Rats! (when the army went to war on them)

[Howard E]

Fascinating video on how the Army dealt with rats. Not sure who one.

But informative, and most of it as true today as it was back then.

Lots to learn here. About rat behavior, baits used and why, and tracking powder.

A hammer? Really?

 

[RonP]

Thanks for sharing. I found it very entertaining.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good movie!

 

[Folly's place]

Thanks for posting this! Mary

 

[Howard E]

Have watched this a couple times and here are some takeaways for me:

99% of rat control is going to involve poison. Traps in any form are not going to make a dent in a high population of rats. Supplement........yes. Replace.......no. Goal of all efforts is complete elimination from the area in question. If one or two manage to survive, they will be back in force.

Rats are smart and learn. Effective poison control is going to require multiple options, starting with one, moving to another and maybe on to a third, before circling back to the first one. (Don't know what red squill is, but am dying to find out). But one type of bait alone isn't going to work long term. Don't use only one......use them all and do it in sequence.

One of the latter, most effective poisons they mention was Warfarin, which is still in use today. Note, it takes almost a week for some rats to die on Warfarin. As long as the bait is disappearing, there are still rats present and they are still eating it. But again, effective, but it is going to take a while.

Traps used in controlled runways where they step on them in the course of normal travel. No need to bait them, they work like land mines. Note the wide paddle triggers. Or a spring trap? Maybe those of you with HUGE rats need to look into 110 conibears?

Talc and similar stuff left on on the floor as tracking powder to monitor your success or failure.

Something tells me there are some folks on BYC who would be thrilled to bash a rats brains in with a hammer. Others........maybe not.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

I hate rats. period

 

[Howard E]

The notion of using a conibear 110 got me to thinking, and sure enough, this may well be a viable option for the trapping component of dealing with rats.

First step is to modify the trap with a paddle trigger:

For the impatient (like me), mod is discussed at the 3 min mark.

Then place the trap in a box like this:

If you were concerned about dogs, cats and other small animals getting caught up in this, you could always block both ends and only leave a single hole.....like they do on a weasel box.

Box is put in a pathway / travel area, and is blocked off on both sides, forcing them to take the easy way, and that is straight through the box and across the paddle trigger.

If you have a rat problem, I'd put these out and leave them out, year round. That could be your monitor device (vs the tracking powder).

BTW, this could also work for weasels. If you have a place where one of those is getting through, place the trap in a box and that in it's pathway.......so it walks through to get inside.

Rumor has it, best conibear traps are BMI 110. Duke, Victor and others being more widely available but not as good. (BTW, the same thing is said about the DP's, so take that with a grain of salt).

http://www.bmi-traps.com/products.h...lypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1&category_id=1

The 110 magnums have a stronger spring.....but may be overkill for a rat.

Is that possible?

 

[GldnValleyHens]

If you have rats in your coop, get a Wiener Dog! They are vicious rat killers. We had one in our garage, probably attracted to the feed spilled everywhere, and Ruby tracked it down and killed it within 5 seconds while we watched, screaming.

 

[Sublight]

I tried poision, traps, even motion detectors and a pellet rifle and bait. What I found is there are SOOOO many of them its impossible.

I took the time to 100% rat trap my pen. Boards, even spray foam. My coop looks ugly, but the rats are gone. I have a camera in my pen and I just don't see them anymore. Every now and again one comes under my pen looks around and leaves. Probably smells the crap and feed inside the pen.

Just seal it up with wire and stuff, and be done with them.

 

[Howard E]

Good point, and one I failed to make. Video mentions 3 or 4 times that the first step in rat elimination is to rat proof the target area or building. Then eliminate food sources, water sources, and any cover and debris that offers hiding places. Of course they also tunnel in the ground, but can't survive there if there isn't any food for them. Then after rat proofing the target area, you go to work on any remaining rats with a full spectrum of tools, staring with poisons, traps, etc to monitor things and to pick off stragglers. Goal is to get them all.

BTW, video also mentions that attempts at simply killing them by whatever means......trapping, shooting, dogs, etc. is not going to work. To a rat, all that means is "more for me".