If rats are pestering you..... (mice too...maybe squirrels..)

[just.wing.it]

I bought a rat zapper. Battery-powered, and the first night I put it in my backyard it killed 6 rats. No poison

The most impressive part of that thing is that it claims to kill 20 rats with 4 AA batteries.... that seems insane to me.
I was expecting it to be corded.


Edit: and it applies the shock for 2 mins each time!!! Truly insane for 4 AAs.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

The most impressive part of that thing is that it claims to kill 20 rats with 4 AA batteries.... that seems insane to me.
I was expecting it to be corded.


Edit: and it applies the shock for 2 mins each time!!! Truly insane for 4 AAs.

It's the strapping them down that bothers me. And the crowds that gather to demonstrate at the front yard do get unruly.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The most impressive part of that thing is that it claims to kill 20 rats with 4 AA batteries.... that seems insane to me.
I was expecting it to be corded.


Edit: and it applies the shock for 2 mins each time!!! Truly insane for 4 AAs.

New model. Mine used 6 or 8 D batteries.

 

[coh]

I tried one of those electronic traps a number of years ago (for mice) and it didn't work very well. Maybe the newer ones are better? Might give one another try. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Potawatomi13]

I’ve recently learned that from persistent barter and negotiation, that a gray squirrel will actively ward off more severe problems with bonsai destruction.
Harry, a recent recruit of mine, will chase off red squirrels and even deer from chewing on my plants.

Feed well/cultivate cohabitation.

 

[Gr8tfuldad]

What if we can trap and relocate as a more humane approach to crop management?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

What if we can trap and relocate as a more humane approach to crop management?

You haven't had much experience with rats. If you have rats outside of your house, it is only a matter of time before you have rats inside your house. They will chew holes in your siding, get into your walls and attic, and proceed to chew up your A/C lines and electrical wires. They are filthy animals, and known disease vectors. I don't know that you can ever fully eradicate them, but with effort you can control their numbers.

 

[just.wing.it]

You haven't had much experience with rats. If you have rats outside of your house, it is only a matter of time before you have rats inside your house. They will chew holes in your siding, get into your walls and attic, and proceed to chew up your A/C lines and electrical wires. They are filthy animals, and known disease vectors. I don't know that you can ever fully eradicate them, but with effort you can control their numbers.

What if we can trap and relocate as a more humane approach to crop management?

It's also illegal in many places.

 

[Coppersdad]

As a small animal doc for 20+ years and an amateur wildlife biologist, my experience and research says you're spot on, Leo. At work, I never saw an indoor only cat suffer from- being hit by car, dog attacks (well very infrequently), felv, fiv or rabies, starvation due to being locked in the neighbor's garage for 3 weeks during the summer vacation months, losing a leg to spring or snare traps, being shot, rodenticide poisoning, hookworms, giardia, roundworms, lung worms, liver flukes, ticks, infectious anemia, etc., etc.. Also, more then a few endangered species of frog are being decimated by both feral and kept domesticated cats along the coast of GA and probably elsewhere... I saw a "go-pro on a cat" video during a lecture about this issue at a professional conference, and during the video, the cat, fed twice daily at home, still went out one night and ate 26 frogs! https://www.researchgate.net/figure...-Georgia-USA-2014-and-Kittycam_fig1_326553030, https://wildlifemanagement.institut...ts-outdoor-cats-kill-more-wildlife-previously. I understand that cats have historically served as mousers/vermin killers, but most people keep them as pets these days and they definitely don't belong outside if that's the case. I hate scooping litter pans... but I'm very good at it.

As a small animal vet for more than 30 years, I could not have said it better!!!
In this day and age, we are not doing any favors to our pets or the environment when we allow pets the ability to reproduce at will and/or have unrestrained access to the outdoors.

 

[Malix]

The best method I have found to control rats is as follows. Mix oatmeal with some dry plaster of Paris. The powder is available at hardware stores and home depot: Lowe’s etc. Place dry mixture in plate under a plastic milk crate or box with a hole and bricks/ heavy weight on top to limit access to the plate to rodents. Rats love the oatmeal. They eat it the plaster of Paris hardens in the rats digestive system and the rat dies. POP is relatively non-toxic after hardening. So minimal danger for any animal eating the rat after it dies or the environment. I feel bad for the rats to die this way but when necessary…

 

[davetree]

I don’t think anyone has mentioned that if you remove all sources of food, your rodent problems go away pretty quickly. Check and make sure there’s no garbage, bird food, or grain crops that they have access to.

