Rats

[masraum]

Take up falconry?
Get a large snake (like a barn cat, but a barn snake)

size of a pistachio? Man, those must be BIG rats. I live VERY rural, and we have rats around. The droppings that I occasionally find are quite a bit smaller than a pistachio. Mouse pellets are closer to a grain of rice and rat pellets around here are maybe 7-10mm long and 3-4mm wide

[tabs]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

If I have to do this....what about my dogs and the neighborhood cats? My dogs would love to eat a dead rat. I worry about secondary poisoning

That is a real concern...a friend's cat ate a poisoned rat and bled out...he said it was a real mess to clean up.

Get a coupla cats...think of them as the police on the beat...

[ramonesfreak]

rats and trees......one night when i lived in NYC, i was walking through Washington Square Park around midnight. All of a sudden, I saw a caravan of rats, probably 50 feet in length casually marching through the park and, each one went up into a tree.

I had no idea. And millions of people have no idea that the trees are full of rats!

Another time I was walking somewhere around Times Square at night and stopped to light a cigarette in front of a window of a restaurant that was being renovated. I was very entertained by the site of probably a thousand rats running all over every inch of that room.

Originally Posted by tabs

Why don't you just put out the place settings on the dinner table and have them over for dinner. They love and will live in fruit trees.. a Rat can get through a 1 inch square hole..

My Airedale used to hunt them in my/her backyard in S CA..she and the cat would work together.

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by masraum

Take up falconry?
Get a large snake (like a barn cat, but a barn snake)

size of a pistachio? Man, those must be BIG rats. I live VERY rural, and we have rats around. The droppings that I occasionally find are quite a bit smaller than a pistachio. Mouse pellets are closer to a grain of rice and rat pellets around here are maybe 7-10mm long and 3-4mm wide

The rats are huge. Im going to try to take a photo next time I see one lounging

[wilnj]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

rats and trees......one night when i lived in NYC, i was walking through Washington Square Park around midnight. All of a sudden, I saw a caravan of rats, probably 50 feet in length casually marching through the park and, each one went up into a tree.

I had no idea. And millions of people have no idea that the trees are full of rats!

Another time I was walking somewhere around Times Square at night and stopped to light a cigarette in front of a window of a restaurant that was being renovated. I was very entertained by the site of probably a thousand rats running all over every inch of that room.

Renovating the cafeteria in an hospital, called for removal of the existing grease trap.

The roaches that came out of that thing were biblical. Middle aged plumbers screaming and running away.

[john70t]

A roller across a 5gal bucket with bait in the middle will catch them by the dozens.
First you need to seal all entrances, and eliminate whatever food they are going after (bird seed etc)
Mothballs and ultrasonic deter them from the open spaces.

They will start to eat tasty rubber hoses and firewall insulation on vehicles eventually.

Normally mice start to migrate inside during the fall when it gets colder outside. Springtime means there is more a few, and a neighbor or the sewers has way too many.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

If I have to do this....what about my dogs and the neighborhood cats? My dogs would love to eat a dead rat. I worry about secondary poisoning

Valid concern. Our chicken coop was fenced (so no cats or dogs could physically get to the poison, for what that's worth) and our dog was in a fenced area that was 50+ feet from the coop at its closest. I worried about that also, but with the exception of one instance, I found all of the dead rats within 10 feet of the coop. I did find one in the fenced area where the dog was, though.

I literally fought with these rats for about 6 months (or more). I tried everything and in the end felt I had to use the nuclear option to protect the chickens (and eggs).

It sucks, but there is not much redeemable about rats.

[tabs]

size of a pistachio....Norwegian Rats??? That thing will eat a cat for dinner..

I know in my area there are birds of prey...one gave a good fly over a 20 lb Jack Russel that I had one night...the wing span was about 30 inches...

For the past few years there is a solid black cat that likes to come and sit in the bushes in my backyard...I think it's after the birds... If I tap on the window it will get up and move.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

If I have to do this....what about my dogs and the neighborhood cats? My dogs would love to eat a dead rat. I worry about secondary poisoning

Yes, I believe poisoning is an issue for just that reason.

I prefer to not use poison for that reason and others.

I had something inside a wall 3-4 days ago. Based on the sound, I suspect it was a rat that was wanting to build a nest because I always heard it in one particular spot. I love animals, but mice and rats have to stay out of my home. I made a ton of racket at that spot every time I heard it for several days. After a couple of days, I remembered that there was some poison up on a shelf in the garage from the PO of the house. I tossed that under the house at about the same place that I heard the noise. I kept making a racket. Yesterday, I didn't hear any noise in that spot. I hate the fact that I've got poison under the house now, but it's better than a rat in the house. I'm not sure if I made enough noise to make it decide to move (seems unlikely to me) or it got into the poison (crap shoot), but I hope it's gone for good. I don't want the missus to hear it when she gets home tomorrow.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by IROC

Valid concern. Our chicken coop was fenced (so no cats or dogs could physically get to the poison, for what that's worth) and our dog was in a fenced area that was 50+ feet from the coop at its closest. I worried about that also, but with the exception of one instance, I found all of the dead rats within 10 feet of the coop. I did find one in the fenced area where the dog was, though.

