Well, it’s that time of year.
The rats and mice have decided they like the warm inside of my home better than the cold outside…
They are getting bold. Actually chased me out of bed. But the cat thought it was great fun ! ;o) (I’m not afraid of them. Just don’t like the idea of one of them in the bed while I am asleep, mouth wide open, etc…)
These buggers have gotten smart to the poison. They refuse to eat the poison any more. No, they haven’t developed an immunity. They simply don’t touch the stuff.
Any ideas on how to make the poison so irresistable that they’ll eat it without hesitation ?
I’ve thought of crushing it and mixing it with peanut butter, but I think they like other stuff better than peanut butter.
If you can’t say something funny about someone, don’t say anything at all…
Replies
In your situation I'd grab the BB gun. Don't worry, you can claim self-defense.
I've not found anything better than pnut butter in a spring trap for mice. Rats, considerably more difficult. Mine won't touch pnut butter. I even tried poison in a spring trap. Didn't touch that either. Gave up on spring traps for rats.
What works for me is bird seed in a live trap. Probably have a captive rat this morning in my truck. It's future is a couple miles down the road at the trailer where the low-lifes live who tried to break into my shop a couple of times.
Don't know if they every noticed an increased rat population there, but I've dropped off more than a few. Including a couple with painted tails, just to make sure they weren't seasoned travellers.
I've also tried electrocution. 120v hooked to a copper plate and a pan of water. Didn't work, and the result wasn't pretty.
If you've ever experienced a decomposing rat indoors somewhere near, but can't quite find it, you'll know why that's not a good plan. My problems mostly disappeared when I cut sheet metal to match the corrugated roofing all around the eaves.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
BB gun is not an option. They stay behind the walls and such, until I am in bed. Besides, I might shoot my eye out !!!In the place I am in, trying to keep them out would be like trying to keep water in a sieve.I'm moving out of this one as soon as I can. It's not worth spending all the time necessary to seal up every concieveable entry point.I pretty much just want to get rid of as many as I can.Not really worried about dead vermin smell. They can get out as easily as they can get in. The poison makes them thirsty. Their water supply is whatever puddles they can find outside.After reading the replies, I think I'll fall back on the old reliable. A little bit of everything.Crush the poison into a powder.Mix with pb and bird seed, and stick to dinner rolls. Never seen a rat or mouse yet that could resist dinner rolls.Had a rat in a house I lived in, in Texas. Well, several, but I killed all but the smartest with simple poison and traps. That last one got into every loaf of bread I brought home. Even while the loaf was in the breadbox !!I noticed that if I had dinner rolls and bread, both, the dinner rolls were prefered. I bought a large sticky trap, placed it beside the wall, and stuck a piece of dinner roll in the middle, up against the wall. He wasn't getting that dinner roll unless he stuck at least one paw in the sticky stuff.Got woke up that night by the rat flapping that sticky trap all over the place. And generally just having a heart attack, once I turned on the lights. Never heard a rat squeal like that before. Almost felt sorry for it.Almost.
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
Be careful with the poison if you have a cat around.
Mouse eats poison.... gets a little slow, easy for cat to catch..... cat eats poisoned mouse....wonder why the cat isn't doing so good?
A
Sounds like the cat is not earning their keep.
I have always preferred the direct method - traps.
Parent's house used to get invaded every fall by mice - no rats.
The old style spring type, no sticky pads. Always place in areas with droppings and around edges of rooms - this is where the mice like to travel.
Most irresistible bait was Snickers bars - cut bar into thin slices and mashed around the trap treadle. Had a little of everything - peanuts, chocolate, gooey stuff for good adhesion, etc.
Buy new traps and handle only with latex or similar gloves to avoid getting your scent on the traps. Once a trap catches a mouse - throw trap and dead mouse away - replace with a new trap.
Trick from professional exterminator: you have been trapping mice for a week or so and the population is down to one mouse - the really smart one - he won't go close to a trap since he has seen all of his buddies dead in them. He has it figured out.
