Oh, rats...

[Corona688]

I just saw a fucking RAT in the house, up by the top of the stairs, right beside a garbage bag with an obvious chewed-open escape hole in it. It vanished, but I'm pretty sure it's downstairs, I hear it chewing things, so I've laid 7 traps there baited with peanut butter.

Where did this rat-infested garbage bag come from? Probably the garage. We'd laid down mousetraps there already since we spotted one running into the garage, and figured we'd caught it... on checking it, I found that another trap had been tripped, this one catching something a bit larger. And I hear more moving around. There, I put poison.

Fuck. What are my chances of eliminating the bastards?

[Ymir's blood]

Ugh.

Mice are bad, but rats are just nasty. Try and eliminate their sources of food.

D-Con is the stuff. The only trouble is that you will find caches of the pellets long after the rodents are gone. They were apparent store it for later. The worst thing that happened to me with poison was finding the still living but unable to move vole. I hate the little things in my house, but still... :blah:

If you are dealing with rats, secure the trap in place. Otherwise a wounded rodent will drag it with them.

I experimented with the ultra sonic anti rodent devices but found them to be pretty useless. After a day or so, the vermin would move out of the immediate area of the sound but only to another part of the house. I kept one in my bedroom to keep the little buggers out of the walls so I could sleep and had some success with that.

[freemonkey]

I learned a trick for a better chance at a quick & efficient kill (as opposed to it stealing the bait & laughing at you). Get some cheese cloth & cut it into a (approx.) 1-2 inch by 4-6 inch strip. Snap the strip on the bait-holder thingie and put some peanut butter on it, wrap some more, more peanut butter, etc.

Basically, you want the rat to get its teeth caught in the cheesecloth so its harder to grab the bait & run. He's also in a good position to have his neck snapped immediately.

Good luck.

[viscousmemories]

Okay I'm a bleeding heart animal lover but rats just don't deserve to live. They're right up there with cockroaches IMO. Whatever you do, kill the rats.

[godfry n. glad]

Okay I'm a bleeding heart animal lover but rats just don't deserve to live. They're right up there with cockroaches IMO. Whatever you do, kill the rats.

Rats and fleas, carriers of disease.
Kill.
Try not to kill other living entities in the process.

Good luck. At least you didn't see two rats. That's really bad news.


godfry

(Afterthought here: Do you have a "vector control office" locally? City or county level government function, most likely. They're usually the local government agency for control of things like rats, mosquitoes, and microorganisms carrying disease. They might have information on what the local rodent situation is [it flutuates wildly in most locales, dependent upon many variables] now and whether they have any recommendation as to appropriate control measures you can implement in your household without endangering the human members. It may be the result of some localized outbreak and they can respond by baiting the local sewers....rat highways. Norway rats, the sewer rat, is a parasite of human society. It goes where human waste accumulates.)

Afterafterthought: You like cats? Can you have a cat? Could you adapt to being a debasing yourself as a subject being to the whims of a feline superbeing? Then, by all means get a cat.

[Corona688]

OK, I feel a little bit silly now. I've been told that the creature caught in the garage was a mouse, and therefore the similarly-sized creature loose in the house is also a mouse. A super-jumbo-mouse, but a mouse. It's beginning to get cold, which is why they're trying to get into the house. We've put down yet more traps indoors and in the garage.

Excellent advice on the cheesecloth, free. Cheesecloth to catch cheeseters, makes sense.

[godfry n. glad]

OK, I feel a little bit silly now. I've been told that the creature caught in the garage was a mouse, and therefore the similarly-sized creature loose in the house is also a mouse. A super-jumbo-mouse, but a mouse. It's beginning to get cold, which is why they're trying to get into the house. We've put down yet more traps indoors and in the garage.

Excellent advice on the cheesecloth, free. Cheesecloth to catch cheeseters, makes sense.

Even more emphatically...Get a cat.

Mouseturds in the silverware! No!
This calls for drastic measures! Somebody wake up the cat!

- ms. ivy b. glad

godfry n. glad

[freemonkey]

Afterafterthought: You like cats? Can you have a cat? Could you adapt to being a debasing yourself as a subject being to the whims of a feline superbeing? Then, by all means get a cat.
Hehehehe. When a rat moved in under my house one winter, my 16+ lb. bruiser of a cat got scared!

[beyelzu]

OK, I feel a little bit silly now. I've been told that the creature caught in the garage was a mouse, and therefore the similarly-sized creature loose in the house is also a mouse. A super-jumbo-mouse, but a mouse. It's beginning to get cold, which is why they're trying to get into the house. We've put down yet more traps indoors and in the garage.

Excellent advice on the cheesecloth, free. Cheesecloth to catch cheeseters, makes sense.

Even more emphatically...Get a cat.

Mouseturds in the silverware! No!
This calls for drastic measures! Somebody wake up the cat!

