Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
All our farm cats have either got lazy, or something as although there's plenty of cats and they are well fed, there are still a lot of rats about too.
Ours are real hunters even though they are fed twice a day,I was always told a hungry cat won't hunt.At times I wish I could video them they hunt As a team 4 or 5 together nothing gets past them.Yet you never seen them get birds or even hunting them.Someone has dumped a lovely cat all it wants to do is sit by the fire ,they are either born with the hunting instinct or live life as a pet.All our farm cats have either got lazy, or something as although there's plenty of cats and they are well fed, there are still a lot of rats about too.
I can finally sleep!!!! I live in California Redwoods near beach. My home is 65 yo renovated. Picture a long house with a flat fired on roof framed with 2,000 yo Redwood finished with exterior painted panelling; a cottage with a crawl space underneath. The water table is 12" so water percolates up Jan-April. There are blackberries and home gardens. Critters only need a dry space. No problems the first 2 years. Then an elderly disabled fisherman moved next door who thinks sticky traps and rats are natural. I tried every no kill method but could hear them multiply in my ceilings and walls. I only had 1 inside I could see thanks to my beagle. I found a fuzzy dog toy drug behind the fridge. The chewing noises at night kept me awake for 2 weeks. The worst was an exterior TV cable pulled out with a 12"x12" hole outside, just the cable hole inside so clearly it or they made an entrance into the walls and crawl space below. Rushing thru the ceiling over my bed I used a million volt tazer chasing them out somewhere on to the roof. The noise finally was as if they were moving in furniture and slamming doors. I lost it Friday. In a few hours joyous silence. Racoons, opposums, rats or mice can still dig to get under the house and chew to enter. However, the existing rodents are gone or dead. Dead is better than chewing my house, electrical and appliances. Dead is better than reproducing. My 4 bdrm 2ba house had scratching violently end to end, top to bottom and 2 sheds. I bought a bag of green bait blocks and filled the stations AGAIN. There wasn't a morsel left in the boxes, but this time I made bait bombs. Before sunset I slipped on dispoable gloves. I then slipped on small sandwich bags (as you would to pick up dog poo). I swished the bags inside a nearly empty peanut butter jar just enough to act as fragrance and glue but none to eat then turned inside out. In each bag I put two bait blocks rubbing the bag to get the peant fragrance stuck on them. I threw 2 bags on the roof at each end. I put 2 bait blocks in the wall behind the washer where the drain tube goes. I put bait blocks in the holes they chewed. Aisle 4 at Home Depot I got stick-on stainless steel wall patch and puttied over holes filled with bait blocks. I actually heard the banging in the wall and the slurping from 8pm to 11pm then golden silence. This is the 2nd night of silence. The bait locations are such that they eat it outdoors such as on the roof, not in the roof. The one that is down the washer wall is central. The animal may not make it outside and die under the house. Any odor will help me locate a dead thing under the house. It was impossible to remove anything alive. I work with a cat rescue. Fishermen keep cats in the harbor to keep rodents off the boats. I brought 2 home. Some volunteers may have 10 to 30 cats at home and still get rats. The cats can't get in the walls, under the house nor on the roof. I believe the miracle of only 3 hours from baiting to silence is because the rodents weren't feeding here. I'm a clean freak. Not one morsel on my property for rodents to eat. They came here to nest. From 11pm to 4 am they would leave to find food which is easy reach to all my neighbors dog and cat food and wild berries. I will go to poison first sound I hear, not messing with snap traps, and all the other stuff while they destroy my property.Tried rat poison (cubes and pellets), they still come back everytime. It seems like there is a never ending chain of them. Any tips?
Kudos for thinking about the owls, respect. Some of the "poisons" would have been fine like bromadiolone and difenocoum though. Its brodifacoum and flocoumafen that have S.G.A.R issues.Agree with this. I was getting over-run on my chicken sites and it was getting me down. Didn't want to do poison as we have massive amounts of tawnys and a few barn owls about too in the valley. So I invested in a night vision scope for Dad's air rifle and my god did I shoot some rats. To the point where I struggle to get any sport these days. There were other bits. I bought a silencer and mag kit for his S200 but a decent springer (Cometa 400S from MVF) with an NV scope will do an awful lot of damage to populations and provide a lot of sport at the same time.
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catch some and turn them into cannibals
Kinder than those sticky boards that the pest control people use.Kaitlin,The animal welfare act of 2006 makes that illegal. Drowning an animal is not classed as humane. Big fine or 6 months jail.
Really?Guinea Pigs are meant to get rid of them, only problem then will be the infestation of guinea pigs!
So I'm told, never tried it myself but someone I know is overrun with them cos they get rid of rats, I'd assume one would be as bad as the other myself!Really?
So I'm told, never tried it myself but someone I know is overrun with them cos they get rid of rats, I'd assume one would be as bad as the other myself!
A friend of mine had a lot of rats on his farm at one time. A lad that helped him had a barsteward of a ferret that he couldn't control so they set it free on the farm. The ferret was never seen again but there were no rats or rabbits on that farm for years afterwards.So I'm told, never tried it myself but someone I know is overrun with them cos they get rid of rats, I'd assume one would be as bad as the other myself!
Or just have two males?Surely just neuter them?!
Or just have two males?