Rats, how determined are they?

Since I have been removing the food at night, the rat problem seems to have gone away. I had seen no droppings and still sweep up each day as the chickens go to bed and inspect in the morning. Then a few nights ago when I went up as the coop door was closing to remove the food, I saw something run from under the coop to behind the storage cabinet. It was dusk and it ran so quickly that I couldn’t tell if it was a rat or a mouse. At the weekend we decided to empty and pull out the storage cabinet (again) to see if there was anything behind it. There was one single rat dropping a couple of mice droppings and a few pellets. This is very little compared to the past but still shows they can get in and must be taking pellets before dark as I remove them at dusk.

At two o’clock this afternoon my husband went up to the chickens and saw a rat run under the coop and behind the storage cabinet. He said it was too big to get through weld mesh and must have found another way in. We started looking again but could see no sign   of digging. Then as we were leaving we stooped down and saw this.

Rats have chewed a hole through the wooden steps

This means they have dug underneath next doors decking and having come up against the tiles we have lined our side with have instead chewed through the wooden step. This is a perfect hole like you see in cartoons where they have mice behind the skirting board. My husband says if they made a hole this size it means they couldn’t get through the weld mesh or they wouldn’t have bothered to do this.  They must have been so determined and when they found no food at night decided to try their luck during the day. At least now we can see where they are getting in and it must only have been recent due to the one single dropping. My husband squirted expanding foam in the hole then put a thick log in front. It may not stop them forever but it will sure slow them down a bit.

My husband said he felt quite pleased in a way because we felt mice may get through the weld mesh but didn’t really think a rat would be able to. He says if they went to this much trouble to chew through wood then he feels they can’t get through the weld mesh and even if they find another way in, we can keep spotting it like we did this time and keep blocking them.