Solution: Change strategy in trap placement - bait traps by sticking Snickers to the treadle - do not set trap spring. Use double sided tape to attach trap to baseboard, long edge of trap rests on floor. Once in place, set trap spring.
Trap is now oriented vertically rather than horizontally like when laying on the floor. Even the smart mouse's brain can't process the rotation - he will not associate the vertical trap with the ones he saw his dead buddies in.
Works every time.
Jim
The cat only just recently discovered the joys of hunting. Now you can't stop her.I said the rat chased me out of bed. I could have been more precise by saying the cat chased me out of bed. Back and forth over the top of me. All around the bed. Jump off. Fart around scraping and scratching down there. Back up on the bed, bounce around some more...I finally gave up when she pounced and ended up with one claw in my forhead, and one in my arm.Soon as I turned the lights on, everything calmed down. They went and hid better...Thinking of going back to bed and leaving the lights on. LOL Make the little buggers think I'm still up.
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
The early bird gets the worm.....
But the SECOND mouse gets the cheese!!!!!
I want to be the worm who sleeps in and misses all the hoopla.
There is a poison that is PB flavored that I get from farmtek.com. It seems to work very well. The poison is usually gone in one day. I also purchased the pet safe plastic boxes for them. I have to treat the home twice a year, then they all DIE!!!
Get a pet...
Boa Constrictor.
Had a pet black snake.Came at absolutely no extra charge inside the free used mattress I was given.It stuck around a couple weeks. Ate it's fill, then left.I don't know which was worse, the thought of the rats sneaking around, or the thought of the snake sneaking around...
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
maybe the rats have a good enough food supply not to take the poison. while you have a problem keep no food uncontained (and i don't mean just bags, or breadboxes that don't latch. rodents are agile and can open or eat through all sorts of stuff. i once had poison put under my house for a few that were hanging around outside. as you know, they die from dehydration. one of the poisoned rats heard the water flowing through the pipes and CHEWED through it to get a drink. had to get that fixed for $$$.cut back on the amount of food in cabinets and pantry, keep the dishes washed, and buy better containers fro grains until they have no choice but the poison.
Edited 12/17/2007 10:36 am ET by msm-s
The number one reason people have problmes with wildlife is a food source that people have left out. Get rid of the food source and most of the problem is solved.
At least they will be hungry enough to take the bait. Picky mice? To well fed I'd say.
check yer email - "there's enough for everyone"
A wild black snake would be no fun.
Here's som reading on animal control http://icwdm.org/
I find that the critters like some poison better than others. You may want to change brands. I suspect that the economy brands can't cheat much on the active ingredients because they are listed on the package but they can cheap out on the food parts that attract the rodents.
Wrap the poison in bacon and skewer with a tooth pick and pan fry till golden brown..make a lite gravy with the bacon drippings and some flour and cold water..garnish with some fresh parsly and serve with a side of your favorite dipping sauce.
Yup, that'll do it.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
Ok, but after I am finished with breakfast, what do I do about the rats ?
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
Thats what ya feed to the rats...silly.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
But then, what about MY breakfast ?Jeeez, this is gettin too complicated.
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
LOL..Then ya eat the rats with the dippin sauce.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
And what about the rats that don't have the dipping sauce ?My head is startin to hurt.
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
Thats why ya made the GRAVY!Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
sry, I have a tender heart. don't use poison it is a slow painful way to die. use either a mouse trap, one that snaps down, or a humane trap that just traps them, and you can let them out far away (or in your annoying neighbor's house).
I'm with you.
Poison = rotting carcass in unknown location. Well, unknown for a while anyhow.
When they are dead in a trap, I know two things 1) the critter is dead and 2) exactly where the body is located.
Not so sure about those humane traps for rats, I always figured they would find their way back.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
if you leave them far enough away they will not
Speaking of dead rodentia. Just last week my customer had asked me to get a mouse nest out of his dryer. I popped the lid up and sure enough a wad of nesting stuff was all around the ele contacts.
