Home › Forums › WSB Reader Recommendations › Rats?
- This topic is empty.
-
AuthorPosts
-
July 22, 2008 at 7:03 pm #620752
JoBParticipantRonM..
i found a great deal of peace here.. and love the woods too much to want to see it cut away…
as for the rats. i just hope they are enjoying their home and don’t try to invade mine.. being rats.. i think the minute my dogs move.. they will try to move in..
but in the meantime.. the shed provides real entertainment for the dogs who do their best to get to it as they move from the car to the house:)
July 22, 2008 at 8:46 pm #620753
CMParticipantJoB, they’re probably wood rats. That’s mostly what we get around here. They will nest in attics or other secluded places, and will look for edibles anywhere they can, but they’re never going to disappear. They’re perfectly happy in a tree nest or burrow also.
Next time you see a coyote, invite it to your neighborhood and you wont see the rats anymore!
July 22, 2008 at 9:14 pm #620754
beachdrivegirlParticipantSo CM and RonM, would you suggest that I just leave them? i have an indoor dog that I believe will keep them out of the house. he freaked just watching them through the window. I was just worried about them coming in the house b/c alot of what I read suggested that they will invade your home if they are near it…..
July 22, 2008 at 9:26 pm #620755
flowerpetalMemberWhat did grandma say? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You or “the experts” can find possible entryways into your house now. Rats will be looking for them as the weather cools and nesting material becomes needed for the winter. Small but heavy mesh works well. Also, rats will not chew or scratch through steel wool. My first house was a 1905 built home with many additions not always well planned. There were a number of avenues for marauding rats and we became successful at keeping them on the outside.
July 22, 2008 at 9:33 pm #620756
beachdrivegirlParticipantThanks Flowerpetal. That is my main concern because my house is built in the 1920’s and I have a feeling there are probably ways for them to get in.
July 22, 2008 at 10:15 pm #620757
CMParticipantYeah, you’ll definitely want to keep them out of the house and “discourage” them from your property. I’ve found that once they realize the area is no longer safe, they will move on. Not to be grotesque, but a dead rat left in a trap for a few days will definitely rid you of the issue.
Unfortunately, an indoor dog will keep them out of the living spaces, but once the rats realize it’s not a threat to them in the crawlspace, attic, walls, wherever, they will essentially ignore your dog and drive it insane.
Neighbors had a Jack Russel and a HUGE rat nest in their crawl space. Poor dog was put on doggie-valium until they removed the nest.
Oh, and as RonM mentioned, posion works, but it has unintended consequences. They don’t “go outside” to die, they’ll die right in your walls. They also don’t die instantly, so the other rats don’t associate their death with the area you’ve put out poison, so they will continue to come back. God forbid your dog finds a poisoned dead rat, too.
July 22, 2008 at 10:24 pm #620758
flowerpetalMemberI’ll repeat a story here that is evidence enough for me that rats are innately evil. It is a true story.
In the same house as mentioned above, weeks before our first Christmas there; we were aware that rats had invaded the attic but we never saw tell-tale evidence of them in our living space. We were greyhound owners and with their sight hound skills they could spot the smallest of movements.
On a Saturday evening I brought out the ceramic Nativity set, Italian made and passed down from my family. I proudly displayed it on an ocassinal table at a prominent spot in our living room. I admired it before going to bed. And in the morning I was ready to take a look at it again and be reminded of the joyous season that approached. Imagine my shock; my disgust; my anger.
You may have guessed; the rats had found their way into our living space; into our living room; and onto that table where the holy family stood/knealt around the infant. Scattered across the top of the table were the unmistakealbe “droppings” of the attic visitors. No where else down in our part of the house had they been that night or ever again. It was the next week that we began to learn of the prevention techniques that we sucessfully employed to keep the rats living under the blackberry bushes in the neighboring yard.
