g'day ymc,

yep need to control them if they establish in the home they can find
their way into the wall cavities where rats in particular but mice as
well are very fond of chewing the wiring, the cause of many a house
fire, more dangerous if threat occurs in the roof. if you have a home
with good screens and security type doors they can have a difficult
time getting in but we have had mice in the house, discover them
quickly and deal with them long before they get comfortable. in rural
the home ahd no screens (not needed) we had a rat come in went
straight to where the computer was and chewed all the telephone cables
so we had no phone.

they find a good home in copost and enough to eat, we do our
composting in our gardens so they wil live inb there as well we put
all our rottable kitchen scraps tucked under the mulch so the food is
there as well. but we run bait stations using tomcat rat baits cut a
couple of openings into icecream containers large enough for them to
get in this protects the baits from the weather, use a small piece of
3x2 or such as s weight to hold the station in place against the wind.

in the house we slipped bats in under the sink wher the pipes come
through (only bit you can't observe the bait for interfference. it
could take up to 2 weeks for a rat to die from ingesting the bait over
numerous feed, they usually die outside heading back to their water
supply.

all the rats seem to have dissapeared from around here and the mice
are well in check, after all we didn't create them locally they where
always here on council reserves/drains or other gardens unchecked.

with a rat that i needed to get rid of right away or as rightaway as
we could we borrowed one of those spring traps put some cheese on it
unset for a couple of nights to give the rat a false sense of security
and free feed, we then set the trap on that last night tied the cheese
on with cotton and yup he fell for it, had a very surprised look on
his face. why tie the bait they are very adept at removing the bait
without springing the trap.

run the baits out in the garden etc.,. stop them before they come
inside.

excuse my typo's lease


On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:50:16 +1000, "YMC"
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/