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In article , Katra wrote:
In article . net, (Rez) wrote: I probably drowned a couple hundred rats just in an open bucket one year, and it wasn't even the only water around, just somewhere curious rats liked to snoop in. Evidently they never get wise to it. Oh, I LIKE this! :-) I need to go and get some buckets with lids!!!!!! K. (who is really going to try this one right away!) I never even bothered with the lid part, but if you have a need to bait 'em to the bucket, it makes a handy place to smear the bait! ~REZ~ |
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In article , Katra wrote:
In article . net, (Rez) wrote: I like pigeons, they're cool birds. We have a few dove here but no pigeons. I've thought about starting a colony, at least once I get the shop building closed off enough that they don't decide to live in there! Yeah, they will nest anywhere that provides convenient shelving, and it can get rather poopy. It already does with just sparrows nesting in there. Being lazy, I usually feed my pigeons and chickens (when I have 'em, none right now) dog food, same as the dogs eat. That sounds expensive! Sure won't hurt them tho'. Chicken and pigeon feed is about $7.00 for 50 lbs. Dog food is twice that... But they eat half as much of it, and they do better. My 14 year old pigeon was like a young bird and was fixin' to break the world record (18 yrs; lost him cuz one of the dogs got out and got into the cage :( and I had yard chickens that made it to 12 years old! Most of my pigeons eat pretty much for free since they fly free, but they do gather around for the morning scratch feedings in the henyard. Why turn down free meals? :) In fact when I toss 'em grain, they'll get all excited the way birds do, rush over to the feed -- stop short and look at me like "What's this crap? What are you trying to push on us??!" Hee! ;-) I don't blame them. Dog food is higher in protien! And apparently far more appealing! ~REZ~ |
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In article , Katra wrote:
Norway rats are probably smarter than roof rats, which is what we had where I used to live. Roof rats are so bold they run around in packs in broad daylight. They're not very big tho, a little smaller than typical "pet rats". These are as large or slightly larger than pet rats, and they are pretty smart and bold. Mostly nocturnal, they don't always run away right away when I find them, which is why I can hand-kill from time to time. I just heard of another type of rat killing device, it's like a bug zapper only for rodents; you put it in a piece of sewer pipe. Person who told me about it said it works really well, but didn't know where to get one. I think they are catching on tho'. :-( It's been harder for me to capture them lately. Problem is, when you can only catch the dumb ones, it lets the smart ones breed :( ~REZ~ |
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"Katra" wrote in message ... In article , "nswong" wrote: Hi Katra, I normally hate those things, but I'm also not afraid to just kill the rat when I find it in the glue trap so it won't suffer. I don't like to kill animal, so I just wrap rat with newspaper and throw it outside our fence to a bush, it will decompose to nothing left within two months. The glue on rat will stick it with the newspaper and make it unescapetable. I know this will make the rat suffer, but as long as I don't see it with my eye, it's OK for me. Think at it, most of my transplant are lost due to those rats, this make me feel less guilty. Rats here like to chew my transplant and even pull the transplant out from soil. Regards, Wong -- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m I agree... The rats have made it difficult to transplant corn sprouts! :-P I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it. When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them. The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks. K. If you want to do things by hand, one of those propane weed burners ought to do well -- and you won't have to touch the animal. Ray |
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"Katra" wrote in message ... In article , "Loki" wrote: il Wed, 12 May 2004 00:43:14 -0500, Katra ha scritto: I agree... The rats have made it difficult to transplant corn sprouts! :-P I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it. When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them. The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks. Gee where do you guys live? I have yet to *see* a rat. Let alone need to kill one. yuck what a topic.... Central Texas, suburbs... I have chickens, they are attracted to the grain feed. There is nothing I can do about that. I just have to find more efficient ways to kill the little SOB's. They are very prolific. The general trick is to store the grain in a metal trash can or something like that. Also, those dangling metal tube feeders work well -- as long as the rat can't climb down whatever it is you dangle the feeder from. We had rats in our henhouse when I was a kid. My dad made a bait box with a hole that's large enough for a rat to enter, but would keep a chicken out. He put anticoagulant (warfarin) type rat poison into the box every day. Sick and dying rats literally came out of the woodwork after a few days. It takes more than one dose to kill the rats, so the secret is to buy five pounds or more of rat pellets, then keep the bait box filled. Just putting out a box or two of d-con won't do it. The rats just get sick, then get over it. After a while, the dead rats stopped appearing and the poison pellets stopped disappearing. We haven't had rat problems since then. Ray |
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In article ,
"Ray Drouillard" wrote: "Katra" wrote in message ... In article , "nswong" wrote: Hi Katra, I normally hate those things, but I'm also not afraid to just kill the rat when I find it in the glue trap so it won't suffer. I don't like to kill animal, so I just wrap rat with newspaper and throw it outside our fence to a bush, it will decompose to nothing left within two months. The glue on rat will stick it with the newspaper and make it unescapetable. I know this will make the rat suffer, but as long as I don't see it with my eye, it's OK for me. Think at it, most of my transplant are lost due to those rats, this make me feel less guilty. Rats here like to chew my transplant and even pull the transplant out from soil. Regards, Wong -- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m I agree... The rats have made it difficult to transplant corn sprouts! :-P I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it. When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them. The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks. K. If you want to do things by hand, one of those propane weed burners ought to do well -- and you won't have to touch the animal. Ray But they might escape! :-P Enough get away as it is if I wait too long to check the nests. If they are small enough, the chickens enjoy eating baby rats. G I've gotten pretty good at the snatch them by the tail and bash them killing method. But, thanks anyhoo! :-) K. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
