Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[oldhenlikesdogs]

One of the reasons I'm hesitant to use poison is because I don't want them to die under the coop and have it stink horribly. I'm also concerned about our dog (or even the chickens) possibly being poisoned by eating (or pecking) a dead rat. I've heard there's some kind of poison that isn't harmful to other animals that eat a rat killed by the poison, but don't know what kind it is.

That has always been my fear too. 15 years of poison use here every fall without any problems. The rats usually die deep underground and I don't smell anything. I do a daily look around for carcasses when the poison is out. I have only seen 2 die out in the open. We use the tomcat brand in a bait box hidden under some hay bales or behind boards so no one can get to it but rodents.

Do what you are comfortable with. I'm not necessarily comfortable using poisons but it is all that works here. The rats that come into my shed are voracious, digging long tunnels and consuming a lot of feed. I don't generally see them just the damage and increase in feed.

 

[hereorthere]

Mine won't eat the poison. They moved out of the barn for summer (when I was brooding ducks), but are back again.

I smother mine w/ peanut butter. It’s helps to entice them to eat it, but have the kind that needs nailed to a board. Had to go that route when I heard most rats are pack rats, so those little pieces of bait just allows them to take it back to their nests....where it will stay there for days, weeks,
months or years. I think hubs had to get it from an agriculture store.

 

[chickmom3941]

I smother mine w/ peanut butter. It’s helps to entice them to eat it, but have the kind that needs nailed to a board. Had to go that route when I heard most rats are pack rats, so those little pieces of bait just allows them to take it back to their nests....where it will stay there for days, weeks,
months or years. I think hubs had to get it from an agriculture store.

Lol - when I first started reading your post, I thought you were saying that you smothered your RATS with peanut butter! I was wondering how in the world you did that! hahahaha

 

[lazy gardener]

Now, that's a word picture to enjoy!

 

[chickmom3941]

That has always been my fear too. 15 years of poison use here every fall without any problems. The rats usually die deep underground and I don't smell anything. I do a daily look around for carcasses when the poison is out. I have only seen 2 die out in the open. We use the tomcat brand in a bait box hidden under some hay bales or behind boards so no one can get to it but rodents.

Do what you are comfortable with. I'm not necessarily comfortable using poisons but it is all that works here. The rats that come into my shed are voracious, digging long tunnels and consuming a lot of feed. I don't generally see them just the damage and increase in feed.

Oh, I hadn't thought about their tunnels being deep underground. That would be great if they died far down so there wasn't a stench in the coop. Is the Tomcat brand the kind that won't harm other animals if they were to eat a poisoned rat carcass?

 

[lazy gardener]

Any one know what happens to that stuff in terms of garden vegetables that are exposed to it? I could not find any information on the Tom Cat labeling.

 

[lazy gardener]

Here's the MSDS for TomCat rat poison

http://www.motomco.com/pdf/sds/122-tomcat_rat_killer.pdf

 

[henless]

I plan on doing some canning this year. I have canned jellies, jams, tomatoes & pickles in a water bath. It's been a while for the tomatoes & pickles, but I have NEVER used a pressure canner.

A few questions:
What would be the best canner to start out with?
What canner do you use and why?
Any tips/tricks you would like to pass to a new canner?

I've been looking at this one on Amazon, but I wanted to get y'alls opinion on it first.

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-01745...me-20&linkId=adbbb7b2cfe9ba2b15e02eeacad92c33

 

[chickmom3941]

I plan on doing some canning this year. I've have canned jellies, jams, tomatoes & pickles in a water bath. It's been a while for the tomatoes & pickles, but I have NEVER used a pressure canner.

A few questions:
What would be the best canner to start out with?
What canner do you use and why?
Any tips/tricks you would like to pass to a new canner?

I've been looking at this one on Amazon, but I wanted to get ya'll opinion on it first.

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-01745...me-20&linkId=adbbb7b2cfe9ba2b15e02eeacad92c33

I have a Presto 16 qt. pressure canner that I bought about 5-8 years ago. I picked that model mainly because I saw it had a lot of good reviews. Mine has worked great with no problems at all, except that I had to buy a new pressure gauge last summer (the gauge was about $20.00). Other than that, I really like it. It holds 7 quarts at a time, which is really nice. It can also be used for pressure cooking food, although I've never used mine for that.

 

[lazy gardener]

I first bought a Mirro.

https://www.amazon.com/Mirro-Polish...992337&sr=1-10&keywords=pressure+canner+mirro

It was not at all reliable regarding letting me know when it was at the right pressure. It either blew a constant stream of steam, or completely lost pressure. It never did the intermittent steam letting that the instruction manual said it should do. Shoddy materials. very light weight.

I replaced it with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-01781...ywords=presto+stainless+steel+pressure+cooker

I love it. The dial makes it super easy to use, it's much better construction than the first one I bought. I would not recommend any pressure canner without a dial. The old fashioned jiggle weights were a good thing, but I don't know if they make canners with the jiggle weights any more. My Presto is a 16 qt. I think they have discontinued that model. But the construction and the dial are just like the one on the 23 qt.