I literally fought with these rats for about 6 months (or more). I tried everything and in the end felt I had to use the nuclear option to protect the chickens (and eggs).

It sucks, but there is not much redeemable about rats.

Yep. We have almost 6 acres. When mowing the areas farthest from the house that get longer at times, I often see them dart in front of the mower. I have no conception that I can keep them out of that area, but I'll do what I've got to do to keep them out of and away from the house to the best of my ability. It's a 100 year old wood frame house. During some of the work and renovations that we've done, I've found lots of pellets and even a couple/few skeletons. I think there has been times when the house was either unoccupied for long periods or only visited on some weekends. I'm hoping those periods are when there was a major issue.

[tabs]

One of the housing developers imported Palm trees from CA...and had a rat problem there after..

The desert is mostly inhospitable to rodents...too hot, not enough food or water to sustain.

[stevej37]

These work.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by masraum

Yes, I believe poisoning is an issue for just that reason.

I prefer to not use poison for that reason and others.

I had something inside a wall 3-4 days ago. Based on the sound, I suspect it was a rat that was wanting to build a nest because I always heard it in one particular spot. I love animals, but mice and rats have to stay out of my home. I made a ton of racket at that spot every time I heard it for several days. After a couple of days, I remembered that there was some poison up on a shelf in the garage from the PO of the house. I tossed that under the house at about the same place that I heard the noise. I kept making a racket. Yesterday, I didn't hear any noise in that spot. I hate the fact that I've got poison under the house now, but it's better than a rat in the house. I'm not sure if I made enough noise to make it decide to move (seems unlikely to me) or it got into the poison (crap shoot), but I hope it's gone for good. I don't want the missus to hear it when she gets home tomorrow.

If you notice the smell of death in the house you will know ya got it..

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by tabs

size of a pistachio....Norwegian Rats??? That thing will eat a cat for dinner..

I know in my area there are birds of prey...one gave a good fly over a 20 lb Jack Russel that I had one night...the wing span was about 30 inches...

For the past few years there is a solid black cat that likes to come and sit in the bushes in my backyard...I think it's after the birds... If I tap on the window it will get up and move.

We have bald eagles, osprey, red tail hawks etc...but I am in a city neighborhood. I can see birds of pray flying high along the shoreline of lake ontario from my house but they aint swooping down into my yard anytime soon...and the Rats stay along the wall of the garage. I have only seen one actually standing in the open in the driveway between the garage and house

FYI, my buddies chihuahua was killed by a hawk in his back yard in NJ. He works from home and heard the dog screaming outside but was slow to react.....till this day he has not gotten over this

[tabs]

You might wana try mixing Cement with Peanut Butter....they can't digest the cement and it constipates them to death..

[KFC911]

Most days I can usually spot a hawk or two soaring above, and though I don't hear as many owls anymore, they are around too...

Thanks Mom !

[BK911]

I keep napkins on the floors of my cars.
Mice/rats will use them to build their nest, so I know if there are rodents near.
Ever since I started putting out cat food, all the rodents disappeared.
At least 3 cats make routine patrols around my yard now.
Kinda surprising since I have a few large dogs.

[ramonesfreak]

I love owls. The last place I lived had an owl living in the yard (in a tree). And growing up we had several owls living on the property

When I was a kid we had a weekend house in the country and there was a telephone pole that I would visit the base of and find little mouse, etc...skeletons. I would collect these

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by BK911

I keep napkins on the floors of my cars.
Mice/rats will use them to build their nest, so I know if there are rodents near.
Ever since I started putting out cat food, all the rodents disappeared.
At least 3 cats make routine patrols around my yard now.
Kinda surprising since I have a few large dogs.

There are cats in the neighborhood that jump the fence and run off with my chipmunks and several times per year I walk out to find bird feathers and bones all over the place

Im hoping they come for my rats but I suspect the rats are too smart for cats

The chipmunks are dumb. I can be sitting out there and a chipmunk will run right over my foot

[GH85Carrera]

Our dogs were barking in full alert mode, but smart enough to stay away from this. We called it the right angle snake. We just locked up the dogs inside, and the snake vanished shortly afterwards. We had another one about that size that was very sick, and just hardly moving. I was guessing it ate a poisoned mouse or rat and it died in our back yard. I just burred it in our compost pile. I have never needed to resort to poison for the varmints.