Rats everywhere

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deendon1, Mar 18, 4:11am
our school tried goodnature

made no appreciable difference to the rat numbers

cleggyboy, Mar 18, 10:03am
I have now had Leafscreen installed so they can not get under the iron, or birds.

vomo2, Mar 18, 3:09pm
Peanut butter is much cheaper than almond. Rats love it.

strathview, Mar 18, 5:06pm
Our latest pest is a stoat. We were looking for bunny burrows when hubby saw what he thought was a bunny playing. Then he realised it was the wrong colour. So we quietly wandered over to the hotwire switch to turn it off so we could get a bit closer to see where it would go. Would you believe we stood 3-4 metres away from it while it jumped did somersaults and raced around for 10 minutes. I whispered to hubby all we need is David Attenborough to provide us with the commentary. Hubby has never seen one and thought it was delightful. I delightfully informed him that he better hope like blazes that it didn't run up his leg because it appeared to have no fear of us and those teeth will snap the neck on a rabbit. Thought we saw it later last night at our chicken house but no that was a new feral kitten. Sign. Monday will see me picking up a cat trap and a stoat trap. It's them or my chickens and I much prefer my chickens. Son last year caught a feral kitten and was really keen to tame it until it bit him. Two tetanus jabs and a course of antibiotics and a swollen finger on the joint where the kitten bit him and son now has no love of feral cats. So the story of Hi-Jinks the stoat and Snoop the tabby cat begins.

trade4us2, Mar 19, 7:34am
I catch a mouse almost every day in these gangplank traps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfaDQJVplYI

There's a gangplank with peanut butter on the end. There's a tiny magnet to hold the gangplank steady until the mouse gets near the middle, then it falls into the water. The peanut butter stays there and the gangplank resets, so there's not much to do except empty out the dead mice.
It should catch rats too but I have not seen any yet.

nzjay, Mar 19, 9:39am
I saw some info from DOC sometime ago about the number of rats in NZ. From memory they had calculated there was something like an average of over 1000 rats per hectare on open farmland and this could increase in urban areas depending on food sources and predators. Obviously some rural areas would be more heavily populated if there was reliable food sources and others less. but it was still astounding.

lillol, Mar 20, 7:44am
After years of fighting them and hearing rat orgies in my ceiling, food stolen from my pantry etc. I got an exterminator in. All good but one of them died in a wall and the smell was yuck for a couple of days. Still hear the odd one, but a hell of a lot better.

kiwimade64, Mar 22, 12:04pm
Our Jack Russell is a born hunter: 19 rabbits, countless rats and mice and one female stoat.

trade4us2, Mar 22, 5:29pm
I've caught 5 mice so far in my gangplank traps. And whatever was eating rubber parts in my car has stopped doing that, and the bait is not being touched any more.

russell.s.c, Mar 22, 6:22pm
How do they get in well, trees near the house is a common way particularly if the trees overhang the roof. Then there's the old chimney, this one is often forgotten about but if the old fireplace was removed and replaced with a modern inset wood burner quite commonly the old chimney was only removed down to just above the ceiling allowing a perfect way for rats to climb up into the roof space.

harm_less, Mar 23, 3:49am
If you're rural drop your dead rats into the septic tank, or flush smaller ones. The bacteria in the rats' gut is great for boosting the septic tank biology.

sally63, Mar 23, 1:34pm
Ugh harm_less!

ritebuy, Mar 24, 7:21am
I had rats in ceiling found entry point and scrunched up chicken wire and stuffed it in the entry, Also stuffed wire down by the waste pipe under sink.mice and rats cant chew through wire

bicyclerider, May 26, 3:32pm
We have noticed recently how at some point in the night there is an almighty thump on the ceiling, and lots of patter patter, not all night , just once, decided to put a trap up there, then two days later, eating dinner, when we heard snap, sure enough a monster rat was in the trap. Do we bury it, cremate it in the logburner, or something else?

ayjay1, May 26, 3:38pm
You get to choose. What ever you feel like :-)

harrislucinda, May 26, 3:38pm
eat it yummm

morticia, May 26, 3:40pm
We chuck them over the bank when the cat drags them home.

bicyclerider, May 26, 3:44pm
How do they get in , that's what I can't work out, climb up the outside wall, but we have eaves?

solarboy, May 26, 4:25pm
I read a day or so ago that they only need a 20 mm gap ( mouse needs only 6 mm) and they can jump from trees near the house. Story on "Stuff" about a guy who's had thousands of dollars damage done through rats chewing through plastic plumbing fittings and causing flooding damage as well as the disruption to normal tap workings. I've had mice in my ceiling often - luckily no significent damage.

dcm30, May 26, 4:35pm
Interesting post, I have recently had my house insulated and now hear mice in the attic, might be a coincidence but my dad says they are relaxing in the warmth lol. Anyway a friend at work told me toothpaste is toxic to them, so I have split a tube down the middle and put it up there. Hope they like colgate. Anyone else tried this?

skin1235, May 26, 4:57pm
don't put rat bait in the roof, it brings on a mean thirst and they'll have ago at getting through copper pipes to get to water, if you must put bait inside the house put it at entry and exit points

ash4561, May 26, 5:00pm
had a problem with them for years poisened them they would all die sometimes before they got outside for water sometimes hear a drip from ceiling on paper or something and it would be magots dropping from cracks in wooden boards ceiling anyway six months later there would be more had a house cat used to watch them had a half wild outside cat that didnt like being shut inside tamed that to live in side and no more rats

ianab, May 26, 5:15pm

bicyclerider, May 27, 3:17am
More rats overnight , caught another in the same trap, thanks for the good advice re not putting bait in the ceiling.

re set the trap with more almond butter,

dcm30, May 27, 3:27am
OK thanks for that, have got a trap at entry point now. Hopefully will work.