July 22, 2008 at 11:32 pm #620759
guidosmomMemberSeveral years ago I lived in an apartment near Cap. hill with my dog (a Jack Russell Terrier who can smell rodents miles away). When we first moved in the court yard had a lot of rodent activity. Guido (my JRT) actually caught a rat and killed it the first month I tried to stop him but he was too fast, despite being on a leash. My ex managed to pry it from him somehow. After this, all the tenants started noticing the rats had pretty much moved away. We moved out several months later and I kept in touch with a few of the tenants who said a few weeks after we moved out, the rats came back!
July 22, 2008 at 11:39 pm #620760
JoBParticipantwe do have coyotes in the woods.. i think that may be why they moved up the hill into the shed:)
July 23, 2008 at 6:42 am #620761
RonMParticipantI’d never advise anyone tolerate rats. Their unhealthy downsides (for humans) far outweigh any rational for keeping them around. I think the best defence is to eliminate the incentive; that means food. If that’s not practical, Russel Terriers, traps and poison are alternatives. You can try to close up entry points around your house, but it doesn’t take much of an opening and they will gnaw through almost anything if they know there are rewards on the other side. Like moles, I’ve read of a number wives tale deterants and like mole deterants, none are very successful. I’d try the city health department for more information. As I’ve said before, there used to be a city department of some kind that specialized in rat control and maybe it still exists. If all else fails, what about a commercial exterminator?
July 23, 2008 at 2:55 pm #620762
beachdrivegirlParticipantDo you have a recommendation for a commerical exterminator? I honestly do not know where the food source coudl be coming from. We feed our dog outside (so his food is noutside), we do not have any frutis/veggies planted out side, and our garbage lid is kept on…any other suggestions as to what rats could be feasting on?
July 23, 2008 at 4:08 pm #620763
JoBParticipantKen..
is my veggie garden a rat food source? no indication so far that they are feeding there…
i have no other food outside… and there is none in the shed…
i tried traps.. i am going to try again with different bait.. but they are eating the peanutbutter right off those big rat traps and still sheltering in the shed.
i won’t do poison. not only do i have dogs, but both neighbors have dogs… and no dog food out that i can see.
i am buying one of the bigger sticky traps today and i will try that too..
July 23, 2008 at 4:16 pm #620764
angelescrestParticipantDo garden composters attract rats? I fear I know the answer to that one.
July 23, 2008 at 4:40 pm #620765
beachdrivegirlParticipantSorry that is supposed to say do not feed outside.
July 23, 2008 at 5:28 pm #620766
timeslidParticipantWe have had rats in and around our 1909 house for years. Some years are better than others. This year was particularly bad – the little buggers were in the walls in the crawl space and even in the basement (much to the interest of our cat). We could hear squeaking and playing and who knows what going on.
The war begins:
I have snap trapped at least 10 on the roof and one in the basement. The ones on the roof are roof rats (brown and smaller) the one in the basement was a LARGE Norwegian rat. I have blocked up all the suspect entrances but with such an old house I am sure there are areas I have missed. They were still around. So – I hired Alpha pest control (www.alphaecological.com). They use a different kind of poison that is highly toxic to rodents but not as toxic to other beasts. They baited around the house and I haven’t seen a rat in about a week. I also cut all the vegetation around my roof line and put rat stop (plastic vinegar jug cut into a cone) on the power line coming into the house.
I think the battle has now turned in my favor. Good luck!
July 23, 2008 at 5:44 pm #620767
beachdrivegirlParticipantThank you timeslid!
July 23, 2008 at 6:00 pm #620768
timeslidParticipantBecause of the ongoing rat issues at my house I have learned that rats will be attracted to: Fruit trees and fruit in general as they eat my strawberries and raspberries, chicken coups (no duh), dog and cat food, dog and cat fecal matter (our neighbor had a dog and couldn’t figure out why there was no poop in her back yard; she let the dog out there and only there. Hmmm…rats). Compost is not an attractant if it doesn’t have table scraps.
Also, JoB with regard to eating the peanut butter off the traps and not catching any could be a sign of beetles and or mice. I have black beetles eat the bait off the traps in a night. Mice also eat so softly as not to trigger the mechanism.
July 23, 2008 at 9:33 pm #620769
angelescrestParticipantThank you for the info, Timeslid.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.