I've Been Bamboozled !

[Ascholten]

Ok, so I had a rat run across my feet a few days ago. No big deal, (ok im trying to regain my masculinity here, I won't let you know the actual 'pitch' of the scream I made ) So out to the store to get 'rat stuffs' to 'kill rats'

Long story short, I get a bag of this garbage. WOW, Rat X .... with a bulls eye and a rat in it. WOW!!! This must be some heavy duty #%$t here right? I mean this is going to make the species go extinct just THINKING about it right?

Then I read the ingredients.
W T with a capital *F*
are you KIDDING Me???

So Im going to get rid of rats by essentially giving them a saltine cracker? and you charged me HOW MUCH AGAIN!! How does this work? Do they say, oh Aaron sucks, he has such crappy salty food, ewwWW, let's go over to his neighbor instead.

Yes I got suckered pretty bad on this one, it's MY fault, I DO take blame when I screw up. I should have read the ingredients before buying it. So I looked around at other things they sell, they also have a Mosquito Trap too. The eX- TERMINATOR... or whatever the hell it was called again. OOhhh oogie boogie, that sounds so SCARY!!! Im about to wet myself just THINKING of it !!!!

Active ingredients. You fill it with water and put the magic 'powder' in. It's basically a little bit of sugar, and a little bit of yeast. In theory the thing ferments slightly, the CO2 attracts the skeeters into it, they suffocate and die in the CO2 air. It cost 12 dollars for a ##kn little tube.

Folks, READ LABELS when you buy stuff. I was concerned as to exactly what was in there, as I did not want to poison my birds, especially the lovable brat in the house too, I think I can honestly safely say that nobody here would want to harm their pets.

If it says SAFE for pets, or use in the house, or something, don't just say. Oh goodie, Ill get it. figure out WHY it is safe? If it's safe because it's absolute garbage, then you saved yourself some money and embarrassment. If for some reason the stuff DID work, well in this case, salty crackers, I could have made the same thing for a few pennies, instead of several dollars.

So let's use this as a learning experience for everyone. Anyone else ever come across something that was totally trash that they got suckered into getting? (No comments on the marriage license )

Aaron

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

its my understanding that the corn gluten expands in their stomach killing them, so you didn't completely waste your money.

 

[Folly's place]

I have no idea if that stuff works, or not, and agree that it sounds very unlikely. Here I've used the third generation warfarin bait blocks in bait stations, which do work. By the time rats are smiling at you during the day (happened here in our barn!) there are lots of them, not good. And a few years ago we had rats invade the coop, and kill three nice pullets at night.
For the coop, removed insulation, reinforced the ground perimeter, and bait stations.
Pet rats are great, wild invaders, not so much!
And no traps will ever get them all, unfortunately. They are just too smart.
Mary

 

[igorsMistress]

I also use the bait stations, they work very well.

I have tried the borax and powdered sugar bit for ants, doesn’t work for the ants here.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Ok, so I had a rat run across my feet a few days ago. No big deal, (ok im trying to regain my masculinity here, I won't let you know the actual 'pitch' of the scream I made ) So out to the store to get 'rat stuffs' to 'kill rats'

Long story short, I get a bag of this garbage. WOW, Rat X .... with a bulls eye and a rat in it. WOW!!! This must be some heavy duty #%$t here right? I mean this is going to make the species go extinct just THINKING about it right?

View attachment 2650601

Then I read the ingredients.
W T with a capital *F*
are you KIDDING Me???

View attachment 2650602

So Im going to get rid of rats by essentially giving them a saltine cracker? and you charged me HOW MUCH AGAIN!! How does this work? Do they say, oh Aaron sucks, he has such crappy salty food, ewwWW, let's go over to his neighbor instead.

Yes I got suckered pretty bad on this one, it's MY fault, I DO take blame when I screw up. I should have read the ingredients before buying it. So I looked around at other things they sell, they also have a Mosquito Trap too. The eX- TERMINATOR... or whatever the hell it was called again. OOhhh oogie boogie, that sounds so SCARY!!! Im about to wet myself just THINKING of it !!!!

