Battle lines are drawn

dinners

dinners

In Memoriam
Suspended / Banned
Messages
15,745
Name
Phil
Edit My Images
Yes
We have an unwelcome visitor of the ratty kind in the greenhouse.

Obviously attracted to the chicken feed it's buried under a row of slabs and up through the gravel.

We thought removing the food source a few days back and filling in the hole would have put it off but the hole still appears each day.

So - the trap is set.

Test 1 - crunchy peanut butter.........

Camera Roll-467 by dinners85, on Flickr

to be continued..................
 
Last edited:
yeah we keep our chicken pellets in keter maxi storage shed thingymibob to avoid these kinds of things and has so far been okay.. apparently when mice/rats/hogs know where it is you can have issues..

hoping its just the one critter you have to get rid of.
 
Hopefully just the one but time will tell I guess.

PS

Why aren't I able to post images any more :confused:

Can anybody see an image above ?

I can't but I can if I press edit.
 
Last edited:
Phil a word of advice, put a string on the trap and tie it to something or sure as eggs are eggs it will disappear.

I used a similar trap an learnt, what I also did was to place 2 blocks against a wall forming a tunnel
with the bait not actually on the trap but behind it so the rat would have to climb over the trap to get it, a lid of some kind over the two blocks would be good as well.
 
Well, they say that there's 10 of them for every one you actually see:

True story, a few years ago on our farm, which admittedly is a bit bigger than your greenhouse...
I pointed out that we had a rat problem, but SWIMBO wouldn't have it, she said that they had as much right to live there as we did.
I said that all that needs to be done to stop them getting out of hand is to shoot every rat that we actually see, which will keep the numbers down.
But I didn't know what I was talking about...

Just a few weeks later they had multiplied beyond belief and had taken over the free range hen pen, constantly eating from the never-ending supply of chicken food. A few hens huddled miserably in one corner, outnumbered by the rats - the others had flown away to safer places.
Then the rats started killing chicks.
Then they killed a couple of adult hens
Then SWIMBO accepted the need to control them. I got busy with a shotgun and shot 115 on the first day, youngest son did his best with an airgun, but it made no difference.
Eventually we had to put poison down, £80 worth, and that did the job.
 
dinners said:
Hopefully just the one but time will tell I guess.

PS

Why aren't I able to post images any more :confused:

Can anybody see an image above ?

I can't but I can if I press edit.
Click to expand...
I can see the photo, and your trap is in the wrong place - get it as close to the wall as you can, rats don't like venturing into wide open spaces (unless they are in batallions of thousands)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, they say that there's 10 of them for every one you actually see:

True story, a few years ago on our farm, which admittedly is a bit bigger than your greenhouse...
I pointed out that we had a rat problem, but SWIMBO wouldn't have it, she said that they had as much right to live there as we did.
I said that all that needs to be done to stop them getting out of hand is to shoot every rat that we actually see, which will keep the numbers down.
But I didn't know what I was talking about...

Just a few weeks later they had multiplied beyond belief and had taken over the free range hen pen, constantly eating from the never-ending supply of chicken food. A few hens huddled miserably in one corner, outnumbered by the rats - the others had flown away to safer places.
Then the rats started killing chicks.
Then they killed a couple of adult hens
Then SWIMBO accepted the need to control them. I got busy with a shotgun and shot 115 on the first day, youngest son did his best with an airgun, but it made no difference.
Eventually we had to put poison down, £80 worth, and that did the job.
Click to expand...

Coming from a farm / game keeping family I'm familiar with much of what you've said above.

We live in the countryside and the bottom of our garden is woods with a stream running through it. Our cats sometimes bring us the odd dead rat but this is the first evidence we've ever seen of them doing this.

We've a few dogs and cats so whilst that's quite handy it rules out baiting them with poison.


Garry Edwards said:
I can see the photo, and your trap is in the wrong place - get it as close to the wall as you can, rats don't like venturing into wide open spaces (unless they are in batallions of thousands)
Click to expand...