- ms. ivy b. glad

godfry n. glad



I read a study that suggested in spite of all evidence to the contrary cats just cant eradicate a rat population. if I remember right, the study was done in NYC.

I googled for it but couldnt find anything.

[beyelzu]

I did find this
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=1403&view=Print


Cats, while mice eaters, are not likely to attack adult rats; a rat will easily repeal an attack by a cat, though cats will kill young rats

[Godless Dave]

What you need is a dog bred for hunting and killing rats, like a terrier.

[godfry n. glad]

Afterafterthought: You like cats? Can you have a cat? Could you adapt to being a debasing yourself as a subject being to the whims of a feline superbeing? Then, by all means get a cat.
Hehehehe. When a rat moved in under my house one winter, my 16+ lb. bruiser of a cat got scared!


Hmmm...My 11 lb. tutored male used to live on the streets. He brought home squirrels first, then mice and rats. He entertained BBQ guests one evening with his "juggle and chase the adolescent rat" show. He brought the rat. He gets eager to go into the basement on occasion and skulk around in search of errant rodents. He's caught a couple down there, too (mice, not rats). He takes on terriers and retrievers, too.

Sounds like you got a lemon.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

What you need is a dog bred for hunting and killing rats, like a terrier.

Sure.... That'd work. But you'll lose slippers, shoes, remotes, carpets, pieces of furniture...etc., etc., etc., in the bargain. Those dogs love to chew. You name it, they'll chew it.

I have a bus-riding buddy who got himself a Jack Russell terrier last year. Each week he has new endearing tales of what the little nipper chewed up.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

I did find this
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=1403&view=Print


Cats, while mice eaters, are not likely to attack adult rats; a rat will easily repeal an attack by a cat, though cats will kill young rats

And I'm trying to figure out how the rat "repeals" a cat attack. Is there a lot of lobbying?

godfry

[pescifish]

Hehehehe. When a rat moved in under my house one winter, my 16+ lb. bruiser of a cat got scared! freemonkey, did your cat have access to the area where you thought the rat was? I would think the noises would drive a cat nuts if s/he couldn't get in there and take care of it.

Cats, while mice eaters, are not likely to attack adult rats; a rat will easily repeal an attack by a cat, though cats will kill young rats
I'm having a hard time with the concept of one rat repelling one cat. Maybe a swarm of rats, yeah. But my 13 lb female cat has been know to drag a 3 lb squeeling rabbit into the house for an afternoon of torture and fun. The rabbits don't seem to fight much, but the squirrels are holy terrors and she takes them on, too.

Of course, she's got a death wish, apparently. My current avatar displays The Look with which she has been terrorizing my new dog (seemingly 7' tall greyhound mix at about 60 pounds) for the last couple of days.


vm, would you still kill the rats if they were as cute as this one in the jar (http://www.pescifish.net/images/Vib+tufty2a.jpg)?

[godfry n. glad]

vm, would you still kill the rats if they were as cute as this one in the jar (http://www.pescifish.net/images/Vib+tufty2a.jpg)?

That's a gerbil (okay...a kangaroo rat)! Hey, they're pretty fun. We had one that I adopted from the streets. He lived in the aquarium tank with cedar shavings on the bottom and shredded every toliet paper and paper towel tube we owned for two years.

godfry

[viscousmemories]

vm, would you still kill the rats if they were as cute as this one in the jar (http://www.pescifish.net/images/Vib+tufty2a.jpg)?
Awww. What a cute little mousie. How'd he learn to walk around on two legs, though? Is he possessed by a human? That kind of creepy behavior doesn't bode well for its future in my world.

[pescifish]

That's a gerbil (okay...a kangaroo rat)! Yup. Kangaroo rat, it is. We have two species of them native to the area -- the huge size as in the picture and tiny ones the size of small mice. Very very cute: huge nocturnal black eyes, round ears, kangaroo back legs, tufted tail.

My cat brings them in and plays with them. I managed to capture the one in the photo before it was injured and deposited it out on some hill (where I'm sure it promptly ran back into my garage and nested among the tasty electrical wires in my truck's engine compartment.)

vm, it's those back legs: built for standing and jumping! The dog does look like he's possessed by some demon, though!

[livius drusus]

That's a gerbil (okay...a kangaroo rat)! Hey, they're pretty fun. We had one that I adopted from the streets. He lived in the aquarium tank with cedar shavings on the bottom and shredded every toliet paper and paper towel tube we owned for two years.

Y'all had the coolest animals, godfry. Did HRH Binford like/hate the kanga rat or did they never know each other?

[freemonkey]

Hmmm...My 11 lb. tutored male used to live on the streets. He brought home squirrels first, then mice and rats. He entertained BBQ guests one evening with his "juggle and chase the adolescent rat" show. He brought the rat. He gets eager to go into the basement on occasion and skulk around in search of errant rodents. He's caught a couple down there, too (mice, not rats). He takes on terriers and retrievers, too.

