Rats and Rats (to kill or not to kill)

[amalia]

Well, then they ain’t *all* bad afterall! But I did say “PETA-types,” not PETA.

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[anonyme]

Rats are everywhere in Seattle, and poison seems like a poor solution to me. The rats will either die inside your walls, or someone elses. There is also a danger that a pet will chew on a dead rat and ingest the poison.

I’ve heard that snap traps or Rat Zappers are the quickest, most “humane” method, but I’m just not into killing anything, rats included.

Nor am I convinced that feral cats are a good option. Keeping pet food and water outside is what attracts rats to begin with, and a well-fed cat is not likely to be a great ratter.

There are products on the market made of fox or coyote urine that claim to repel rodents. Application is difficult and must be kept up on schedule. This seemed like a wonderfully humane and non-toxic idea to me – until I started wondering how they got the urine from these animals….

Last summer I was inundated with rats, probably from a problem neighbor’s house. They ate all my strawberries, and even tunneled into my cone composter. I got rid of the composter, as well as my bird feeder; haven’t seen a rat since. However, I really miss the birds.

There just isn’t a simple answer to this problem, and there will likely be a rat overpopulation problem as long as there is a human one.

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[beachdrivegirl]

You need to get rid of the food source and kill them. They will continue to come unless you do both. The snap traps work the best. I definitely would not do poison because you could potentially kill other animals or be stuck with stinky rats in your walls/crawl space. Rats really have no purpose and are an extreme health risk. Also, they can cause extreme damage to your home if they find a way in.

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[teacup]

Oh my West Seattlites, you never fail to provide help and the funnies. After this post, I think the husband caved and admitted we’d have to just rid of the birdseed.

And no, it wasn’t the “get rid of the husband, get rid of the rats” comment.

(ha!)

Thanks all.

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[casaboba]

I was close! ;-)

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[GenHillOne]

God, we ARE a helpful bunch, aren’t we, teacup? :P I still wonder about a rat/squirrel-resistant feeder combined with solar mole-chaser though. Believe it or not, I do like birds (AND cats and…) No problem at our house to test on, so if anyone tries it, please report!

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[maude]

The only rat that I’ve seen in my yard was dead. I’ve been told if you have squirrels during the day, you have rats at night. We had one baby squirrel show up a few years ago. We have one bird feeder but we rarely remember to fill it so we don’t have many birds, either. Besides, the dogs are too annoying for anything to spend much time in the yard.

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[JoB]

maude..

the resident neighborhood outside cat chases the squirrels…

but i think it sleeps at night :(

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[dbsea]

I’ve seen the rats, squirrels, racoons, possums, cats but no dogs (yard is fenced) in my yard. Had a rat in the garage one winter (what fun chasing it !) and one inside the gas grill when I went to fire it up. Why oh why couldn’t the wife have found that one? You’d have heard it for MILES.

I don’t think you can kill the rats without unintended victims. Besides, you’ll never get them all. Maybe try and limit the food source/ source of attraction. But don’t the rats just come around at night? And have you tried a “NO RATS ALLOWED” sign?

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[Author]

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