Has any one ever used rat traps to catch weasels? If so what bait did you use? Will they be affected by rat poison? Dogs are the answer to these criters-all they do is bark and upset the chickens. I certainly do not want the weasels to bring in the relatives this spring. Thanks again Lenny

-- darlene leonhart (dleonhart@sprynet.com), January 14, 2002

Answers

Response to weasels

yes,, trpapers use rat traps for mink and weasels all the time,,some even modify them by soldering some "teeth" onto it to help hold it. Best bait for mink is a dead mouse,, I have even used chicken guts with success. A large weasel can be caught with a #110 conibear also.

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 14, 2002.

Response to weasels

Irrelevant, but interesting: one time someone brought me a teeny baby weasel they had found in their woodpile. Guess they thought it was an orphan who needed care. At the same time, I had a batch of orphan ducklings, only a day or two old. The weasel was in one cat carrier, the ducklings in another. Didn't even occur to me that the weasel could ever get out of the carrier, but sure enough, he squeezed through the metal grate on the door and got out. He went to the duck carrier and squeezed in, and I caught him trying to pull a duckie out through the square holes in the front of the carrier. Not a good fit. What a mess. And he was the cutest little thing, too!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), January 14, 2002.

Response to weasels

Are the weasels bothering your poultry? We had some weasels move in here over several winters and they were WONDERFUL! They didn't seem to bother the ducks. They definitely didn't harm the goats. what they did do, was to move right into our house and kill all the mice. When the mice were all gone, the weasels left. when the mice came back, the weasels would return and catch them until they wre all gone, then leave again.

They were such pretty, intelligent animals, and much hungrier and more industrious than any cat. Since the neighbor's barn cats adopted us, I haven't seen any weasels at all, and I'm sad about it!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 14, 2002.

Response to weasels

wesels can be notorious for killing poultry,, even geese,along with rabbits,, and I knew someone that had a litter of kittens and eating by a mink

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 14, 2002.

Response to weasels

wesels can be notorious for killing poultry,, even geese,along with rabbits,, and I knew someone that had a litter of kittens killed and eating by a mink

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 14, 2002.

Darlene, Do you know that you have weasels? Have you seen them? If the weasels are causing problems with your poultry(?) the answer is not setting traps or poison. You will catch or poison other critters too, and weasels are death on mice and rats. They also eat insects and worms. The procedure is proper protection of your poultry. So called Chicken Wire is useless! It does not protect your poultry against anything. It only keeps poultry in, not predators out. Proper fencing and housing is the key. Not only can some members of the weasel family squeeze right through that fence opening(like the beautiful spotted skunk), other predators can reach through it and kill your poultry. I use 1 "X 1/2 welded wire for my overnight pens that are attached to the tightly constructed duck house. We live right out in the middle of the forest and have many species here that belong to the weasel family as well just about every other predator that is native to the USA, including bear and cougar and I have never lost a duck to a predator. Check your housing. Also there is a predator page called Predator FAQ that might give you some tips. Hope this helps. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), January 15, 2002.

Forgot to say, weasels like fresh live meat, so I don't think they would go for the poisons. They might inadvertantly step into a trap. You might want to think about what is attracting them, it's probably mice. In our case, we really appreciated the weasels because they got rid of the mice in a very short time. If you are able to kill all the mice yourself, the weasels will probably leave for better hunting grounds.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 15, 2002.

THanks for all your help. I had the new hoouse built this fall and there was a mistake made on the door, thus the weasel help themselves to my chickens around Thanksgiving day-the hole was repaired with hardware cloth and all went well until Christmas until it found another mistake where a floor board did not seal tight against the wall-thus having chicken for Christmas. I have repaired that so now the weasel makes its rounds looking, when we had snow you could track it. I feel there is only since there is only one set of tracks and it follows the same path and I don't need any of it's relatives joining it. I haven't seen any mice but had rats so do they count-I got poison for them but haven't put it out for they are not near the chickens and hoped they would leave on their own accord.

Lenny

-- darlene leonhart (dleonhart@sprynet.com), January 16, 2002.

I just discovered a pine martin eating one of my chickens (which weighing about 15 lbs). When I approached it, it didn't seem that frightened, but sort of casually went into the shed. I went in and it just made it's way out again and ran off (not fast). It also killed another chicken that was in a cat crate, but trying (I presumed) trying to pull it by the head through the bars. I don't want it to kill all my stock (bantams). How can I prevent this?

-- Ann Murray (ann.murray@sympatico.ca), April 07, 2002.

Lenny,

Don't delay - - get rid of those rats. ( IF they are rats rather than mice - and even then I'd get the poison out).

You might have a "few" rats now - - but they breed like rabbits, and soon you will have MANY! They can be very destructive. I ignored signs of rats just as you have. They ate large holes in the bottoms of my wheeled trash cans which held my grain. To get to them, they chewed large holes in the wood floor of my grain building. They ate holes in my PVC plumbing pipes, and holes in screendoor wire I had across the bottom of a pen for baby chicks. They tunneled under my buildings, and back up through the floor of some of them. They destroyed clothes and furniture I had in a storage building when they chewed big chunks out of the material and made nests. There is more, but this should give you an idea.

I only hope I've managed to get rid of them, after bombing the dickens out of their tunnels all last summer with the smoke bombs. I found nearly 20 HUGE rats lying dead around the buildings, and I hope there are three times that many dead underground.

I can't think of any good reason to delay in ridding yourself of those vile destructive creatures.

Judy

-- (JMcFerrin@aol.com), April 07, 2002.