The Old Folks Home

[ronott1]

I am happy that some here have not had a bad enough rat infestation to need to use poison.

You have been very lucky. Remember the advice of those that have had to though if you ever have a rat infestation. I live in town and had hundreds of them here. The worst was the ones in the garage.

Would you shoot them in the garage? Cats will not usually go after Norway rats. They are almost as big as a cat!

Sorry if I sound a bit rough in this post but it seems like those of us that have dealt with this and needed to use poison are being bullied by some recent posts.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Lol...thank you. Technically it IS my own darn fault.

I am a procrastinator extraordinaire!

Just streaking through here.....

I have not abandoned this thread, just left it in capable hands for a while. SCG.

Life happens. My Dad went into the hospital with pneumonia and went downhill fast from there. He is back in his memory care ( really nice ) facility, but is pretty much bedridden and needs 24 hour care. I have requested and received FMLA for 6 weeks and will use up another 6 weeks of vacation time when that runs out. After that, I will retire. I will see you guys as much as I can, but there hasn't been time lately.

Love you all!

EDITED to remove typos

Life sure does happen. Very glad to hear your father is back in memory care.

for everything that's going on.

 

[getaclue]

Thank you, Ron. I was thinking along the same lines. For those that have never had significant problem, that's a good thing, but never having had the problem is the equivalent of a non swimmer giving swim lessons. It's not necessarily a choice between killing rats, and poisoning all the neighborhood cats in the process.

 

[getaclue]

UPDATE: Grandson got 3rd. place, and Granddaughter got 2nd. place. We were just glad we got the cars done, and they were able to enter them. We never expected them to win anything, but they did.

 

[pennyJo1960]

UPDATE: Grandson got 3rd. place, and Granddaughter got 2nd. place. We were just glad we got the cars done, and they were able to enter them. We never expected them to win anything, but they did.

Congratulations

to the whole group getting them done so fast
AND the kids winning

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I don't know how I managed to lose my quotes...but I did.

@microchick Thank you, my arm is getting better.

I've been doing my darndest not to use it. I'm able to straighten it out if I do it slow and careful and I can open my hand and spread my fingers all the way if I do it slowly at the same time. I can write now

Still can't lift anything...but it'll come.


Ground squirrels had me thinking of squirrels. Then I saw the pic. We call them gophers up here...lol

Same thing. We don't have them as badly as what it sounds like some of you have. They used to be worse in the 90s to about 2010. The rain doesn't do them any good. The 14 inches we got overnight in 2014 pretty much annihilated them. I have not heard of "One Bite." Interesting.

Right now we don't see any signs of rats anywhere. I'm not sure what that means. Makes me a bit nervous. We have tons of beavers right now damming everything up. Neighbor stopped by to inform us of some dams on in the creek in our pasture. Sounds like the guys are going to deal with those. He also mentioned he's seen fishers at his place and between our two yards.

Something else to probably deal with. I hope they stay to cleaning up the rats and leave my chickies alone (I know better) I got some mirror balls hung up...going to get more tomorrow. I see several people in the threads have been hit by aerial predators. Excellent motivation to get my deterrents out after reading those.

I've noticed rat bait stations in the city the last time I was there. I also noticed rat bait stations outside the farm store that is part of the mall. It's curious that the entire lot is pavement. The city is close with lots of cover...but it just doesn't seem conducive for rats to be in the parking lot where they're right in the open and exposed...but they must have issues with them to have stations out. I learn something new everyday. We never hardly used to see rats. I don't wish them on anyone.

Earplugs are a godsend...especially with castrating. I buy them in 1000 packs. I use them mainly for mowing the lawn and dispatching with the .22. My hearing is the one thing I have left that's really good. I'm protecting it at all costs...lol.

What a fun place to take the grandchildren! Very precious indeed!

Congratulations on the grandkids winning! How exciting!

 

[perchie.girl]

UPDATE: Grandson got 3rd. place, and Granddaughter got 2nd. place. We were just glad we got the cars done, and they were able to enter them. We never expected them to win anything, but they did.

 

[chickadoodles]

I am happy that some here have not had a bad enough rat infestation to need to use poison.

You have been very lucky. Remember the advice of those that have had to though if you ever have a rat infestation. I live in town and had hundreds of them here. The worst was the ones in the garage.

Would you shoot them in the garage? Cats will not usually go after Norway rats. They are almost as big as a cat!

Sorry if I sound a bit rough in this post but it seems like those of us that have dealt with this and needed to use poison are being bullied by some recent posts.

I think it may be because some have not seen or heard about how bad Calif. was infested with those huge dog sized rats! I know because some of my family still lives in Calif. And my sister lived in an area that had them very bad! I know David Letterman would talk about how big they were and that you could even hear them on your roof tops!
I live in the country and we have rats in our pastures and they have invaded my feed room and coop. I also have a snake problem due to the number of rats here.
Dh and I have been fighting them like crazy for years. We do keep our feed in a metal drum. But now we have moved the rabbits near the shed and I fear we will see an increase of the field mice getting into the house and RV. Not to mention the squirrels that are eating me out of house and home!
I will put out some bait stations for the rats and squirrels.
I did call the fish and game dept. They told me I could shoot one squirrel per day per nuisance without a permit.

 

[chickadoodles]

UPDATE: Grandson got 3rd. place, and Granddaughter got 2nd. place. We were just glad we got the cars done, and they were able to enter them. We never expected them to win anything, but they did.

That's wonderful! Congrats! Y'all did an awesome job getting them in the game!

 

[getaclue]

I've been saying for years that DH is out of his mind, but now I've got proof. He's decided our chickens are not having fun, so they need a chicken playground. This is from the man that thinks chicks should have beds with pillows, so they'll be comfortable. For now, he's banished from my coop.