[Becca9800]

Ugh! Rats at the bird feeders! Didn't want to believe it was so, but yes, feeders draw rats. I've been feeding birds for 30 years up North, no issues other than a mama racoon and her 3 babes just this past year. Had my TV feeders up for 5 weeks and UGH! First noticed the feed rapidly disappearing. Then when stepping onto the lanai after sunset, noted the platform and hopper feeders swinging wildly. There was not a breeze blowing. Now I'm truly tuned in, what the hell is at my feeders? Then, just before dawn, I saw those vermin, two big ones jumped directly from the platform feeder to the stones below, the "baby" scurried right down the pole to the stones. Creeped out of my own skin, the feeders came immediately down. I'm so sad.

[John_W]

...

[Polar Bear]

https://bromebirdcare.com/squirrelbuster-plus/

[John_W]

...

[Becca9800]

IMHO it's just easier to just stop feeding the birds, they've survived many years wo me. I can't morally invite rats into my yard because that invites rats into my neighbor's yard. They don't deserve that.

[Villageswimmer]

Originally Posted by Becca9800

IMHO it's just easier to just stop feeding the birds, they've survived many years wo me. I can't morally invite rats into my yard because that invites rats into my neighbor's yard. They don't deserve that.

Absolutely correct.

[Topspinmo]

Just get yourself unimax hammerili 850 with the scope and suppressor. you can hit the bullseye 10out of 10, then split the stables in half holding the target on. Rats would be like shooting elephants at 10 yards.

[andercat]

When living in TX on two different occasions two friends were filling their bird feeders and they had a rattle snake strike. One was hit the other backed away and was OK. The one that was hit had many vials of antivenom to save her life. I will never have a bird feeder after that.

[John_W]

...

[John_W]

...

[Polar Bear]

The Squirrel Busters work fine for us. Regular Cardinals and other small birds...and no varmints.

[Toymeister]

I just got a rat in my mouse trap two days ago. The body was seven inches. Wild rats are not that large.

I used a mouse trap. A rat taken out this early in the year means a substantial reduction of rats in 2021. Rats do have a territory/range.

None of the neighbors feed the birds but nearly all have palms.

Traps are 4/$1.00 at dollar tree.

[karostay]

My neighbor across the street use to feed the birds. One day as I was cleaning out sprinkler heads and popped a doughnut off there was nice amount of bird seed underneath it
My guess is my neighbor didn't put it there .It wasn't much longer they stopped feeding the birds my guess is they had their own rodent issues

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by John_W

When I was a teenager and I would visit my grandmother in downtown Baltimore, my cousin and me would go out on the back porch on the second floor at night and under the street light with a BB gun we would shoot rats off the trash cans. That was really not that hard at 40 feet. It can be done, but you have to allow for the drop.

I have CYV, so our yard is fenced with a 7 foot high block wall, I considered doing that, but the rats are very skittish. They hear any sound, just opening the sliding door and they're gone. The poison is the best bet. I wouldn't need a big rifle. I have this Crossman 1320 Special Edition Pellet Rifle I bought about 8 years ago off their website. You could choose your barrel length, the stock colors (camo), the trigger and suppressor color (silver), and bunch of stuff, like .177 or .22, I took .177 because you cannot fire .22 at our TV ranges. I added a UTG Bugbuster rifle scope and I think I can take out a rat at 20' with no problem, it's just getting the jump on them is the hard part.

The 850 magnum.

[La lamy]

I had squirrels on my feeder (which is basically a cuter version of a rat), and I vaselined the stem of the feeder. No more squirrels! I wish I'd seen it try to go up while slipping and sliding though.