Sounds like you got a lemon.

godfry
Mine wasn't tutored in the ways of rat torture like yours was, I guess.

[beyelzu]

I did find this
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=1403&view=Print


Cats, while mice eaters, are not likely to attack adult rats; a rat will easily repeal an attack by a cat, though cats will kill young rats

And I'm trying to figure out how the rat "repeals" a cat attack. Is there a lot of lobbying?

godfry

its all about the rat's soft money contributions and fundraising they can repeal anything. :D

[beyelzu]

as a child my dad had a working farm with 2 barns. giant fucking rats. mom had brought a housecat with her to the south named wart. wart had been declawed and was a small cat. not much larger than the rats in the barn.

He would pounce on them hold the rats head in his front paws until he could chew through there necks. wart disappeared one day, I think the rats teamed up on him.



so yes I have known good mousers but I would like to see some solid scientific proof on this.

[godfry n. glad]

That's a gerbil (okay...a kangaroo rat)! Hey, they're pretty fun. We had one that I adopted from the streets. He lived in the aquarium tank with cedar shavings on the bottom and shredded every toliet paper and paper towel tube we owned for two years.

Y'all had the coolest animals, godfry. Did HRH Binford like/hate the kanga rat or did they never know each other?

Heh... Nope, they never met each other. The gerbil and my wife's cockatiel got along reasonably well. I was, at one time, a recycling/garbage hauler. I found the gerbil in a bunch of boxes. I'm not sure how he got there, but he sure was friendly. He'd escape occasionally, but he couldn't stay escaped....he liked company, so he'd come out and play.

Binford and Hobbes (my tutored cat) met nose to nose, but didn't show much interest in each other. Rosie, Binford's mini-lop indoor bunny predecessor, and Hobbes got along famously, often snoozing together.

My sweetie's boys had boa constrictors and tarantulas as pets, as well as cats and dogs. I thought that was unusual.

godfry

[godfry n. glad]

I did find this
http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=1403&view=Print


Cats, while mice eaters, are not likely to attack adult rats; a rat will easily repeal an attack by a cat, though cats will kill young rats

And I'm trying to figure out how the rat "repeals" a cat attack. Is there a lot of lobbying?

godfry

its all about the rat's soft money contributions and fundraising they can repeal anything. :D

Rather like Republicans, eh?

godfry

[freemonkey]

Hehehehe. When a rat moved in under my house one winter, my 16+ lb. bruiser of a cat got scared! freemonkey, did your cat have access to the area where you thought the rat was? I would think the noises would drive a cat nuts if s/he couldn't get in there and take care of it.
No, he didn't. It makes a lot of sense that he would be afraid of the sound of something eating the house though, while being unable to smell what it is. But, he's also easily startled by our adorable little kitten, too.

Kanagroo rat is very cute. I'm told we have them here, but I haven't seen one. We get wood rats here, which are cute, nest in piles of brush and stay away from the house. Our dog killed one last winter. And then, we get a brown rat every year since we've been here. Not so cute.

[Corona688]

We've got one really smart mouse here. Either it knows what a trap is, or isn't hungry yet.

I was sitting watching TV, waiting for the mouse to climb up the stairs like it always did at that time of day and encounter the gauntlet of traps we'd left for it.

Sure enough, there it came - scampering happily right past the traps and blasting past me, vanishing somewhere into the sunroom.

We thought we had it blocked off in the sunroom, but methodically taking the contents of the room apart piece by piece did not reveal him. We've got no idea where he is now, but the various barriers we've nailed together ought to slow him down somewhat, and I've left one of these (http://www.smithsax.btinternet.co.uk/products.htm) lying around, and plan to build several more.

[Godless Dave]

The mice I get almost every winter apparently are not tempted by cheese or peanut butter. I'm not particularly good at cleaning my kitchen so they must get plenty of other food. I'd use snap traps if they worked but I always end up resorting to D-Con.

[Corona688]

We got 'im! Or at least one of 'em. We saw signs of recent mouse activity(to phrase it delicately) by a thing of birdseed, and just plunked a plastic bin over it. Sure enough, we soon heard scratching and clawing from the inside, to no avail. We levered a thin board under it, and escorted him off the premises. Hopefully there's no more.

[godfry n. glad]

We got 'im! .... Hopefully there's no more.

Congratulations.

But your hope is in vain. There are more. And the weather's not even real bad yet. Here, at least. Just pouring rain and blustery winds.

godfry

(hey, somebody had to do it....!)

[Ymir's blood]

We got 'im! Or at least one of 'em. We saw signs of recent mouse activity(to phrase it delicately) by a thing of birdseed, and just plunked a plastic bin over it. Sure enough, we soon heard scratching and clawing from the inside, to no avail. We levered a thin board under it, and escorted him off the premises. Closer to someone else's house than your own I trust? Mice will find their way to somewhere.Hopefully there's no more.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.