Active ingredients. You fill it with water and put the magic 'powder' in. It's basically a little bit of sugar, and a little bit of yeast. In theory the thing ferments slightly, the CO2 attracts the skeeters into it, they suffocate and die in the CO2 air. It cost 12 dollars for a ##kn little tube.

Folks, READ LABELS when you buy stuff. I was concerned as to exactly what was in there, as I did not want to poison my birds, especially the lovable brat in the house too, I think I can honestly safely say that nobody here would want to harm their pets.

If it says SAFE for pets, or use in the house, or something, don't just say. Oh goodie, Ill get it. figure out WHY it is safe? If it's safe because it's absolute garbage, then you saved yourself some money and embarrassment. If for some reason the stuff DID work, well in this case, salty crackers, I could have made the same thing for a few pennies, instead of several dollars.

So let's use this as a learning experience for everyone. Anyone else ever come across something that was totally trash that they got suckered into getting? (No comments on the marriage license )

Aaron

I almost pissed myself laughing

 

[cmom]

I have tried a lot of things over the years called natural but most often they didn't work out too great. Lessons learned the hard way. Now I use bromadiolone (just one bite) bait blocks in bait stations and put the bait stations in a cage or pet carrier so nothing but the rats can get to it. I haven't found any dead rats laying around but there have been tunnels around the coops and the barn that I'm sure the rats made and assume they went into their tunnels and died so they buried themselves.

 

[neo71665]

I use rat shot in a .22 mag pistol. Lead comes out of the ground so it's natural right?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We have this little metal box that live traps them and then you just throw them in a water bucket when you want it emptied. Works pretty good if you follow the instructions and put it where there are problems with populations.

Also, by accident, our dumping bucket became a mouse trap. We have a bucket we dump old water into and it sits in a spot where mice can fall into it when they flee from the cages when we turn lights on. Looks like a lemming plunge some nights

 

[Ascholten]

I have no idea if that stuff works, or not, and agree that it sounds very unlikely. Here I've used the third generation warfarin bait blocks in bait stations, which do work. By the time rats are smiling at you during the day (happened here in our barn!) there are lots of them, not good. And a few years ago we had rats invade the coop, and kill three nice pullets at night.
For the coop, removed insulation, reinforced the ground perimeter, and bait stations.
Pet rats are great, wild invaders, not so much!
And no traps will ever get them all, unfortunately. They are just too smart.
Mary

That's the problem, by the time you see one of them, there are 20 you don't see. Want to get the rat situation under control as much possible w/o threatening the chickens if they somehow figure out how to break into a bait station and get at it. Warfarin works too when you can get it, coumadin .. it's the same thing, .. I know tylenol is very toxic to cats and dogs, I wonder on rats? If you were to bust some up and mix it with food if it'd take them out like a dog / cat? Have plenty of snakes around, black racers and the likes, and don't hardly ever see mice, but snakes are a bit small for rats yet. The only ones that could take out rats are the rattlesnakes but they get a few feet long and generally get shot on site if they are near the house. Pet rats, cool, rabid ones. not cool
Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

and thats another thing. I see all this crap on youtube, oh make your own water traps, bla bla gag... the rat pied piper. puke...... and it looks so easy, but MY rats won't go near the stupid stuff. I have a worm bin they are tunneling into, probably the 3%#$# moles too, I have fished babies out of there a few times. Chickens love fuzzies, F them, circle of life, you eat my worms, I feed you to chickens, I eat you as an egg. I have also set numerous rat traps up but they rarely go into them. I had one that was decimating my vegetables for a while, it would actually set the rat traps off and not be touched, yet would still eat the cabbage etc etc. A rat go figure. I was livid!! I eventually sat up one night and took it out with a laser (yes I was THAT mad) but that's a bit far to go for a rat for a normal person. Im sure the neighbors were not too thrilled with this brilliant purple scintillating beam coming from my property at 2 am either.

Currently I got the bait cubes all over the place, I widen the mouth of a beer can so a rat can get in there but a chicken cant, or use the plastic bait stations or other means of letting rats in, chickens NOT in. Im thinking I just got to find some food that will bring them TO the bait and eat it, they don't seem very interested most the times.