I DESPISE PACK RATS!!!!!!!

Has anyone found an effective deterrent for pack rats?  I hate rodents in general but today's rage is all pack rats!.  As our family no longer goes camping (pack rats long ago ate the tent)  We had the bright idea to clean out the shed formerly used to store camping gear, rodent proof it and use it for feed storage.  I swear it had been a pack rat flop house....  they must have invited all their nasty little rat friends over and had a party......what a mess!  I HATE RODENTS!!!!   I filled the pump sprayer with 50% bleach and water and soaked the shed and everything in it.  I had to shovel out the sopping wet bleach soaked pack rat poop....... GROSS!  Hose, bleach, scrub, hose, bleach scrub and one final hosing will do it I hope.  Once totally dry and the hole in the wall patched I plan to store bags of horse and chicken feed in there.  Anyone know if there will be a problem of the pack rat urine smell tainting the bags of feed to the point the horses and chickens won't eat them?  I'm hopeful that allowing the bleach to penetrate the plywood will kill most of the smell. Any thoughts?

After you get it cleaned out, paint it with the primer that kills and covers everything - Kilz, I think it's called. Then give it a couple of good coats of exterior paint to seal it all, and that should help with the smell. I keep all my feed stored in rubbermaid totes to help keep mice out.

I would also run a layer of small mesh hardware wire on all the corners and where the hole is. The critters know where warm and food is now, one night and they can be back. Even if they chew through the wood, they will hit the wire and be stopped. The are also great climbers, so check the gutters and up high. Any vegetation touching the building will be an access point.

Oh, two good ways to trap them. A big rat trap under a plastic milk crate, one with the big yellow pad on it. They are $3 or so.

The other is a bucket, dowel drilled In at the top so that it spans the top and turns, and peanut butter in the middle of the dowel. Fill the bucket with about 1/4 water, enough so that a rat has to swim and can't touch.  The rat will go to walk across the dowel, it twists, and to the water they go.  

I've got lots of rats this year too, bites. Never had rats before.

Oh, and if you have dogs, cats or chicken, do NOT use poison or you risk your own critters getting a poisoned rat.

Thank you so much for all the great ideas.... It did cross my mind too about the Kilz Right now all I can smell is bleach LOL  Not environmentally friendly but I hope it kills any bacteria or virus that rat party may have left behind.  I tried to remove the shelves  with a sledge hammer and then the axe so the shed can be lined with 1/2 inch plywood...... not a hope that those shelves will budge.  When Hubby builds things they may not be beautiful but they are built to last.....Next is the wrecking bar I guess.  I highly recommend demolition after a frustrating week at work!  

        

when we moved to our place  so did a hoard of packrats and at about the same time so did a family of skunks.  Oh my goodness that was some few months and we relocated with those live traps every one about fifteen km up the hill.  My son did some research and maybe he was exaggerating but told me that skunks can live in families of up to twenty three!  I like skunks less than pack rats.  I love them too but I just don't want to live with them.  I was so mad one day when I found one had broken in to the barn and killed a chicken, I found it eating it and it didn't even flinch when I stomped my feet which infuriated me even more so I yelled mighty things and made as if to come in and do a nasty on it.  I was so thwarted, it simply turned its pretty little tail my way but before it had a chance to do anything spray like I was on my way to the house to find suitable equipment to do something about it.  Only thing they are frightened of is an owl I hear, because owls can't smell.   I cooled down, still not sure if it is ok to do away with them.  Can't remember the last time I was that outraged.  Killed one of my chickens!  Little s--t.  Got the coop fortified now.

Pack rats, they are something alright.  After the fourth one had been relocated nicely up the hill I was ready to kill with my teeth!   They really are extraordinary critters but that pong is just NOT for living with.  Our barn still smells distantly of that eau de rodent and one day I will pull all the fiber glass insulation out and re do the whole thing.   I once heard a story from the septic tank cleaning guy about how they are super bright.  You know they like shiny things right, well one stole his spanner/wrench from his shop and it was one of his good ones.  He wanted it back so he left an equally shiny thing out and the way he told the story was that the rat traded the spanner for the new thing.  I have to take my hat off to that kind of intelligence.  However I'll do a haka any day and kill one with my bare hands if I have to to get rid of it, probably try the live trap first if I'm honest.  

A year before we had been terrorized by a mama + babies (we think) presence under a cabin beside a house we had been renting and just did not know what to do about it.  I'm sure it had burned the lining out of my Mum's nose, she had reached the stage where she couldn't tell she smelled like packrat and we all had watering eyes.  One day she got mad and jumped up and down on the floor over where we thought it was living, she yelled, stomped, jumped a chair up and down for maybe 15 minutes.  It moved out.  Seems a haka works!  (a haka is a Maori war dance, pretty damn scary if done right and nothing like packrats to bring you to the razors edge of doing the haka with absolute sincerity).  Someone told me that if you want to set a kill trap do it inside a large tin because they are good at anticipating the snap and jump high out of the way before the crunch.  If the trap is set inside the tin then the rat can't jump high enough to get out of the way.  Don't like to kill unless there's no other option, pack rats have the most beautiful shiny eyes.   Just a darned shame they smell so damned awful.  And, all those other problems associated with rodents.  I have to set traps for mice in the barn.  I thought the chickens would take care of them but if they come out when they are asleep then there is their window of opportunity.

I had heard that Rats do not like noise so agree with Magdelan, but, i also heard it was short lived, they just move quarters until the noise level is back to normal. i would vote live trap, or dogs. My dogs love hunting pack rats...i help lift things. Good luck.. i also hate rodents.

meant to say the tin needs to be laying on its side. for the trap that is. I know someone who was successful with this way but he was so distressed over it that I don't think he'd do it again. He loves animals and critters, his place is over run by squirrels and chipmunks because he puts food out for the birds but I think he probably likes all the visitors. Even the bear that came for the bird seed and the cougar that killed a deer in his front garden. I'm not for those last two - nothing eats you in NZ unless you swim with a great white shark! Quite a learning curve here. No pack rats there - a few regular types but nothing quite as stinky as a pack rat.

I hate them too. they stink. Had a rat dog for a while. I use poison. Once they learn about a trap they never go back. I kill them every chance I get.