Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!turing!q1ygq
From: J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (J.M. Spencer)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: How to dispel rats from raptor cages...?
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.110623.1020@newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 4 Jun 90 11:06:23 GMT
References: <22510@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE17RU
Lines: 46

In article <22510@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sam Conway) writes:
>*SOS*
>
>The cages housing our permanently-disabled hawks and owls are being
>besieged by feral rats.  Our birds cannot catch live prey, so they are
>fed pre-killed rats and mice.
>We haven't enough money to fully ratproof the cages, which would involve
>burying fine mesh at least a foot under the ground around the perimeter of
>each cage (and we have LOTS of cages).

It wouldn't work anyway.  The rats would still get in.  You would only
delay them for a while.

>  Poisons are out of the question,
>for fear of the birds ingesting poisoned rats.  Snap-traps are useful only
>outside the cages, and have-a-hearts are absolutely worthless -- the rats
>can consistently take the bait without setting off the trap.  That leaves us
>with very few possibilities.

Live traps are available in the UK that will catch multiple rats.  It's then
a simple job to drop the trap into a barrel of water to kill the rats.  I
can dig out details if you wish?  I have used these traps: they *do* work.

Alternatives are the Fenn traps (your snap-traps). They must be laid inside
a tunnel into which the rat runs, then snap!  You could build small tunnels
(about a foot long) inside the aviaries, or better still, at the entrances
the rats are using.  Fix the tunnels but do not set the traps until the rats
are using the tunnels daily.  If you place the traps inside the aviary then
lay them inside tunnels which are against a wall.  Rats tend to follow the
"natural" lines.  You'll have much greater success than scatterring traps 
"out in the open" so to speak.

>A gentleman falconer suggested to me that we find ourselves a ferret and
>place it inside a cage near the bird cages; the scent, he says, will drive
>the rats away (and probably most of the staff).

It won't work: I've killed rats that were found *underneath* my ferret hutch.

>  Well, we happen to have a
>ferret, but she's never been kept outdoors before.  Not only that, but the
>director is more terrified of what the ferret might do to the birds if she
>got out of her cage.

If the hawks are at all peckish they'll attack the ferret.  If the ferret
gets out and your hawks cannot kill it swiftly (they can't handle rats you
said), then the chances are the ferret will kill the hawks.  Don't risk it.