Post by richm on Jun 10, 2024 6:46:30 GMT -5
Literally!
Wife tells me the rats done invaded our back yard and I thought it was funny and she shows me a photo of a rat on the window sill in the living room. Said they been all over the patio, including up on the rafter beams... Seems a little excessing and we sure don't want them in the attic.
Glance out at the birdfeeder and there is a rat sitting on it eating the bird seed. Up north we'da called em pack rats, not sure what should be calling them down here. Wood rats? Cute little buggers but they be rats.
The bird seed had been going down pretty quickly so I thought squirrels and had taken out ol Daisy. But these lil brown & gray balls of lightening won't have none of that. Can't get the slider open and have them sitting still, usually just a brown/gray blur headed for cover.
Broke out the DeCon and put it out in a hidden area cause don't want the birds eating it. Turns out the rats didn't want it either so we put some sunflower seeds in there.
Also broke out 2 small HaH traps - had a lot of trouble in the past getting them with rat traps (full size rat trap reaches over the smaller ones and the small mouse traps don't quite kill em) so had gotten squirrel size HaH type traps and those work.
Put these two metal cages in the area under the bird feeder and we watch.
The whole process took about 1/2 hr. The rats had to check out the new lawn ornaments - sniffing, scurrying away, climbing, one was even hanging by its back feet off the metal flap down door... Just a few minutes later one goes into the small trap. Back out, then back in and Flop go the doors! Yay! Grabbed pellet rifle and finished it off, dumped it out back. (the raccoons clean them up quickly around here)
Then this monster rat shows up and is having a conniption trying to scent the larger trap. Looked like it was having a seizure sniffing. There it is, gone, back, gone, back, gone, back, inside, door falls! Yay! Finished him off, put him with his buddy out back.
We watched both of those get caught and had a good cheer. Reset the traps and figured we'd have more this morning. Nothing. Someone did get into the DeCon and sunflower seeds, ate a bit or the poison - that's good.
Thing about poison and traps is they sit there until they work. Just don't want to catch any of my birds in the trap or have them eating the rat poison.
That's my story for the day.
What's the best way to put the smackdown on these things? Saw something somewhere about using corn meal and baking soda? Any suggestions?
I have tried a bucket w water and a spinning bar across the top with no success. They also seem to be shy of peanut butter. I could probably make up some sunflower butter...
Wife tells me the rats done invaded our back yard and I thought it was funny and she shows me a photo of a rat on the window sill in the living room. Said they been all over the patio, including up on the rafter beams... Seems a little excessing and we sure don't want them in the attic.
Glance out at the birdfeeder and there is a rat sitting on it eating the bird seed. Up north we'da called em pack rats, not sure what should be calling them down here. Wood rats? Cute little buggers but they be rats.
The bird seed had been going down pretty quickly so I thought squirrels and had taken out ol Daisy. But these lil brown & gray balls of lightening won't have none of that. Can't get the slider open and have them sitting still, usually just a brown/gray blur headed for cover.
Broke out the DeCon and put it out in a hidden area cause don't want the birds eating it. Turns out the rats didn't want it either so we put some sunflower seeds in there.
Also broke out 2 small HaH traps - had a lot of trouble in the past getting them with rat traps (full size rat trap reaches over the smaller ones and the small mouse traps don't quite kill em) so had gotten squirrel size HaH type traps and those work.
Put these two metal cages in the area under the bird feeder and we watch.
The whole process took about 1/2 hr. The rats had to check out the new lawn ornaments - sniffing, scurrying away, climbing, one was even hanging by its back feet off the metal flap down door... Just a few minutes later one goes into the small trap. Back out, then back in and Flop go the doors! Yay! Grabbed pellet rifle and finished it off, dumped it out back. (the raccoons clean them up quickly around here)
Then this monster rat shows up and is having a conniption trying to scent the larger trap. Looked like it was having a seizure sniffing. There it is, gone, back, gone, back, gone, back, inside, door falls! Yay! Finished him off, put him with his buddy out back.
We watched both of those get caught and had a good cheer. Reset the traps and figured we'd have more this morning. Nothing. Someone did get into the DeCon and sunflower seeds, ate a bit or the poison - that's good.
Thing about poison and traps is they sit there until they work. Just don't want to catch any of my birds in the trap or have them eating the rat poison.
That's my story for the day.
What's the best way to put the smackdown on these things? Saw something somewhere about using corn meal and baking soda? Any suggestions?
I have tried a bucket w water and a spinning bar across the top with no success. They also seem to be shy of peanut butter. I could probably make up some sunflower butter...