Rat misery

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by strud, Mar 28, 2007.

  1. strud

    strud Junior Member

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    We've got probably about 6 to 10 rats living in and around our rural shed.

    For obvious reasons (including that we have dogs, chooks etc) we don't want to use poisons normally used. So, we have begun by putting some grain into the bottom of an open plastic 44GAL drum with a rag hanging out of it. So far no luck, but we did accidentally get one in a bucket of water.

    Any other suggestions ? I guess that there must be some good mechanical traps/trap designs out there ?
     
  2. kathleenmc

    kathleenmc Junior Member

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    This is such an age old problem. Over the millenia they have followed the human race as we have provided them with such lovely housing and food facilities. What to do is the question. Here's my two cents worth....

    Ask yourself why are they here and what am I providing for them to make them live here. Can you redesign or clean up an area to make it rat proof? Wire up gaps, scrunch up chicken wire and poke into any holes. Some people use wire scrubbers (for dish washing) for that.

    Are you feeding your chickens too much food? Leaving food behind is rat heaven. Chicken self feeders are rat (and mice) breeder heaven as well.

    Metal containers will take longer to chew thru if they're getting into feed bins.

    Stacks of hay and straw are a rat delight. I hate stacks of straw more for snake issues than rats tho. The snakes are there because of the rats and they also nest there as it's ideal housing for them. I haven't any suggestions on this....

    Composts are also rat heavens.....the berkley method of turning a compost every two days will disturb nest building.

    I did all these things and still had them (as well as mice) in the house....so I got a cat. I thought long and hard about it, but it has worked.

    Goodluck with them and keep us posted

    Cheers Kathleen
     
  3. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    G'day Strud,

    kathleen offered some good advice above which is all helpful.

    IMO your other choices are:

    a) Use a least toxic or non-toxic (like a mix of flour, sugar and cement powder in a bowl with water next to it) bait and put it in an upside down, weighted down container with a rat sized hole that your other animals can't access.

    b) Encourage local rodent predators (birds etc) by building habitat specifically to attract them.

    c) Use a deterrent barrier made up of the urine and/or faeces of local rodent predators.

    Maybe only the first is practical for your situation, but the other two can really help in long term management.
     
  4. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    No biggies,

    Ratsak......... works a treat. Also address the issue of shelter for the rats. Have a good look round and block holes with steelwool.

    Rattus rattus is hugely adaptable. I would look for open pipes locally/drainage or especially date palms and huge trees.

    Remove, as best you can, local sources of food and get some baits out. I am a fan of using minimal amounts of bait ie, you seem to get a better result if you feed very small amounts of bait. Do not overdo it to the point they will ignore it and pillage somewhere else.

    floot
     
  5. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    I have pack rats, I am constantly breaking up their stick mounds. I even have a bobcat and foxes, hawks, and they aren't getting enough of the little buggers. one just chewed the cord on my mower and that was a real drag putting that back together!

    I've found that the rats pull out the steel wool, they don't give a darn. But the steel wool works well against mice and bees trying to get into little places.
    I buy those small flat construction plates and screw them across openings to stop the rats.

    Here's one kind of urine-based repellant, says it's guaranteed:

    https://www.critter-repellent.com/rat/rat-control.php

    I have used a corn-based pellet bait that was so condensed, it expanded in them and plugged them up. I think it was called Rat Safe, but I can't find it online, or Rodent Safe, something like that. I dripped a few drops of tomato juice on the pellets, put them high on a shelf in the shed where they were, in a plastic dish, and they didn't eat them right away, but after about a week they did, and I haven't seen any more rats inside the shed.
     
  6. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    A friend of mine refuses to use poison, so you might try what she does:

    Get some 5-gallon plastic buckets (restaurants often discard them) and fill them half-full with water. Get some flat sticks about a metre long and prop them up against the bucket, anchoring the end on the ground with a stone or peg, and making sure the tip of the upper end is close to centered over the bucket. Press a small amount of peanut butter to the underside of the stick hanging over the water.

    The rat walks up the stick, tries to get the peanut butter from the underside of the stick, and falls into the bucket and drowns.

    Sue
     
  7. Baisteach

    Baisteach Junior Member

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    Try a .22rifle with Ratshot cartridges.
    Fairly quiet, much more humane than rat poisons which are usually of the lingering death variety and certainly far and away more humane than blocking their intestines with cement.
    Drowning is fairly quick if you're on hand to push them under as soon as they fall in, but if they are left to swim around for hours until they drown from their strength finally running out then that verges on animal cruelty.

    Far better to shoot them.
     
  8. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Baisteach, how do you shoot inside of a shed? :shock:
     
  9. Baisteach

    Baisteach Junior Member

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    Use rat shot. it wont damage the shed. You pay a bit more for ratshot but it's worth it.
    Or use an air rifle but an anyways decent air rifle will puncture modern corrugated steel sheet.
     
  10. Plumtree

    Plumtree Junior Member

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    In the Blue Mountains you may be up against one of the endemic arboreal native species. Tree rats! They are beneficial in that they eat termites and a lot of other insects,slugs, snails and so on. They also carry all the other baggage such as ticks, fleas and germs. They are just rats but carry an Australian flag. I guess they are not as bad as your every day "Sydney" rat but still a pain in the backside. I think they may be protected but then so are all those poisonous snakes we 'care' for!
     
  11. Baisteach

    Baisteach Junior Member

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    I used to live in an area where there were 'bush' rats. These are a native and are extremely destructive because they need to constantly grind down/sharpen their teeth.
    One of their favourite pastimes is to chew the wireing in cars, trucks tractors etc.
    Over night the friendly tractor that started with a twist of the key, winter and summer, can become a monster that must be hand cranked.
    The only solution is to armour the cables by encasing them in steel pipe.