We shop vacced that all away, and some other down on the bottom pan. Now he hadgot this dryer a long time ago (used) and just now getting it fired up. it is a fridgidaire electric, and I vacced out teh exhaust hose connection as well.
Plugged it in and set it to drying..OH MY GAWWWWD the stink was putrid..
Ok, this needs help in a bad way. I lay it on its back and remove the front exposeing the drum and belt and inside the drum is 3 screws securing it to the element mounting plate.
I get the drum out..he is standing there holding the front panel up outta my way and says 'Yup, its a mouse alright" I set the drum down and looked inside the box, and I about died laffing..the element is a spring coil about 3/4" Inside dia. and a mouse had got inside the coil, up to it's shoulders and that was all the further it made it, when the guy had first ran the dryer a few days earlier, so every subsequent ON cycle smoked the fur and head of the mouse...eeeccchhhhhh!
I got hold of a back leg with my multi tool, and the head stayed stuck in the element..I had to fish it out with a screwdriver..awwwww mannnnnnn it stunk SOOOOO bad in there..
Got some fresh air, put the drum back in and route the belt around teh pulleys, did a test spin and closedit up
Set it for a 30 min HOT cycle and went outside till it finished...Told the MRs to get some fabric softner sheets..well not some..A LOT. LOL
Wheeww..it was bad.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
I would have told them the operator died , they needed a new dryer.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
"I would have told them the operator died"One ringy-dingyTwo ringy-di... *Bang*
If you can't say something funny about someone, don't say anything at all...
We've covered this before ...
U need a pet ferret.
keep it inside as much as possible.
the cat will love it aside from sharing food ...
the dog will learn to live with it.
the "musk" will keep the rats and rodents at bay ... they won't come close
and the snakes will learn sooner or later too.
plus ... they're great little pets.
can't ever be too depressed with a goofy ferret bouncing off the walls.
don't get him descented ... just a bath once a week ...
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
U need a pet ferret.
Or catch and tame a weasel.
hang out with a lawyer ... ?
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Works for me. Same as a snake.
I tell ya, that was a case for Febreze...the stuff really works. One of my houses, the former tenants banged holes in the sheetrock and dropped their garbage in the stud bays. No, i did not have handfuls of rich, dark compost coming out the bottom...
!?!?and they figured this was better than putting the trash in the outdoor can beeecaussssse...??
But...the outdoor cans were all full! The large pieces that didn't fit in the walls they carried to the basement door and flung 'em. I'm talking televisions, window air conditioners...that sort of thing. I had a frog colony down there, too. They'd never poured a floor, just laid plywood down to get to their freezer down there. The house had five freezers and fridges in various rooms - one was in a bedroom - when i first viewed it. No, i never asked.Anyway, turns out the frogs built an exact replica of Washington D.C. under a couple plywood sheets. As least i think it was the frogs who were into construction; they were many dozens of them down there. It was fascinating...a hub with a central nest, a ring road, and spokes leading out to where ever frogs go when they commute.
That sounds eerily like the past owners of my house. They never went to the dump it seems. Every old space heater, window AC. and pop can all went outside the closeset window.
Like your folks with reefers and freezers, mine were water heaters..I think there was 4 in all, not one worked.
The "man " of teh house had died, but he was painter when alive, and just piled up used paint cans all over the property..I still have a few I have yet to dispose of.
I filled 2 30 yrd rolloffs, between the debis from gutting, and the trash..sadly, I still have stuff that just boils up outta the ground on occaision, like pop cans and broken bottles.
If it werent for the snakes, this place woulda been rat central.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
Oh, i had water heaters....They'd halved the tanks vertically, i guess to make calf or chicken feeders. Threw them, about a dozen, in the gully as part of the effort to give the place curb appeal. The car in which the mother of the family had been decapitated in a crash with a drunk driver was in the side yard.