 

[Crawforde]

As a small animal vet for more than 30 years, I could not have said it better!!!
In this day and age, we are not doing any favors to our pets or the environment when we allow pets the ability to reproduce at will and/or have unrestrained access to the outdoors.

As a former wildlife biologist (15 years) I concur.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I don’t think anyone has mentioned that if you remove all sources of food, your rodent problems go away pretty quickly. Check and make sure there’s no garbage, bird food, or grain crops that they have access to.

I know you are just trying to be helpful, but it isn't that simple. In Southern California the rats live up in the trees where they can access fruits and nuts. Then when the weather turns cold they come down out of the trees and try to burrow into your house. This isn't a case of an urban environment with garbage cans all over - it is a semi-rural area where the rats (mostly invasive species) can live quite comfortably in the wild... but prefer to live in your house. Most of their native predators (snakes, bobcats, coyotes, raptors, etc) have been pushed out of the area... leaving just the rats behind.

"When the roof rat becomes sexually mature after two months of age, it can produce up to six litters per year which consists of up to eight baby roof rats each. The female roof rat can also breed all year which is why roof rat infestation should be taken care of ASAP!"

A couple of years ago I had two large Canary date palms trimmed. As the arborists were up in the tree trimming away the fronds, rats were literally raining out of the tree. In one tree there were four large nesting areas for rats. The tree trimming guys said they don't even pay attention to them any more - every palm has them.

 

[Dav4]

I know you are just trying to be helpful, but it isn't that simple. In Southern California the rats live up in the trees where they can access fruits and nuts. Then when the weather turns cold they come down out of the trees and try to burrow into your house. This isn't a case of an urban environment with garbage cans all over - it is a semi-rural area where the rats (mostly invasive species) can live quite comfortably in the wild... but prefer to live in your house. Most of their native predators (snakes, bobcats, coyotes, raptors, etc) have been pushed out of the area... leaving just the rats behind.

"When the roof rat becomes sexually mature after two months of age, it can produce up to six litters per year which consists of up to eight baby roof rats each. The female roof rat can also breed all year which is why roof rat infestation should be taken care of ASAP!"

A couple of years ago I had two large Canary date palms trimmed. As the arborists were up in the tree trimming away the fronds, rats were literally raining out of the tree. In one tree there were four large nesting areas for rats. The tree trimming guys said they don't even pay attention to them any more - every palm has them.

I had to check after you mentioned roof rats. It looks like, along with the warm weather, I left roof rats in GA, and that's a good thing. I bought my house there mid summer, and realized by October that there was a problem in my attic... ugh! Our beautiful home set idyllically on a heavily wooded lot was absolutely infested with rats that jumped onto the roof from the surrounding trees and gained access to the attic by chewing holes through the soffit. Repairing the holes only kept them out for a month or so then they'd chew another hole. Anyway, it became routine for me in late September to broadcast multiple handfuls of rat poison along the perimeter of the attic. That and removing or cutting back all the trees growing up to or near the roof worked well enough, but I never assumed the problem was fixed, but rather was being managed. Fwiw, pretty much everyone I knew in our neighborhood had rats in their house or attic at least once while we lived there.

 

[Carol 83]

Fwiw, pretty much everyone I knew in our neighborhood had rats in their house or attic at least once while we lived there.

No wonder you moved. We did have a raccoon in our attic once, that was bad enough.

 

[AK47]

I had a lot of damage done to my trees this January from mice. All damage was done inside the greenhouse and polytunnels. They did kill a lot of younger maples, damaged older ones including a few forest groupings and even chewed few conifers and larches, which I thought they would never like. I tried to save some trees by wrapping the sphagnum peat moss around the damaged area and then cover the trees with foil against further attacks. Mice seem to be scared of foil, however it is not ideal solution, as the water seem to accumulate there, which can cause potential mold issues in the future. Getting rid of mice one way or the other is the only way to go, if you dealing with mice infestation. Moving them, seem to not solve the issue, at least in my experience.