Many people living in rural areas are involved in poultry farming. These farmers often face many different challenges, including pest control. After reading this article, you will learn what to do so that the weasel does not climb into the chicken coop.
What is this animal?
This predator belongs to the weasel family. Weasel, the photo of which will be presented in this article, has a thin elongated body, a very long and rather thick neck. The back of the animal is covered with thick short hair of a brownish-brown hue. Weasel is found on all continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Usually this animal settles under stones, in fields and even in rock crevices. It is so flexible that it is often compared to a snake. This impression is especially enhanced by the sight of how he easily crawls through small holes in the walls or into narrow crevices between stones.
Weasel hunts at any time of the day. The basis of her diet is chickens, pigeons, hares, rabbits,moles, hamsters and rats. They also eat frogs, small fish, house, forest and field mice.
How to protect poultry from these predators?
To prevent weasel from starting in your backyard, you need to re-lay the old wooden floor in the chicken coop. If it is earthen, then it should be covered with a fresh board. Near the poultry house there should be no garbage, branches and dumps in which the animal could hide. In the walls of a building intended for keeping chickens, it is advisable to change all rotten boards, block passages and caulk cracks through which the animal can penetrate into the premises.
Weasel hunting methods
If you notice that this little predator has been in your chicken coop, you need to take active action. Before you catch a weasel, you should familiarize yourself with the methods of hunting for this animal that exist today.
Most often, animals are caught with the help of a dog, small traps, slips, toilet seats, ice packs, dies or trapping. The main part of the devices is designed to capture live predators. As a rule, they are installed near the entrance to the hole in which the weasel lives (the photos show what this pest looks like). Traps can be placed on permanent manholes dug by the animal. However, this hunting method damages the skin of the animal.
How to get rid of affection with traps?
The number of these devices include notonly purchased, but also home-made devices. All of them have a special design. In addition, the presence of bait is considered a prerequisite that affects the successful completion of the hunt. In most cases, a mixture is used for these purposes, consisting of ten grams of mint oil and three hundred grams of fish oil. Meat, small poultry, pickled fish, rotten eggs, cattail seed or sour cream are added to the resulting mass.
It should be remembered that it is advisable to use frame traps to catch animals that live in natural conditions, far from human habitation. When choosing such devices, it is necessary to give preference to designs of the smallest sizes.
Catching a predator with a dog
Before you catch a weasel, you need to train the dog. According to most experts, likes are best suited for these purposes. Moreover, the dog must not only take the desired trail, but also be able to correctly unravel it, track it to the place where the animal is hiding, and notify the owner that the prey is in the hole. Having overtaken the caress and barked, the dog proceeds to capture. To do this, he breaks the ground and takes out a predator. The main advantage of this technique is that a well-trained dog can hunt not only during the day, but also at night.
Features of using traps and cages
Those who are interested in how to catch affection should definitely learn about another effective way. It consists in the use of a home-made mechanism adapted for catching the animal. AtIn this case, the hunter himself must hide in advance and disguise himself not far from the place of the alleged appearance of the predator. This method is best used in the evening. It should not be discounted that a cornered weasel, devoid of escape routes, can attack a person standing nearby.
In some cases, it is allowed to use special cages with small holes between strong metal bars. A small and nimble weasel easily gnaws through wooden bars and crawls through widely spaced openings. Inside the cage, you must put the bait prepared from the above ingredients.
Repellers and folk ways
Those who have already figured out how to catch a weasel, but do not set themselves the task of catching an intruder, can be recommended to pay attention to special devices. These electronic scarers are installed in the chicken coop. They emit low-frequency signals that cause predators to panic and force them to leave the forbidden territory.
Those who do not have the opportunity to purchase such a device can use an alternative option. For such purposes, an ordinary flashlight equipped with motion sensors is suitable. When an uninvited guest approaches, the device starts to play light and sound signals that scare away the animal.
Our grandmothers smeared the walls of the chicken coop with tar. Despite the fact that this method has long been used by villagers, it is not very effective. This is explained bythe animal can enter the house through the roof. In addition, no one guarantees that the smell of tar can scare away affection.
How to build a homemade trap?
Animal, settled near the chicken coop, can cause significant losses. He destroys bird nests, steals chicks and eggs. Therefore, the villagers are trying by any means to get rid of these predators. Often people use homemade traps.
To make this primitive design, you will need bait, a bucket and a two-liter plastic bottle. From the latter, you need to cut off the neck and bottom. After that, you can proceed to further actions. To string the bait, you should make a spear-shaped cut at the neck.
Putting a piece of meat on the resulting device, you need to place it in the place where the weasel was noticed. It is important that the side with the bait hangs slightly from the table or chair. Under this edge it is necessary to substitute a bucket with a slightly ajar lid, which could slam shut at the slightest hesitation. An animal that has fallen into this trap must be taken away from home and released into the wild.
