GAH!!! Rats!!!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: JinMI

Probably, but they're, well, cats!

The wife just walked into the office not 5 minutes ago and said the same thing. "Maybe we should get some cats"

The neighbor does the cat thing, but she has to get a new bunch of cats every year because they all get eaten. She goes through about 3-4 cats a year. Every time there's an ad in the paper for free cats she goes and stocks up.

Can not concur more on your wishes to not have one of those things in your house or on your property.

What eats the cats!? As an Aussie I’m intrigued by apex predators as our apex predators are dingoes, feral cats and feral dogs.

When we were in America everyone was all ‘whoahhh how do you guys survive over there with all the snakes and spiders!?!?” I was like ‘give me them any day over wolves, bears, mountain lions etc’.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah, and I bring every bullsnake I find to the property. The neighbors all call me to come get them. I LOVE bullsnakes!

The bullsnakes will gladly eat the young, but the adults are too big for their jaws, even dislocated. I'm sure a bullsnake would have no problem killing one, but they usually don't kill something they can't eat. Now, a python on the other hand, would clean these puppies out in short order! But pythons don't/can't live here (not outside anyway).

ETA - I once watched a python down in FL eat a Thanksgiving turkey some kids had raised as a school project! It was an adult turkey too!

a reply to: FauxMulder

hahaha brilliant

a reply to: JourneyAbout

yup a little jack russell fearless had a uncle whos jacky nearly tore the balls of a alistation

a reply to: IAMALLYETALLIAM

What doesn't eat cats in the country?

My folks have the same issue: coyotes, owls (great horned owls), bobcats, neighbors' dogs, cougars (yes ...).

That may not seem like a list, but they will move in once they find a population and clean you out. My folks have gone from around 10 cats to only having one or two tough survivors over the course of a month when the coyotes get to know or a momma bobcat drops her litter on the property.

a reply to: IAMALLYETALLIAM

Who eats the cats? Generally, the coyotes. The coyotes pretty much clean up the cats.

We get the occasional puma in the area too, but the main predators are coyotes, big hawks and big owls. We have some of the biggest owls and hawks out here I've ever seen.

We had a big cat out here terrorizing everything a couple years back, but he got dead in a fella's garage a couple miles from here. Pretty big cat too; about a 90 lb male. We've had tracks on our place, but I've never seen one. The big cats come in for the coyotes mostly. Coyotes, deer and antelope. They don't mess with the small barn cats or rabbits. A big cat can run down a coyote easy.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You must not have bobcats because a momma with cubs will take them out pretty quick.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Aren't barn cats cheaper?

Sounds like to catch these things you'd need maybe a few jaguars or panthers.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You have dogs so poison might not be the best option. For me, I went all out Bro! Haven't heard a mouse or any other critter for a while since I loaded up with my goodies:

Bait Station
Bait Chunks
Soft Bait
Bait Pellets

I so understand, overwhelmed with them here. It comes and goes as the owls move in or leave but always the insane amount of damage.

I spent years collecting stuff for the hopeful eventual day that I'd have my own house... that day came, started opening the boxes and quit. Just couldn't look. The house ended up crawling with them. Had to tear it down and build a new one, concrete this time. Well, the old house was rotten sitting in a lot of standing water as well, not just the rat issue.

On top of that they've eaten my plants, baby rabbits, then the wiring of my favourite truck ever... a lowered, 88 ford ranger with a 5l mustang engine in it. It was in amazing condition. Of course, we have canadian government running our one and only insurance company so if you have any altered vehicle it only gets insured by the book value, which for these trucks is now about $100. Damn mad, I was.

We just have problems with chipmunks and White footed mice. They chew electrical wires in the cars and get into the heaters. They chew out the door weatherstrip to get in or build nests in the air intake for the engine and in the air filter box. So far they have not chewed threw the airfilter and dropped nuts into the air intake....Ohoh, now that I said it it will probably happen.

If you spray the weatherstrips with silicone they don't chew threw them. It was a certain type I used to use, but I ran out now and I don't know if they make that one anymore. I was told to use it by an old autobody repair man years ago. It also works on wires. But I never had luck with it on plug wires, must be because of the heat.

I do not know what you could use on Rats though.

I had a squirrel chew the vent off of a gas can, I had to strain the plastic out of the gas out of it when I put it into the plowtruck two years ago.

