D Kat wrote:

Rats chase squirrels off So far I haven't found a way to chase the rats
off... I bought some electronic noise makers that are supposed to repel all
rodents - I'm not noticing any difference.

Noise makers don't work, nor do those things that supposedly emit high
frequency sound waves. Basically, the animals just get used to the sound.

I finally gave battle to rats last winter when they started eating my
citrus. I had tried the snap traps, but the population was just out of
control (probably because we feed birds).

I have always been very cautious about using bait because of concern for
secondary kill. So, I took some 4" diameter, 3 foot long pieces of PVC and
placed them in a few locations in my yard where I knew the rats traveled.

I bought a product called "Real-Kill". It is a neurotoxin, so basically, a
rat eats it and is dead within 8-12 hours from just the one feeding.

Every night, just before dark, I would put a cube in each tube. In the
morning I would go and remove any uneaten bait - that only happened twice,
the rest of the time the bait had been consumed.

My problem went away in a week and I am fairly confident that there was very
limited, if any, secondary kill. I assumed (yes, I know) that because the
rat died over night in its hole, that nothing else would be able to kill and
eat it. Also, if I remember correctly, the LD 50 was something like 8
ounces, so if something did eat the infected rats, they would have to eat a
lot of them before they got sick.


San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Koi, Goldfish, and RES named Colombo.