Battle of the Rats
I just bought this fine chariot a month ago. It is a 2010 but has only 40,000 miles on it, always garaged. Like a brand new truck.
So, naturally I am keeping it in my carport. Well I went out there the other day, the rats were building a nest on top of the battery. These are some robust rats, sticks 3/8 inch diameter and 10 inches long included in the nest. Time for War! I moved the truck to the other side of the house, 120 feet away, where there are few if any rats.
So I set my Havahart trap with peanut butter. And the next morning there was a big rat in the trap. I got rid of him. Set the trap the next night and when I went down in the morning, the trap was gone!
Well that was weird. I started scouting around. I found the trap 15 feet down the mountain and there was a big rat in there. Bigger than the first rat.
I figured that some animal had wandered up, wanted to eat the rat, pulled and clawed at the trap for a while but couldn't open the door and finally gave up.
So I got rid of that rat. Two rats in two days pretty good.
Set the trap again the third night, Nothing.
Set the trap again on night four, once again, the trap was about 15 feet out in the woods. The door was open and it was empty.
I figured this must be a raccoon. A bear would eat the rat but he would smush the trap. A coon would be strong enough to move the trap around but not damage it.
So I figured the coon had eaten the rat, although, I could see no blood there on the ground. Maybe the coon grabbed the rat and carried him off to eat him.
Last night, set the trap again, same thing this morning, trap 20 feet down the mountain, door removed, empty. So I figure, I hope, the coon ate 2 rats in 2 nights but not sure. Anyway, it is a real jungle out there in the NC mountains at midnight, the Battle of the Rats and the Coons.
By the way it does not harm the Havahart trap to remove the door, you just put it back in the grooves and it is ready to go again.
So I just went out and set the trap again there in the carport, you can see the crunchy peanut butter on the tray. These rats just can't walk past a teaspoon of peanut butter they gotta have it.
I don't like the idea of these coons dragging the trap off into the jungle, although I don't mind it if they eat the rat.
So, I set the wheelbarrow upside down over the trap. And I put a stick under the wheelbarrow, it is high enough for the GD rat to get in, but not for the coon.
I imagine the coon can lift that wheelbarrow up and get in there but if he does, I doubt he can get that trap out. He will have to eat the rat under the wheelbarrow. Who knows the coon may get trapped under the wheelbarrow. Be interesting to see what is what at daybreak.
It is a real jungle out there.
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Tractor supply... Poison. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by yoshmyster
Time to stake that bad boy down.
Exactly. Why this wasn't done after the first time is a mystery to me.
Oh, and parking the rig away from the rats part was pretty funny. How many miles away was it?0 -
I like that barrel trap mag00 I might have to build one of those.
I tell y'all I am sick of these GD rats!
Why I didn't stake it down.
First night, rat in trap.
Second night, trap dragged 20 feet, rat in trap. I figured the damn coon couldn't open the trap.
Third night, nothing.
Fourth night, trap dragged 20 feet, door removed, no rat. I said "wth?"
Then, I figured the coon had opened the door and eaten the rat.
So at that point yes I should have staked down the trap.
Fifth night, same thing, trap dragged off, door removed, rat gone.
So on the sixth night I did tie the trap down, could tell the coon wrestled with it a little but door was still shut and I got the rat.
How far did I move the Jap truck? Well this is weird, I moved it 150 feet to the far side of the house. No rat problems up there to speak of.
I have a big firewood pile in the carport about 2 cords, I think the damn rats are living in the wood pile, I am planning to move the wood pile this winter.
Damn I am sick of these rats they build a nest on your battery, they chew the insulation off of the hood, and they will, given time, start chewing up the wires. IT IS WAR!!0 -
Whether you like them or not, cats are a necessary part of country living. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Bottom Gun
Whether you like them or not, cats are a necessary part of country living.
We have a winner!0 -
Well I used to have a cat, Mrs. Grey and she was a real bad ass and loved to kill a rat.
