I shared in a recent post about how we almost used rat poison on our organic farm over five years ago. When we moved to our farm I saw my first rat and I was panicked! My husband bought rat poison and my son gave us this report right before we were ready to stick it in the barn. We never did use that poison and we are both really thankful for Caleb’s wisdom. I asked him to share this as a blog post. We are certainly not experts in this area and just becasue this has worked really for us, doesn’t mean it will produce the same results for everyone. Here is Caleb’s report below.

“Eek! A rat!” Its iconic. They’re small. They’re furry. They’re such ugly-dirty-disgusting-mean-insolent-little-churls! I get it, rats definitely are one of the most despised animals on a farm. If rabbits reproduce fast, rats are faster. If weasels can slip through small openings, rats can fit through smaller ones. Racoons are destructive, rats are more. You get the point. Rats will eat anything they can fit in their mouth. They will chew through almost anything that’s in their way and kill anything they can over power. It’s no wonder we do whatever we can to get rid of them! Well, almost anything.

                I’m not here to “Save the rats”. Yes, I do get paid to hunt rats so maybe I’m a little bit biased. All that aside however, the debate whether or not to use poison to control rats will probably never be completely settled.

 Poison is easy, just drop a block wherever you see a rat and, Presto! The rat is gone! (In your mind at least). Nevertheless, is it really dead? Rat poison doesn’t kill rats immediately. Every poison I’ve looked at takes at least 1-2 days and many take as long as 4-6 days at the bare minimum. Right off the bat we see rat poison is less than humane. For the most part, rat poisons work by thinning the blood causing internal bleeding. Eventually the rat dies a slow painful death. . . Sometimes.

The fact is, only some of the rats will eat the poison and only some will die. Yes, rats have become immune to some poisons, and rats are way smarter than we give them credit. A rat does not have to eat a deadly amount of poison. If it eats some strange food and feels awful, guess what, he won’t eat it again. You can poison for years and you simply can’t get rid of all the rats. The reason you have rats in the first place is because they have a food supply. Yes, rats will eat pretty much anything, but they will eat what they like best first. Why would a rat eat some chemical smelling pulp if it can eat all the corn it wants?  Also, when a rat crawls away to die it will often go to the most inaccessible place and stink.

However, say rat poison kills some rats, isn’t it better than nothing? From what I’ve seen I would say, hardly. Poison only gives you a false sense of security. That aside, rat poison is not limited to just rats. A rat can travel a long way in a day and be weakened by poison which makes it a prime target for predators. These include birds of prey, scavengers, and your own cat or dog. Dead carcasses will be picked over by song birds, chickens, pigs and a whole host of others. As they continue to eat the dead or dying rats, poison will build up in their bodies and eventually either kill or severally injure them.

Besides this, there is always the possibility of rat poison being eaten directly by something other than its intended target. Bait stations might help, but it doesn’t change the fact that you have poison just sitting around the barn or even the house. While a toddler really shouldn’t be playing with dead rats, poisoned or not, rat poison its self looks, for all the world, like candy (yes there is some pretty gross looking candy out there but still). To add insult to injury it’s often peanut butter flavored! Get the fish flavor and your cats are sure to love it. Any flavor and dogs, pigs, and chickens will eat it and rat poison can be transferred through rat poop in feed and be eaten by cows, sheep, etc.

Finally, as organic farmers we refuse to use poison on anything, weeds, insects, predators, and rats.  I don’t think you can be a truly organic farmer and still use rat poison.

                So, what can I do? Excellent question and fortunately there are perfectly applicable ways to beat the rats once and for all and still do it humanly, effectively, and with minimal risks to people and animals. First of all, buy a gun. I mean, if you are farming and still don’t have a 22LR, you’re missing out. 22LR hollow points are an all-around effective small game hunting round while 22 shorts and bird shot are safer to use in the barn. It also doubles as a racoon and other varmint getter. Who knows? Maybe rat hunting will become your new favorite hobby! Then of course you might use that dog or cat to kill rats instead of poisoning it. Rat terriers are effective rat catchers as their name would imply and while many (most) cats are lazy, some will catch rats. Some cats have been eaten by rats. So, don’t lock one up in a room full of rats (just saying). Traps are also quite useful because they work in your sleep. You also don’t even have to use the scarry snap traps if you don’t want to. Small cage traps work surprisingly well and won’t hurt any nontarget animals that might happen to get caught. Just remember “catch and release” is not a thing with rats. All this is good and fine but remember, the only way to keep rats from coming back is prevention. Store feed in rat proof containers. Seal up holes in any buildings you can. Fix the problem and then get rid of the remaining rats.

                We live in a culture that poisons everything, our land, the wild life, ourselves. . . and we wonder why everything is in decline. Our wild life is disappearing, our land is depleted, and our health is in ruins. You can’t wage chemical warfare on the land and expect favorable results. We need to return back to the way God designed it and we can begin with rat poison. At least it’s a start.