The Big Rat Diary

[Hilary B]

He's been into your garden? Outrageous!

Re-set your squirl/rat trap, but surround it with subtle man-traps too ... casually discarded rake perhaps?

Alternatively get one of these PIR floodlights like our neigbour has. Any movement of something human-sized (or even biggish-dog sized), and the light goes on. It lights up a sizeable area, REALLY brightly..........

[Johnny Appleseed]

Update after nearly a month

Did some tidying up in the garden today - before the snow arrives

I never did catch a rat in either trap. Tried all the bait recommended - zilcho rats to show for it. Cost me a fortune in peanut butter and Snickers bars.

However, I went to move some stacked containers and pots and noticed some water in the bottom of the container (No drainage holes yet drilled)

Lifted out the pots inside the container to pour the water out and there, trapped and drowned between the side of the pots and the container was a big rat.

Perhaps there was only one after all. After all my scheming and planning he drowned by accident.

I hope that's the end of it now.

[BrideXIII]

so do i, can't stand the idea of dead sqiggles when you weren't trying to get them, sorry, i know i am a softie, but i really like squiggles.REALLY like em.

[Johnny Appleseed]

so do i, can't stand the idea of dead sqiggles when you weren't trying to get them, sorry, i know i am a softie, but i really like squiggles.REALLY like em.

Nothing wrong with liking squirrels BrideXIII - the heated discussions in our household over the matter nearly caused World War III to begin.

The traps are now de-commissioned until the next rat appears.

There has also been some "Collateral Damage" - my neighbour of 18 years and his family are no longer speaking to me. Whenever I arrive home they look away or go indoors - and these are grown ups for goodness sake.

They begrudgingly acknowledge Mrs A - but I am a dead man in their eyes.

How petty is that?

It doesn't bother me but I'm amazed that it has this effect on people we have had BBQ's with and meals in each others houses.

Saves a Christmas card through the door I suppose

[HayleyB]

So there's your answer, drown the b@@@ers

[Nicola.P]

Drowning wouldn't always work, rats are very strong swimmers and can tread water non stop for up to 5 days.
(I have 11 rats as pets but a wild rat is completely different to the fancy variety)

[Johnny Appleseed]

Drowning wouldn't always work, rats are very strong swimmers and can tread water non stop for up to 5 days.

I don't like rats but wouldn't wish a long, slow death on them. I'm hoping the water level rose above it and it was over quickly.

[Hilary B]

Drowning is an 'option for the timid' with a trapped rat. You drop cage-trap and all into the biggest bucket you have. He can't tread water because the cage carries it down to the bottom. I wouldn't do it, but it is workable for those who can't face any of the quicker methods. Rats can be very stupid (for such basically intelligent creatures) about getting into places they can't get out of. They may drown, they may simply starve.....

[Johnny Appleseed]

It's back......

Today a huge rat ran up the tree next to the fence, dropped on top of the fence then disappeared into my neighbours garden (the one whose food cascades off the bird table)

Back to square one. Two traps set and primed with peanut butter again.

No Christmas truce on this one. These creatures make my skin crawl.

Perhaps I should give it some turkey and stuffing.

[FB.]

Borrow someone's .22cal air rifle (or acquire one of your own), load a hollow point and shoot the rat! It's a near-instant death - far more "humane" than poisoning, which can give a long, painful death.
Just be careful where the shot travels if you miss - and don't shoot on someone else's property.
I have some pest control contracts with local farmers (rats, rabbits etc) and many of the shot rabbits end up on someone's dinner table, so nothing is wasted. My weapon of choice is a high-powered, silenced, air rifle, with telescopic sights.
.....and no, I don't shoot people's greenhouses, cats or swans.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Thanks for the tip FB - much appreciated. Hollow points it is then. Years ago I used some Prometheus (?) - plastic body, steel tip inserts. Don't know if you can still get them but they certainly had some stopping power with a .22 HW 80 customised and calibrated by the Airgun Centre in Rayleigh, Essex to a whisker under 12ft lbs. Mind you that was many years ago.

Got home tonight to find a big grey squirrel in one of the traps. I checked the trap before I went to work and it was empty - my wife checked it lunchtime as well - so sometime this afternoon a big grey took a fancy to the peanut butter spread on some gauze from the First Aid kit.

The squirrel also had an old wound on his side - a big diagonal scar on his side by the front shoulder, healed over but no fur where the scar was. I thought he'd cut himself on the trap but it was as clean as a whistle and no blood anywhere.

Now if only the stinking rat would be equally as curious..........

[janeyo]

I read your post late last night and had a nightmare about a rat in the bedroom - it was 'asleep' and when I went to shift it, it woke up and went rampaging round the house Except it wasn't my house it was a travel lodge I happened to live in.... maybe I need to cut out the cheese before bed lol

Hope you get the prob sorted soon!

janeyo

[Johnny Appleseed]

ROFL Jayne

Maybe it was after your late night cheese..........

Why am I up at 3am?

After a huge elbow in the ribs, my dearest darling tells me she has just heard scratching in the loft and something running across the ceiling.

I've just been up there with a torch and right over our bed the corner of a cardboard storage box has been chewed away.

Now we are both wide awake planning the mass extermination of all rodents.

I'm sure interactive and frighteningly realistic nightmares will follow concerning swarms of rats, mice and squirrels dropping through the ceiling onto our bed........Ooooops, better not tell that thought to Mrs A otherwise she will not get back to sleep tonight.

Now for the port and cheese.............

[FB.]

Thanks for the tip FB - much appreciated. Hollow points it is then. Years ago I used some Prometheus (?) - plastic body, steel tip inserts. Don't know if you can still get them but they certainly had some stopping power with a .22 HW 80 customised and calibrated by the Airgun Centre in Rayleigh, Essex to a whisker under 12ft lbs. Mind you that was many years ago.

AGC in Essex are still one of the leading places to buy shooting equipment.
The HW80 is still highly regarded. If you still have your old one, it may still shoot well after all these years, or should be easy to bring back up to full potential.
Those Prometheus pellets have far more penetrative power than you need for small vermin and the plastic fouls up the rifling of the barrel - spoiling accuracy (which is not great at the best of times).
At close range, don't use hard or highly penetrative ammo - they often go right through the pest (and off into the distance) so cleanly that the pest doesn't realise it's been shot for a minute or two! At close range, go for the hefty impact of a flat or hollow headed ammo made of lead - the lead may also expand on impact, for even more effect.
If the range is greater than 15-20yds, you should go for a quality roundhead pellet that will give you the accuracy you need - H&N FTT shoot well in most .22cal HW barrels.

[slabbit]

I,m with FB. air rifle every time, rats soon become trap shy once one or two have been caught that way.....