Yes, Rats. My neighbor, a rather "unsavory" fellow, the type that cuts his lawn and finds complete vehicles, is moving out...read that "evicted". As a result, during the cleanup, cleaning out the, er, garage, a falling down oversized shed he stored "stuff" in, a pack rat decided to move to a more peaceful location. Yes, lucky me, he is now in my lumber pile, stinking things up something fierce. So, traps are dug out, cleaned, baited, and ready to wreak havoc on the entire rat population that DARES to set foot on my property. I HATE those things. I have a scar on the middle finger of my right hand from a knife fight with one when I was 12 or 13 years old; he was intent on killing the wiring harness in a vehicle, and I was intent on killing him first, with my pocket knife. I won, but not without casualtys to the troop. Hey, c'mon, it has to be "troop", I was by myself, unless you include the dog that was trying for first blood. On the rat, not me. Anyway, I won that war; wish me luck on this one.
Did I mention that I hate rats?
Well, sounds like Mr. Pack Rat is ready to be "Evicted" himself.... I don't think we have "pack-rats" around here (well, my wife would beg to differ with that.... :o) . Isn't the pack-rat the big-headed, big-eared, bushy-tailed variety? We have the small-eared skinny tailed version her, that just looks like a 10X mouse. These do stink a lot - like mice but worse... In the cities you're likely to see them anywhere, once when I lived in town years ago during college I saw one the size of a possum in an alley once!! Around here in the country they only tend to live (usually) in barns around livestock. We had them in our barn once several years ago - never saw one, but there were holes and burrows I found so promptly put out some poison. Does that work for Pack-Rats?
Good luck trapping that beast. Are these things usually solitary? Here, you usually don't have "a rat"....
Those are the common Norwegian brown rat GB. The only neighbours I have are cottagers. A few summers ago one of the cottages was occupied by the grandchildren of the owner. These now adult gentlemen can most politely be described as borderline mentally challenged, more accurately about as sharp as a sack of door knobs in a velvet bag. They allowed trash to pile up around their properties and in them for about four months drawing rats from miles around. When winter arrived the rats were cold and made for my house and the only other year round resident's house. Through trial and error I have found that a particular poison, that comes in big blue cubes works awesome, they literally can't resist it. They will chew the cube down and tak it back to the nest. I have to watch where I store it as mice and rats come looking for it, I once put some next to a box of crackers and they took the poison. I just scatter it around the property and never any problems. Dogs leave it alone also.
No rats in Alberta.......
Isn't Harper from Alberta? Just sayin...
;) lets keep this about the four legged ones, Harris did enough harm and he is not.
49 I'll send you a pipe and you can move them to the lower valley.......
Quote from: CDNRatMan on June 15, 2014, 08:47:29 AM
No rats in Alberta.......
Baloney! Every farm in Alberta will have rats; well, the 4-legged kind, anyway...
Ok four legged ones because Alberta is rat free and they have the border patrol on the Sask. side to keep them out, and eradicate them.
So that's why you won't come out west......can't get past the "Rat Patrol".... ;D
To quote my mountain friend from the NG papers....
"In the Canadian province of Alberta, a 50-year battle has succeeded in keeping the province rat free. But it's not an easy task. To deter such a resourceful animal requires eternal vigilance."
this article has more info for you to read,
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0331_030331_rats.html
I lived in AB for 5 years and was amazed by this fact and it has to do with the grain.
Well, the Mad Trapper won this round. Got the stinky little sucker last night.The funny thing is, the first night he sprung the live trap but escaped, last night he fought his way back in for the cat food I had used for bait; must have ate too much to squeeze out through the hole he went in through. Anyway, there he was in the trap so I introduced him to my pellet gun. ;)
Cat food, next time try peanut butter.......
you need to talk to some one about your phobia......perhaps PC.......
Phobia my foot, have toy ever seen the mess those critturs make? And why peanut butter, the cat food worked just fine....
Somewhere, I have a picture of my late, much missed Scottish Terrier puppy Angel. When she was just the ripe old age of 5 months, she dispatched 12 grain rats in about 30 seconds. It's a built in behavior, no lessons necessary. I've had a Scottie or two around the house for about 40 years...no problem with either vermin or cats...and the rabbits stay out of the yard, too!
;) when I was in Cold Lake AB I had a six ft fence around my yard, and my border collie/lab mix she killed more skunks and cats coming under the fence, and never got sprayed.......I had no animals around my yard........
Quote from: CDNRatMan on June 17, 2014, 10:19:32 AM
;) when I was in Cold Lake AB I had a six ft fence around my yard, and my border collie/lab mix she killed more skunks and cats coming under the fence, and never got sprayed.......I had no animals around my yard........
....except one big rat.... :o
Speaking of cats, our cat, who is an outside cat, was a great mouser when we lived in Chetwynd. However, she is obviously lax in her duties, or she would have killed the rat for me. Gonna have to cut back on her groceries.....she can rustle up her own....my sons miniature dachshund would likely have got the rat given enough time; he spent most of a day in that corner of the yard trying to find it. Oh well, rat went bye-bye, hope there was only one....
Fiddlestix!! Neighbor opened his shed again....now I have to go on the hunt again. Did I ever mention that I hate rats?
Are you also scared of spiders?
Didn't say I was afraid of rats said I hated them, you Jughead! ;D
Was just asking, because it seems unreasonable that a person of your size and intellect is bothered by a small rodent that is more afraid of you then it lets on.
Want some advice..first get a gun, it doesn't have to be big, a shotgun would be best..then the hard part, getting it in your sights..lets make that easy.. get a garden hose and run it out to the woodpile within easy reach..
now empty a can of gas over the woodpile take a step back, pick up the shotgun and throw a lighted match..the rat and the woodpile will make a noise like a dog..wooff..
wait for the rat to run out and bang..after the rat and its family are dead turn on the hose and put out the fire..
John.
That should be effective!
WARNING: Don't use this method if he's in your shop! ;D ;D :o
Me thinks the local law would likely frown upon that.
Quote from: John Hopkins on June 18, 2014, 17:23:05 PM
Want some advice..first get a gun, it doesn't have to be big, a shotgun would be best..the the hard part, getting it in your sights..lets make that easy.. get a garden hose and run it out to the woodpile within easy reach..
now empty a can of gas over the woodpile take a step back, pick up the shotgun and throw a lighted match..the rat and the woodpile will make a noise like a dog..wooff..
wait for the rat to run out and bang..after the rat and its family are dead turn on the hose and put out the fire..
John.
Will this work with politicians, too?
With politicians, you just yell "MONEY, MONEY, MONEY" and they run out to see if there's free money.... :)
not all Rats are bad......