[ QUOTE ] Build a RatRod! Maybe they'll steal it and leave town... [/ QUOTE ] HAHAHAHA...........sorry but I find that hilarious after taking the time to visualize about 20 rats flying down the freeway and high five-ing eachother in a channeled and primed A sedan...............thanks haha
Go rent/steal/find/borrow the obscure movie titled "Of Unknown Origin" starring Peter Weller! No really...DO IT!!! (You'll never sleep soundly at night again!!! )
You don't need anti-freeze. I use a 5-gal pail, for mice and red squirrels, about 1/3 full of water. Float some corn or sunflower seeds across the top (just enough to cover the surface of the water) and make a ramp from the ground to the rim of the pail. They jump in and drown. JOE
Thanks to all for the ideas thus far...and don't worry CherryBlossom...I was worried about DiDi coming across a carcass and making herself sick...so I make the rounds of the yard everyday. She's not prone to eating stinky things anyway, and has left many other dead things in the yard alone in the past... ...and i do plan to move, just not this year...so that could be the most viable solution to date...
My old High Standard Olympic 22 pistol with a baby bottle nipple over the muzzle...you can hardly hear it. All rats live within 150 feet of a steady reliable food supply...fact. The big question...what are you goin to do with a big gunny sack full of dead rats? The possibilities are endless...
Glen's way looks like a lot more fun But here's one I made that I've had for about 10 years that's responsible for over 100 confirmed kills. I don't know how it would work for rats....maybe make it bigger....like with a garbage can?? I use anti freeze because I put the buckets in the storage buildings and my cabin in the winter. If I just use water sometimes the mice can jump out when it freezes. Besides, the anti freeze embalms them so they don't stink if you don't empty it regular. I just went over and snapped this pic and this one needs emptying. It's been a couple of months. The way Upchuck described his works better....with the wire instead of the threaded rod. I made one for my mom with wire and a plastic pepsi bottle and it spins a lot easier than this one. I put a little peanut butter on the plank too for a teaser. If you were worried about pets getting into it you could put the can down lower and cut a slot in the side for the plank then put the lid on the bucket. Oh yeah, don't put one of these within earshot. The squeaky little "Help me, Help me"s might bother some people.
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] PurplePickup made the bucket with the beer can smeared with peanut butter spinner thingy in the middle. He posted it on the RRT years ago and I copied and pasted here months ago. Since then the RRT has switched servers and I can't seem to find it in their search function. I'll PM George and inform him of this post. I'm sure he has a copy of that post, he keeps everything [/ QUOTE ] to catch packrats around here I used a trick like is described by hotrodladycruzer use a 5 gallon pail 1/4-1/2 filled with water and get a pop or beer can, (really anything shiny will do) run a piece of wire thru it so it spins, attach it over the pail, smeering peanut butter over it and when the filthy rat goes for the peanut butter he can't grab it cause the can spins and dumps him into the water and drowns it [/ QUOTE ] Your almost there! The can that spins on a wire can be a soup can or coffee can. The wire that it spins on is attached to one end of a electric fence charger. The bait hangs directly above the center of the can by another wire attached to the other post on the charger. The rodent reaches up to grab the food, hits the live wire and gets the shit zapped out of 'em!! If the jolt dosen't kill 'em it knocks 'em out and they drown in the bucket.
OKAY, NOW I'M PISSED! I just came in from investigating a little. Stupid bastard wasting my time. I lift the hood on the Marquis in front of the garage...looks like a DAMN bread factory! There were several WHOLE pieces of wheat bread, and a couple triscuits on the intake below the carb...bread wasn't even stale. GRRRR. Move the cars around and remove (and save) the evidence. Car right next to it, my black '79 Cougar...lift the hood, ANOTHER fresh TRISCUIT on the intake...oh, and a CHICKEN BONE on the evaporator core!...AND... fresh, I mean FRESH rat shit on the fenderwell...what's that down there, I saw something dark move... The fat bastard was sitting on the converter, looking up at me! I bolted into the garage and got a long stick...the closest thing at hand...he made a break for it, dashed out from under the car and headed for his hole that leads to under my shed...I chased...what the? HA You little f*cker! I covered up your hole! Now HE's surprised! He does and about face, brushes off my ankle and diappears under the fence to my neighbor's. Shit. Okay, time for more artillery. I made the antifreeze trap, complete with Home Depot 5 gal. bucket, spinning Bud can, peanut butter, the works. Tonight, HE DIES. Oh, and I was right. This fat f*cker was about the size of a 6 month old kitten! Next, a conversation with the neighbors and their LACK of RESPONSIBILITY in thier GARBAGE CAN HANDLING!
I would call the city on the neighbor and if the city won't/doesn't investigate then I would call the local newspaper and inform them. They love stories where they can help the local citizens get results. Also, that "Ruth to the Resuce" show on one of the news channels. I bet they'd love to hear about your neighbors "feeding" the rats.
This thread was funnny till you mentioned the bastard is stealing your Triscuits! God damn it! Not the freaking Triscuts!
This is why I live in "white trash" Canton and not "yuppie suburbia" Royal Oak!!! Seriously, my brothers Crosman is pretty darn quiet, and lethal. Let's get a case of Bud and play "whack a rat" this weekend!!!! I hope you get em. Didi needs a place to play! Jay
Arse !!! went out last night and still fresh rat footprints on the car.... more bait in the bait station + a bucket/antifreeze deal (only just caught up with the peanut butter update..... and I like it), I will see this b'stard dead !!!!
