as well (it has a place inside for the blocks to sit securley) - https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/kiwicare-unfilled-rat-bait-station/p/397560

*note this is excludes the trap itself - cant seem to see them online

If the traps misses them they generally eat the bait