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Trapping does wonders for those nest predators you mentioned.

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How many traps do you run on your field rat trapline?

Question. Which animals are more effective at controlling the field rat and mouse population......coyotes and foxes or hawks, owls etc.?

Burdizzo said:

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Rattler12 said:

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Question. Which animals are more effective at controlling the field rat and mouse population......coyotes and foxes or hawks, owls etc.?

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Username does not check out.

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OK I shoulda added snakes to the equation....

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Question. Which animals are more effective at controlling the field rat and mouse population......coyotes and foxes or hawks, owls etc.?

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No idea. But let's not forget our friends the bobcat, rattlesnake & ratsnake who love a good rat.

My brother runs a small feed and grain operation at our family farm, so we are always dealing with rodents. We always see a few rat and bull snakes around, but with that food sources the rodents outbreed any predation the snakes are doing.

Cats are useless, and the dogs think they rodents are toys. If they catch them, they will play with one and kill it, but they don't actively seek them out.

Burdizzo said:

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My brother runs a small feed and grain operation at our family farm, so we are always dealing with rodents. We always see a few rat and bull snakes around, but with that food sources the rodents outbreed any predation the snakes are doing.

Cats are useless, and the dogs think they rodents are toys. If they catch them, they will play with one and kill it, but they don't actively seek them out.

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Domestic cats and dogs that get fed whether they hunt or not make terrible predators. They can afford to treat them as toys because their life doesn't depend on catching them. Given the opportunity, most predators will breed to match the availability of their primary prey. A family or two of foxes and a few bobcats would put a hurting on just about any rodent population. But keep in mind that they usually can't completely exterminate all rodents because otherwise what are they going to eat tomorrow? That is the source of the large swings in predator (particularly coyote) populations and probably explains why they may suddenly start going after non-typical prey.