She died a few years ago and the girlfriend will not buy another pet, can't get a cat or dog until I come in off the road.
But I will get a bad ass cat as soon as I can.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Bottom Gun
Whether you like them or not, cats are a necessary part of country living.
Yep, we have a winner here.
If you don't like cats and hate rats and mice, and do not want to get a cat you have another choice, move to the city where people live and act like rats.
Don't bring the cat in the house, use it as a outdoor cat. Lap cats, like Garfield are not good mousers and you might have to step up to the plate and retrieve your gonads out of your girlfriends purse and get back in control. May have to choose, a cat and no rats or lots of rats and a girlfriend.
This situation reminds me of the one where the new wife told the guy he needs to get rid of his guns and he says, You sound like my EX wife, she says you told me you have never been married and he says that is correct.[;)]
A cat will also not be friendly to other country varmits, like snakes and coons, a outdoor cat will pester them until they move on.
Only one case of Hanta virus in the Carolinas reported and waiting on number 2 case. They also are carriers of other nasty stuff.
Almost in same category of being just a little bit pregnant.
I live in country have cats, don't like cats until I see them showing me their rats and mice. Mice are also one of the main hosts of all kinds of tick borne diseases. I keep the cats vaccinated for rabies and you will have to use a flea/tick preventative on the cat. (coons, rats and mice will infest the cat with fleas/ticks if no prevention to the cat.0 -
D-Con or Tom Cat rat poison is your friend.
Those nasty things will eat up your wiring harness if you don?t stop them.
Never heard of a coon eating rats, I would tend to believe it wa something other then a coon moving your traps, but peanut butter will sure attract them.
I had a mouse that was scurrying around near my recliner in the den. So, I set a mouse trap with peanut butter. Ther first night I caught a small mouse. I reset the trap, and in the morning my trap was missing...totally gone...no sign anywhere in the house have we found it....[:0]
Trinity +++0 -
"Lap cats, like Garfield are not good mousers and you might have to step up to the plate and retrieve your gonads out of your girlfriends purse and get back in control."
You don't know me very well, or you would not toss out that insult.
I am gone 14 days in a row in the Big Rig and then am home for 2 days. I cannot care for a dog or a cat, and the girlfriend does not want to mess with a pet by herself.
When I get off the road, in a year maybe, will get a cat and a dog.
The girlfriend likes pets and in fact Mrs. Grey was her pet for 5 years before we moved the cat up here to the mountains.
Mrs. Grey had the Life of Riley, she went wherever she wanted, she had 3 official bunks in the house and loved to curl up before the wood stove, and she spent a lot of time outside and she was a real bad ass. I saw her, several times, catching a squirrel and I can still hear Mrs. Grey crunching the skull of a squirrel sounded like a pecan getting cracked in the nutcracker.
I like squirrels but Mrs. Grey didn't discriminate she would kill anything. One time I heard a GD rat under the house chewing away on the floor joists. I said "Time to go to work, cat!"
And I carried Mrs. Grey outside, tossed her in the crawl space and shut the door. Took about 5 minutes, I heard a commotion down there, opened the crawl space door and let the cat out. Never heard from that rat again.0 -
There is some kind of circle of life thing going on out in our barn all of the time. Its the Camaro that suffers in the middle of this mess because I don't drive it much. I've seen mice the size of a large avocado with a tail in my car!
I have covered the ground under and around the car that I got from the hardware store.....put dryer sheets everywhere (on the tires and inside the car and trunk)....sprayed the minty smelling critter be gone spray.....and put the packets of critter rid in the floorboards.
My camaro smells like a rolling eucalyptus, lavender, mint store of some kind. Its not a bad smell....but you cannot ignore it. It seems to work though. None of this has worked on its own, but all of it together seems to keep them out of my car.
I tried poison, but they just died and stunk up my car. Plus, I don't want to poison the snakes that are out there eating the mice.
Good luck!0
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