    One learns to live with them or moves or puts the house on steel pipe foundations :!:
     
  12. Alex M

    Alex M Junior Member

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    Get a cat. A ginger or tabby tom, uncut. Feed him a little, but never quite enough. Keep him lean. He'll take care of your rats.
     
  13. Baisteach

    Baisteach Junior Member

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    That's not all he'll eat, anyone that lets a tom or any other cat run lose is asking for birds and small native animals to be part of his/her diet.
    Not a good idea, and if it's in the country s/he will soon roam afield, particularly if kept hungry and s/he's likely to meet the fate of feral cats.
     
  14. heuristics

    heuristics Junior Member

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    hmm,,,,

    a week or two back I thought to myself - gee there dont seem to be as many rats and mice around my shed and laundry as is usual -
    maybe the strategically placed Bromacil was doing the trick.
    Then the other mid-morning I wandered down the backsteps to the outdoor laundry and nearly stood on a medium-sized black snake.

    So - you dont have a rat plaque, you have a snake deficiency (as the mighty Bill M would say).

    While I am pleased at my reduced rodent coinhabitants, I am concerned about the ability of my dog and snakie to co-exist around the house environs.

    I have seen snakes in the paddock, but a reptile sun-worshipper on the concrete right at the back step is a bit too up close and personal!.

    But - no rats or mice!!!! (or noticable fewer anyway).

    (maybe a pet python?)

    I was doing some historical research and happened on a 1920s snippet in a local paper about a man who kept a 60kg (120lb) diamond python in his roof and house to manage the rats. He made the newspaper because he told his neighbour e was going to kill it because he was sick of tripping over it. The neighbour was upset, and the outcry saved the snake from skinning.
     
  15. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Get a Jack Russell nothing short of a cat is faster or smarter Dogs are more persistent,Mine will chew thru wood to get to a rodents nest..


    Better then a cat,and they deter burglars also,A small breed jack russell not the big breeds

    Baring that a Rat trap is excellent both these and our Ex family cat were/are sufficient

    DONT USE POISONS
    Tezza
     
  16. Alex M

    Alex M Junior Member

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    You're right, Baistech, a cat will eat more than rodents. But that's a matter of control. The reason cats roam at night is because people let them. Cats can be kept responsibly. Cat runs can be used to allow access to areas that need protection while giving the moggie all the freedom of movement he needs. https://www.thecatsden.net/ There is cost, of course.

    Heuristics might be on the right track. Years ago, I had a bloke from wires collect a young Red Bellied Black Snake from my home because I was afraid of running it over with my car. He said he'd take it home for the kids to play with! They're not aggressive, and once a black snake gets used to you being around, theyr'e no trouble at all. They also predate on the much nastier brown snakes, which don't like to share space. I've always left Blackies alone, and have never been bothered by them.

    If the idea of a venomous snake around the house makes you nervous, a carpet or diamond python is a good option.

    Jack Russells are excellent ratters, Tezza, but they have too much energy for my taste.

    Probably your best option, Strud, is the bucket trap Sue suggests. It's cheap, quick to set up, and you don't have to feed it when it's not doing anything for you.

    The dead rats can be used as compost activator.

    I don't recomend poisons.
     
  17. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    Do you shoot cockroaches too Bais? :lol:

    Rats get into plenty of places that you can't go shooting them and they're invariably too smart for traps other than baiting. Then there's the danger of something or someone else being hit by stray ratshot. And I'm sure there is plenty of cases where a rat is only 'wounded' and scurries off to 'suffer.'

    Personally, as long as their carcass doesn't poison anything else, I'm not really fussed how rats are disposed of.

    I've never met a cat who doesn't 'play' with a mouse or rat they catch, and snakes either bite their prey or swallow them whole - I'm sure either carry a similar level of 'trauma' as getting a belly full of concrete powder does.

    Shock kicks in and the whole process is painless after that - it's nature's way of giving creatures a good 'send-off.'
     
  18. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    It is a popular misconception that hungry cats make the best hunters. They don't. They are always hungry, so they don't have the patience to wait for the most opportune moment to strike, and often miss their prey.

    A well-fed (not overfed) cat hunts for sport, and since his existence does not depend on his timing, he can afford to wait the extra few seconds that will guarantee his prey.

    By the way, the usual rule for mice and rats: if you see one, you've got twenty. If you see six, you've got over a hundred. Hiding from humans is not difficult.

    Sue
     
  19. Baisteach

    Baisteach Junior Member

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    Jez,
    Yep, sure do.
    The trick is to remove the bullet and then press the mouth of the cartridge case into a cake of soap. The soap 'bullet' kills them very well; especially useful for the hard to get cockies.

    The trouble with snakes is that they will never kill all the rodents.
    They have a good feed and go to sleep, the rats become wary of them but that's all.
    When it was the practice to keep Carpet snakes in barns, hay sheds etc it was common to see the snake coiled up having a snooze for a few days or so whilst the rats got on with breeding etc.
    Very few Carpet snakes ever eat themselves out of a job.
     
  20. Alex M

    Alex M Junior Member

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    Geeze! The poor old cat can't take a trick! When it's not the most ruthlessly destructive environmental disaster, responsible for mass extinction, etc etc, it becomes too greedy to be a competant hunter at all.

    One cat was all that was needed to keep to rat numbers under control on long voyages in sailing ships, and no traditional flour mill would have lasted long without a cat or two. There's no need to argue about the use of cats as rodent control. The proof of their effectiveness is is stamped in bold type across centuries of human habitation.
     

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