I bought a house once that hat rats...right on the ocean, where they love to live.
You need to build a dozen of these. They are ba for killing rats. Put 4-6 inches of water in the bottom.
They will drown and are easy to dispose of.
You can hang some smelly bait in there..like peanut butter around the rim.
Id combine the buckets with the plaster of paris trick. (Not poisonous)
Wipe them all out in a few days.

Combine 1 cup each of flour or cornmeal, sugar or powdered chocolate mix and plaster of Paris. Blend the mixture very well. The smell of the sugar or chocolate will attract the rats and they will eat the bait.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: Ketsuko

Thanks guys!

I’m also in the country but in a town saving for a more remote and large property plus also fascinated with animals and love hearing what populated other places.

Doesn’t the idea of pumas lurking around freak you out!?

We do have massive eagles here called wedge tailed eagles or ‘wedgies’ that are I think the second largest in the world - very majestic and impressive animals! Out in my bungalow I have a taxidermed one.

You need these.


www.rid-a-rat.com...

And thank you for reminding me! It’s that season. They make nests in the engine area for heat during the cold season. I need 3! Off to purchase now.

Probably easier to order thru Amazon Prime. Just wanted to send you the link to the makers.

originally posted by: IAMALLYETALLIAM

Doesn’t the idea of pumas lurking around freak you out!

Kinda, but in all my life of 40ish years here I've only seen one. I worked in the bush a few years too and didn't see one til it took out some of our chickens right in front of us. Ironically, the kids and I were locked in the chicken yard cleaning the coop while the chickens were out getting eaten. Shoulda listened to the kids... they walked to school and kept telling me that there were cougars lounging in the park. I shudder to think about how I brushed it off at the time. The whole town had a sudden population boom of them and I was told it was likely young males being pushed out of the territory so they hang out a bit before moving on to find their own space. Lots of dogs, cats, goats, ponies got attacked. It was the one year that I had no dog and there was also a family of bears that camped out in our forest for a few days until they destroyed and ate every last one of my bee hives. But I'd take their rare incidents over bugs any day.

a reply to: IAMALLYETALLIAM

I'm farther east than FCD, so they're really, really rare where I am at. If you glimpse one or find tracks, people are likely to treat you like you've seen Bigfoot even thought it's not impossible at all since they are expanding back into old parts of their range. But that gives you an idea of how rare they are.

You're more likely to see a bobcat, and they're impressive enough. There has been regular pair living in and around the ruins of the old outbuildings on the family place now since I was in college. Some years they make regular appearances in and around the house yard because they've set up camp closer to the house than others, and it's in those years that the barn cat population gets hit really hard. Kittens are cute little buggers when you see 'em.

Out where FCD is, the cougars are a more likely occurrence, but I still don't think they're hugely common out of the mountains.

We have pack rats too. What we do is for cars sitting for a bit put the cheapest nastiest smelling dryer sheets you can find all over on top of the engine and stuffed loosely in gaps, then lay some wire or something over engine/sheets to hold the sheets in but is easy to take off. Can also put them inside the car to keep them out of there, or ALL over inside too of an RV/trailer etc. Again this is if the car is going to sit awhile. Also do the light thing below if you can/want to for extra anti pack ratiness.

For one being used, you can leave hood open with a bright light shining in it and and just stuff a sheet or 2 in easy to remove places (assuming you have a spot out of the weather to put the car). We use a shop light with high lumen hung on the underside of the hood, shining right into engine block.

And yes we also have one monster ratter/mouser cat who catches probably 1 or 2 a day and leaves em as gifts for us. The lights and dryer sheets keep them away from our cars. After the 5th time I had to buy $100 spark plug wires I started researching and haven't had a chewed wire in years.

We also have 5 more indoor cats for the mice heh, they were so bad it was like that horror docu "Swarm" ugg. I also use tin cat live traps with poison pellets inside em cause they can't get out of the trap and you can stick them where dogs can't get to it and open trap (they are really hard to open but you have smart breeds so). Just make sure you check em daily.

Live mouse traps

Also like posted above here's a trap/kill thing that works great, just use a bigger bucket for the rats

Mouse/rat trap

GOOD LUCK!! Hope this helps from a fellow pack rat hater!!

I hate to hear about your problems with the rats. I have no other advice to give other than if you choose to go the way of cats; I would recommend black and white cats (aka tuxedo cat) . They tend to be vicious and territorial with an added bonus that coyotes often times mistake them for skunks.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Call the F.B.I.

I'm serious...

Rats? Call the F.B.I.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You might try to locate and destroy the "Rat King".

SAAVY?
en.wikipedia.org...

That is, if all else fails.