Ick. Now that is sique.
I thought it was odd when I chopped a hole in my basement slab for sump pit, and found what appeared to be girl toddler clothes in the gravel...I REALLY hope it was just rags.
Gotta watch myself,it's 4 yrs this month since I bought the place, and I too am getting my own collection of "stuff" stacked hither and yon...but it's mine, so it is stuff, if it is some one else's, it's shid..(thank you Geo.Carlin)..LOLSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"People that never get carried away should be"
Toddler clothes...now that's spooky. No bones, though, eh? I found blood on the walls, but it was smear, not spatter - looking on the good side. I never liked that house and all kinds of bad things happened while i lived there.
Rats like choclate. I have similar rodent problems here in Northern California year round I use bait blocks and pieces of Snickers bars placed in homemade bait stations. Get a 10ft piece of 5" black ABS pipe and cut into 12"sections.This is much less expensive than purchasing bait stations. Drill holes through the center and use carriage bolts to hold the bait in the center. This protects the bait from moisture and other animals. I place these along my foundation and near my garbage cans. They clean them out pretty quickly at first but after a couple of weeks they only need to be re-stocked every 4-6 weeks. Happy hunting
Low tech Rat trap.
Get an empty steel barrel with no top on it, put a slanted board against the outside, shoot a screw through the barrel into the board to hold it. Put bait in the bottom of the barrel, dog food, cat food, grain, poison, ect. Use a 55 gallon barrel with smooth insides. The rats can get in but can't jump high enough to get back out.
It will also work if it is set close to something they climb on and you won't need a ramp fastened to it. If they eat poison and die in there you may have to rinse to get rid of the smell so other rats will use it.
How you get rid of them is up to you, but I do know if you leave them long enough there will only be one live one left.
You can also store things you don't want them to get into if you put a piece of plywood that over hangs the top of a barrel and put your dog food, ect. on top. This cannot set closer than three feet to any thing they might jump across from.
Powdered Chlorine, the kind used to treat a well or pool can be used outside to sprinkel in a rat hole. They just don't seem to like the smell, who would have thunk it.
In the 1980's, I worked in a woodshop in a crack-infested neighborhood. One day, we caught a big rat in a spring trap (it met quite a bloody end).
Put it in an old, banged-up red metal Sawzall box, closed the front with a framing screw, and left it in the front seat of the truck.
It was gone within an hour.
(Yeah, I know, not really on topic. But I couldn't resist.)Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
-Groucho Marx
HA LOL
Well we've just had to deal with a huge-insane rat population living inside the walls of the house we bought. The rat poison is really not the way to go I pulled so many liquifing rats outta the walls..thank god for my vapor respirator.
We set the standard rat traps baited with peanut butter on some and kit-kat bars on others. We had actual rat holes chewed into the walls so we set the traps near the holes and bam bam bam we caught several a day for weeks... till finally on the top floor of the house this huge I mean horror movie huge rat crawled up thru the waste stack and out of the toilet and bam it was dead. After that we caught nothing while we cleaned the place up and I sealed the many many holes in the exterior. Now that we've moved in with our two cats we haven't seen any sign of rats ever.
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer
Luka, No offenses, but is your house a mess? I have never heard of rats in bed with someone unless your in the inner city. Theres no way a women is in bed with you when this takes place. My wife would sh#t a brick if she saw a rat in bed. I'll get some mice in the fall, but thats it. I use traps- I like to see there heads all smashed!!!
-Lou
Mice are somewhat dense, sometimes. As winter was approaching one year, I could hear a mouse working his way into my house over several evenings. Time and again, there was that distinct scratching sound. Finally, success! Now, to give an idea of just how small the opening was, I still have not found it. I did hear Mickey scamper across the floor .... right into the paws of the cat, who, like me, had been patiently listening to his efforts. Kitty was quite pleased with her new toy. She also showed her appreciation for my loving care .... by laying Mickey on the bed, next to my shoulder, at some time during the night :D