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In article ,
"Ray Drouillard" wrote: "Katra" wrote in message ... In article , "Loki" wrote: il Wed, 12 May 2004 00:43:14 -0500, Katra ha scritto: I agree... The rats have made it difficult to transplant corn sprouts! :-P I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it. When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them. The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks. Gee where do you guys live? I have yet to *see* a rat. Let alone need to kill one. yuck what a topic.... Central Texas, suburbs... I have chickens, they are attracted to the grain feed. There is nothing I can do about that. I just have to find more efficient ways to kill the little SOB's. They are very prolific. The general trick is to store the grain in a metal trash can or something like that. Also, those dangling metal tube feeders work well -- as long as the rat can't climb down whatever it is you dangle the feeder from. That would be ok, but a lot of grain ends up on the ground, especially scratch feed. My storage is metal containers as rats would chew thru plastic. We had rats in our henhouse when I was a kid. My dad made a bait box with a hole that's large enough for a rat to enter, but would keep a chicken out. He put anticoagulant (warfarin) type rat poison into the box every day. Sick and dying rats literally came out of the woodwork after a few days. Yes, that works. I use bar bait poisons and put them into suet cages, and place them so that the chickens cannot get to them, or get to the crumbs. You also have to make it so that the rats cannot carry off the bars so the chickens might gain acess to them, hence the suet cages. :-) It takes more than one dose to kill the rats, so the secret is to buy five pounds or more of rat pellets, then keep the bait box filled. Just putting out a box or two of d-con won't do it. The rats just get sick, then get over it. When I start poisoning, yes, I do use a lot of it. The rats start dying after about 5 days and die near water containers pretty much out in the open, which is nice as dead rast _stink_! :-P Bleeding to death makes them thirsty. After a while, the dead rats stopped appearing and the poison pellets stopped disappearing. We haven't had rat problems since then. Ray Mine is periodic. I can wipe out the local population, but my neighbors don't use any rat control and there is a lot of trash in the lots out back. :-( Nothing I can do about that except for complaining to the city, so the rats re-populate about every 2 years. This year is just really bad!!! I am going on a major poison spree here shortly, and will also set up some bucket drowning traps as was suggested earlier. Thanks for the input. :-) K. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
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In article , Katra wrote:
Placement is important... :-) I breed pigeons for meat, so I don't want to scare off my breeding stock! G g When I keep pigeons (for dog training), every day when I feed them I sing "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" to remind them how lucky they are to be cage pigeons, and not park pigeons :) I've had one reach 14 years old!! ~REZ~ |
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In article , Katra wrote:
In article .net, (Rez) wrote: Can anyone tell me how to control rats without poisoning? Traps dont' work. Rats are too smart. Or get a Jack Russell terrier and don't feed it, so it has to hunt. They're good rat dogs and have no qualms about eating rats. :) I've considered that... Will they eat chickens? Most of the rats are in the henyard which is why they are here. Plenty of food. :-( Yeah, a dog will eat chickens too :( Cats generally leave chickens alone (at least after their first good pecking :) but don't seem to be much on killing rats. Rats can survive on just manure for food, but they'll eat about anything that doesn't eat them first. That is why a water trap would not work unless I dumped water containers every night. We do find them drowned in the emu's water buckets now and then! Rats are very curious and like to climb up into things, so even if there is other water around, they still get into buckets and drown (awww, so sad :) Also, dog food makes a great lure for rats and mice -- see if you can rig something where they can smell it and will fall into the water while trying to get to the dog food. ~REZ~ |
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In article , Katra wrote:
When I start poisoning, yes, I do use a lot of it. The rats start dying after about 5 days and die near water containers pretty much out in the open, which is nice as dead rast _stink_! :-P Bleeding to death makes them thirsty. Ah, good time to use the water traps to ensure the job :) ~REZ~ |
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In article t,
(Rez) wrote: In article , Katra wrote: When I start poisoning, yes, I do use a lot of it. The rats start dying after about 5 days and die near water containers pretty much out in the open, which is nice as dead rast _stink_! :-P Bleeding to death makes them thirsty. Ah, good time to use the water traps to ensure the job :) ~REZ~ Yep! ;-) K. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
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In article , Katra wrote:
I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it. LOL! Not me, I've had enough stuff destroyed by rats, mice, and rabbits, that it doesn't bother me one bit to watch 'em suffer :) When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them. Works for me :) The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks. Probably as good a control method as any. Fortunately where I am now, there don't seem to be any rats, tho there are mice in droves (they demolished my cauliflower, and those were BIG plants, almost 3 feet tall) and of course the Starving Attack Rabbits. I encourage "safe" snakes (tho I've got 14 rattlers in my trophy box, in just two years time!) and just picked up a couple feral cats who both have litters, hopefully enough kittens will not get eaten by owls to grow up and become good mousers. You can't grow cats fast enough around here... :( Tho beware of snakes around chickens, I have personally SEEN gopher snakes rob nests for eggs, and even fight the hen for the eggs! and snakes can CLIMB! ~REZ~ |
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