I hate rats!!! What they are capable of...

[FrChuckW]

I am sorry to hear about the loss of you baby chick. I live in a 108 year old house. I did have a rat problem when I first moved in. Aside from the ones that the dogs managed to kill, I finally got the kind of bait that comes in a block and looks like corn cobs. You break it up into pieces. As my house has a small cellar where the hot water tank and furnace are at, and the rest is a crawl space under the house, I took the bait and broke it up and threw it in all the areas of the crawl space that I could reach. I made sure that there was no way for any other animal to get in under the house. I didn't want to accidentally poison the wrong one.
(We have a bunch of cats patrolling the neighborhood) Now I have a mouse problem because of the birds that I keep in the house.

I did discover that my mice have learned to lick the peanut butter off the trap and not spring it. A neighbor suggested taking a piece of bacon and using a twist tie to secure it to the lever and use that.

However, I have 6 MinPins, and two of them are avid vermin hunters(the oldest and the youngest ones) the other four are couch potatoes for the most part.

One of the things that I do with using the bait in a box is to mix some bird seed in with it and place a small container of water with 1 teaspoon of bleach in it nearby. When they eat the seed poison mix then go take a drink, it reacts with the poison faster and the little nasties die much faster.

Off to war with the meeces again!

Fr. Chuck

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Thanks guys. PC I have a spyder Pball gun. I need to buy some nitrous tanks and freeze the Pballs. I will try to find a way to move the scorpion into the 1 gal for a little bit and move the gecko into the 10 gal. Then move the chicks into the 55 gal.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I just use my Tipmann with a snyper barrel and regular CO2. I don't even
freeze my balls. One shot is all it takes.

 

[Duppydo]

Sorry for your loss, i'm doing battle with rats and racoons...So far they haven't hurt any of my chickens.I've gotten rid of 8 racoons in the last 3 months, and can smell dead decaying rats around my property from baits i've set...
I'm going all out war, i fear the getting in my house..! I've had to drain a beautiful pond i had for almost 20 yrs, because its become an area of interest to the rodent. Tey attacked my garden this yr., eating soybeans, corn and destroying almost my whole muskmelon/watermelon crop...In all my 30 something yrs of gardening, i've never had such a nightmare experience,i'm totally freaked out about these varmits. I'm trapping, setting baits, anything..! My passion of gardening and raising chickens are under the guns..I never knew they were here until last yr, have no idea how long they have been around.
Years ago when i worked at a restaurant on a lake, they had rats that ate there way though cement walls into the kitchen...!!!I couldn't believe my eyes, the battle never ended..
Good look battling the monsters, they are tough to get under control once established....Kevin

 

[Wildsky]

I never would have thought!

DID they eat the baby chick?

I have d'uccles, they're mille fleur and not laying much or I'd send you some eggs. I'm only getting a few eggs a week - 3 hens, 1 was a mom a little while ago and 2 were molting.....

SO sorry you lost a baby.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Thanks wildsky. That means a lot to me. All they left was feathers, a foot and guts. I use nitrous cause it gives me a more precision shot

. CO2 is cheaper so I will get that.

 

[Wildsky]

YOu don't wanna poison the thing and have it die in the closet - they REEEEEEEEK - you'll not be able to go in your room for a MONTH.

 

[key west chick]

PC and hypno, you guys sound like my son and DH. I have an on again, off again problems with rats in my shed. WE go out, me with the spotlight, them with small flashlights duct taped to their PB guns and kill! My shed stays a pretty pink,yellow and orange pattern. We sometimes have rats in the house. We put out traps and poison. Seems like the bigger ones stay away from the traps but will take the poison.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Quote:
I hate the smell of rotting carcass. forgot to add: I had one get it's head smacked in the blade of my box fan. It dies somewhere in my room and could not find it. for a week I wondered why my room smelled weird. Found it under my book shelf.

Key west, I usually use a pellet gun but ran out of pellets. I trap the whatever stupid rat goes in and then pop him with the pellet gun.