Maine

[lazy gardener]

sonjst??? I'm off tomorrow with intent to come back with a fur ball. Wish me luck.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

"so just"

My phone has this thing where it autocorrects to a word I might have misspelled 3 years ago.

 

[Widget]

There is a beautiful lab mix in a foster home in Wells right now. She is about two. Crate trained. Very sweet. Her name is Cinder. She was found in a burnt out house in TN. She is from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue. I can give you more info and a picture if you would like. I've et the dog and she is great.

Yep.  I've spent hours on the net checking out everything in the state.  Driving 2 hours south very very very early tomorrow, in hopes of coming back with a fluff ball.  The lady I've talked to says that folks camp out overnight on the side walk, waiting for staff to show up at 8 AM so they can "take a number" to again be in line to hope for a dog when they open at 11 AM.  The rest of the country doesn't have this shortage of dogs available for adoption.  Of course, if I wanted a pit, or an old dog... not such an issue.

 

[CoopChick719]

I've got rats on the game cam drinking out of the chicken waterers. They'll empty it overnight if I leave it out. I was thinking of trying some real rat poison--not the natural methods--since the predators in my area really haven't started to come out (knock on wood). I really don't want a chance of a secondary poisoning. Put the Rat Zapper (turned off) back out in the pen with some peanut butter crackers as bait. It's gone. I'm refilling it tonight but won't turn it on until tomorrow night hoping I'll get one. Wish me luck!

Good Luck on the fluffball, LG!!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

How far are you from Vassalboro (Waterville/Augusta)? I have some samples of poison. If you don't have a covered bait trap I also have some samples of the bag poison (the rodent eats into the bag so you know it's been taken up and dies within 48 hours) that you're welcome to try. Very toxic to birds, so you want to use it outside the bird area.

I don't want to jinx myself but I am starting to get ahead of the rodent population here. I contacted a pest company, explained my predicament, and they sent me a bunch of things to try. Surprisingly this morning I had a mouse in my rat snap trap (the first night I tried them)!! I also had rats eat the entire block out of the bait station. I replaced it last night and will see tonight if they chewed on it, yet. I have not tried the bag poison because the new traps and the new bait (covered, in station) appear to be working.

I will have a full report on what has worked for these rats without married parents in a week or so, when I have enough data.

 

[lazy gardener]

There is a beautiful lab mix in a foster home in Wells right now. She is about two. Crate trained. Very sweet. Her name is Cinder. She was found in a burnt out house in TN. She is from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue. I can give you more info and a picture if you would like. I've et the dog and she is great.

Thanks, Widget! I knew that if anyone had a lead on a dog, it would be you! I drove almost 2 hours at 5 AM this morning to stand for over an hour and a half in the freezing cold so I could be in line to adopt a puppy from a shelter at the southern end of my state. Then, I had to wait 3 hours till the shelter finally opened up so I could pick her out. She's a Jack Russell/mix. I think she has some hound in her. She just about made my ears bleed when we started driving home. There was some baying mixed in with the yipping. From all I'm seeing, she's going to be an awesome dog, and very easy to train. I hope she'll be a safe presence around my chickens to help deter hawks.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Congrats on getting your dog!!!


Wanted to jump on here and give y'all a quick update since it was better than I thought it would be. As much as I don't like poisoning things, this was the view today in my poison box:



I had put 2 NEW blocks in it 24 hours ago. Obviously I still have quite a rodent problem. However, this is the fastest bait has ever been gone. They like the new flavor. If I can get the snap traps working well then I'll cease using poison, but until then, I'll re-bait and follow.



As you can see, they ate quite a bit of bait last night.

 

[lazy gardener]

IMO, when you have a rat problem, it's time to bring out the big guns!

 

[chickenneighbor]

LG congrats on your new puppy! We need puppy pictures! Jack russells are fun little dogs, and smart, too! Have you named her?

 

[lazy gardener]

Not yet. No name. No pics yet. I'm a techno idiot. But will post pics when I get them and have some help w/that.