Never seen this before!

[stevej37]

Noticed some tunnels raised up along my driveway this morning. Snow was pushed up also.
I knew it had to be a mole...so I set a couple traps.

An hour later, one was showing tripped. A fat little f*ker.
Never had them with snow on the ground before.

[Norm K]

Maybe next time, you'll take a cue from University of Greenwich's handling of the horrific end of the albatross in Rime of the Ancient Mariner and give us a trigger warning.

_

[stevej37]

^^^ did you pass out?

Here's an after releasing the trap pic.
It looks like he died from a spinal injury.

[stevej37]

[stevej37]

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 40's....might be good for a proper burial.

[stevej37]

I wonder how a 'sous vide' mole would be on Thanksgiving Day?

[sc_rufctr]

On that... I don't like the idea of killing animals but when it comes to pest control you really don't have an option.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ did you pass out?

Here's an after releasing the trap pic.
It looks like he died from a spinal injury.

How big is that?

Peter, when you've had squirrels in your attic messing with the wiring you lose your sympathy for the ratty bastards.

[sc_rufctr]

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post. I go full Viking on any pests around my house. It's never enjoyable but it must be done and it's a constant battle. The one thing that really worked for me: Cutting back the trees next to my house. Also, make sure the rats don't have easy access to the roof space (repairing holes etc). I don't exactly know why but clearing gutters and down pipes seems to help as well.

We have indigenous possums here that are protected. They can't be poised or killed. You have to use a no kill trap and then the local council will pick them up for relocation.

[stevej37]

[QUOTE=flatbutt;11855896]How big is that?

I would say about 5 inches long...he is still on the edge of my drive...cooling down.
If anyone saw the damage that they do to a lawn, they wouldn't have any sympathy for them. And there are hundreds of replacements for them just beyond my lawn line. No difference from a rat or mouse.

Hopefully some other scavenger will make him a meal tonight.

[JackDidley]

That guy was a fatty. Ive been lucky and had minimal problems with the damn things.

[RM512]

Never had rats before the neighbor built a shanty for his dogs. The dogs refuse to use it but the rats love it! Shot this guy with a pellet gun after I saw him messing around my yard

[stevej37]

^^^ Nice shot!
It's normally very hard to get a bead on a rat...they're smart and fast.

[KFC911]

They are easier to hit when sleeping in yer shovel like that .

Folks in NYC are going .... that's not a rat .... rats eat them itty-bitty things .

[stevej37]

Working for a friends dad on his farm, I've seen some about twice that size in corn cribs.
All the food they can eat 24/7
It's funny though...I didn't mind the farm rats, but a city rat makes me run.

[KFC911]

Lots of skwerls here in the woods and yard... Never see smaller mice, etc. Too many outdoor cats and had three beautiful, low flying hawks checking me out this morning ...

Big azz hawks

[RobFrost]

Spotted the evidence of mouse activity in the house Saturday, so set five traps with almond paste and chocolate raisins. They cleaned out all five traps of bait while we were watching the TV, so I set them all again, and all five were cleaned out again in the morning.

We have one trap we call the mouse slayer which is the most effective. Baited them all again last night and got one critter while we were watching the England match on TV. The mouse slayer had done its work as usual.

Baited them again, hopefully there will be more murine corpses in the morning.

The trick seems to be to smear the traps with paste and sprinkle them with little particles of crushed chocolate so the rodent rotters have to stick about licking and foraging on the trap.

I put cctv down last year to surveil my enemy. A sprung trap can shock them unconscious for half a minute and they get up later and carry on. A mouse will gnaw its own leg off to get out of the trap. I also suspect the dad takes food back to the pregnant mother because when dad got splatted, after a while mum came down apparently to see why he wasn't home yet. She looked pretty sad sniffing around and nudging him. The mouse slayer saw to it that she didn't mourn for long.

It's always a time of mixed feelings because I love nature but obviously we can't have vermin in the house, but I love that wildlife is nearby.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, mice are sneaky. Our early warning system is our male dachshund. His nose is amazing. We have not had mice in the house, or if we did, he disposed of them for us. We have a storage building in the back yard, on concrete blocks to level the building on the slight slope. That is a prime critter hide out. When Reuben is circling the building, and won't come inside, I know it is time to set the traps. I have a old jar of peanut butter, and the trusty spring traps. Cram the peanut butter down into the trigger, and it works 95% of the time. Don't buy the super cheap knock off brands, get the Victor brand.



His favorite treat. He got a baby bunny earlier this spring that made a run from under the storage building. I did not photograph it, as it was kinda sad, and very very dead.

[gregpark]

Good boy!

[stevej37]

^^^ Thars a good size rat.