Hey, that shed is YOURS--Mark your territory, man! Seriously, go out at night and take a nice long asparagus whiz at the entrance, the exit and along the perimeter. I had something living under my shed once--I put poison out, sprayed the area with carb cleaner, gasoline, etc. It lived there for probably two months. My son and I burried a bobcat head in an ant hill to clean the bones (who says science can't be fun?), and whatever it was dug the head out, dragged it across the yard and tried to pull it under the shed. The head was too big, so it was laying there blocking the hole the next day. I got to thinking--most wild animals don't like humans, and every animal marks its territory. I went out that night and marked my territory, and whatever it was cleared the hell out. Now, rats are a particularly disgusting and obstinant vermin, so I'm not sure this will work with them. But it might. Definately works with other animals that are more wary of humans. -Brad
[ QUOTE ] Buy/Beg/Borrow/Steal a .22 and sit on your roof at night for a few nights in a row. Get rid of rats and have fun doing it! Hell, id do it for ya if I was close and didnt hate even looking at them good luck [/ QUOTE ] My neighbor borrowed my .22 cal handgun to get rid of some "Killer Possums"..., 15 rounds later (and after a lot of yelling and running around) the score was..., 1 dead, 2 wounded, 2 holes in the garage door, 1 into his rear tire and 1 Honda decklid...!!!! Mind you now..., we live in a city..., Be careful with your ordinance...! I think that traps or poisons are safer for the humans..! One way to keep the vermin away from your vehicles is to place moth balls in and around your cars and garage. This trick is used by farmers and has saved my old 54 Speedster from any damage in it's 25 year storage on a farm...! The sellers Mother would toss moth balls out there once every two months and it does work..., but your wheels will smell like an old ladies sweater...! Mark
Sub-sonic ammo! It's quiet, you don't need a makeshift silencing device and if you can shoot worth a damn, makes for great evening entertainment. Your neighbors and the local officials will most likely disagree with me.
[ QUOTE ] Sub-sonic ammo! It's quiet, you don't need a makeshift silencing device and if you can shoot worth a damn, makes for great evening entertainment. Your neighbors and the local officials will most likely disagree with me. [/ QUOTE ] Sub-sonic ammo is cool on my 10-22 with it's 6x24x50mm lighted mil dot scope. Watch out vermin.
I had a vermin problem in a ford I had left sitting for a few years. I got in it to clean it up one day and everything looked great. Two days later, I get in it and the floorboard is FULL of rat crap. It's like thay had a freakin shit-party in there. Anyway, I sit down in it to clean it out, and I look over and the lil mf-er is staring at me through the A/C vent! I went after him and he dropped to the floor and shot out a drain hole I had unplugged to keep the floors from rusting if water got in. Anyway, a week or two later, I take the car to a shop to get painted, the rat seemed gone, no more shit. Well, I went to remove the tailight panel so he wouldn't get overspray on it and for some reason the panel was walking out as the screw turned, like something was on the backside of it pushing. I thought it was weird, and mentioned it to the shop guy standing beside me, and just as he leaned over to take a look, the panel dropped and homeboy here popped out: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . He cured my rat problem. (the bulge in the middle was obvious) The shop guy freaking levitated and ran outta the shop, screaming like a little girl (apparently, he has serious issues with snakes) Anyway, unfortunately we had to do him in. We tried to get him out safely and dump him outside, but he really didn't want to come out and finally started going down inside the rocker panel, so we had to stop him and injured him in the process, so we had to put him out of his misery. Turns out, he's a Texas Rat Snake, and while non-poisonous are "very aggressive" and "will bite" according to the research I did later. Get you a coupla those... You might just get rid of the neighbors too!
That's funny... The neighbor across the street has a pet Boa that is about 12 feet long and 8 inches across it's midsection...I actually contemplated asking him to dump it off in my backyard for a while...he'd be set for a month after dining on Fat Bastard...but there are places he could slither under the fence and I don't want him roving the streets and joining a gang or anything, so I didn't ask him to bring it over...yet... Well, to date I have thrown out (as in I found their rotting carcasses) 2 rats since I first posted this. I don't know how many others have decided to die under my shed, but the stink and the flys tell me at least one, maybe more have. I haven't seen "Fat Bastard" lately (as I've come to call him), so he's probably (hopefully) one of them. Tonight, I saw one more small one, about the size of a field mouse, hiding next to a wheel I have stored on the side of my garage (anyone need a full set of used (but presentable) 1990 Lincoln Town Car aluminum rims with centers?) The dog whined the little bastard out, and I moved the wheel and he just sat there...lethargic and staring at me, he must have injested some poison and is about to expire. I set up the beer can/antifreeze bucket trap, and to date, all they did was eat the peanut butter off the Bud can. I reset that trap, with fresh peanut butter tonight, and a ramp that was more "enticing" (smeared PB on it), and repositioned. I also set another Rat Trap (the spring-loaded type) and we'll see what happens in the morning... The drama continues...
YOU HAVE TO MAKE ONE OF THESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I desided it was time to stop using mouse traps and build one of these "Death Rides". They really work, I had no idea how bad the mouse problem was in the garage. Got to go empty the bucket and add more peanut butter.
Buy a BIG bag of Mothballs and shove them under and around your shed..., this worked for keeping mice away from my Speedster (sat for 25 years) but left it smelling like an old lady's house...! Mark
Wow, this post got resu-rected? I got rid of the vermin problem months ago. I caught 4 total, and judging by the stink that came out from under my shed, poisoned about 50 more. It's all done. BTW, the rats were too big for the bucket trick. After two tries, the kept leaning on the can and holding it in place while they ate the peanut butter off by standing on the rim...
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