The trap was just like that when I took the pic. It's sideways on flush with the edge at the moment.
 
Last edited:
Just switched to my ipad and I can see the image.

Can't see it on my PC though.
 
Waits for photo of empty, licked clean trap :whistle:
 
gramps said:
Waits for photo of empty, licked clean trap :whistle:
Click to expand...

It's only the 1st attempt ;)


Mikechappers said:
Yep I had to alter mine to make it more tender, far to hard to set off
Click to expand...

It's set vey lightly. Nearly took my fingers off twice placing it on the ground :nailbiting:

It's a beast of a thing though. Looks small in that picture but that plate is about the size of an A5 sheet of paper.
 
... or next door neighbour's cat :eek:
 
gramps said:
... or next door neighbour's cat :eek:
Click to expand...

I've a lot of dogs, cats, chickens and 4 children come to think of it that like peanut butter.

The greenhouse door is securely bolted with the trap inside. ;)
 
Last edited:
When we had a smaller rodent (meeces) problem a few years back, we found that Snickers bars (or small portions thereof) were the best bait. Peanut butter went a bit soft and liquid in the loft and flowed... Luckily it was inside a humane trap so didn't cause any staining! Caught about 20 and released them a mile or so away. Cut their tails off so we could see if any were returnees. (Bad joke, of course we didn't cause them any more distress than necessary!)
 
Nod said:
When we had a smaller rodent (meeces) problem a few years back, we found that Snickers bars (or small portions thereof) were the best bait. Peanut butter went a bit soft and liquid in the loft and flowed... Luckily it was inside a humane trap so didn't cause any staining! Caught about 20 and released them a mile or so away. Cut their tails off so we could see if any were returnees. (Bad joke, of course we didn't cause them any more distress than necessary!)
Click to expand...

Same here for meeces....Chocolate on an old fashioned mousetrap.
Guaranteed ex-mouse every time :-)
 
I don't mind the odd mouse in the garden. Keeps the cats from bothering the birds.

If it wasn't for our chickens I wouldn't be overly bothered by the odd rat as our land just joins woodland so they're sort of on their own turf anyway.

I'd normally do a humane trap but I need to be sure that any I get, stay gone.

I think the trap will be a fairly stress free ending given I nearly put my back out loading the thing.
 
The poison that comes as waxy cubes are convenient when you have other animals. I thread them onto fence wire (they have a thinned centre which facilitates this) poke them into holes or under sheds and wind the other end round something to stop it being pulled away or out.
 
Years ago one of my cats let go a live one in my kitchen while I was away for the weekend. I rang the rat man and he told me that chocolate was the thing to bait the trap with. It left through an open window before it sprang the trap - probably didn't fancy another encounter with the cat.
A friend has had a rats in his garden. Now ex rats thanks to a bait box. The boxes are designed so dogs, cats etc can't get neat the bait and it also went under some slabs against a wall. The problem with setting a trap is you'll put your scent all over it unless you wear gloves and rats are ultra cautious.
 
sphexx said:
The poison that comes as waxy cubes are convenient when you have other animals. I thread them onto fence wire (they have a thinned centre which facilitates this) poke them into holes or under sheds and wind the other end round something to stop it being pulled away or out.
Click to expand...

Sounds good.

Even if bait is safe from a dog, there's always the possibility of dogs eating dead or dying rodents though. Whilst it's not as severe as a dog eating the bait, there is still a degree of risk with secondary toxicosis.

My lab ate some warfarin bait a few years ago at my father in laws place. Unfortunately he couldn't remember how much was down so she had to go for an anticoagulant blood test followed by the whole Vit K treatment process.
 
Last edited:
gramps said:
Waits for photo of empty, licked clean trap :whistle:
Click to expand...

Now I come to think of it you're probably right.

My wife insisted on peanut butter and whilst I know that does work - I should have looked at the trap more closely.

It doesn't fire when ratty steps on it like a sprung board mousetrap. It requires ratty to pull on the bait which trips the arm catch and fires the metal snapper over.

It's unlikely to pull peanut butter. :confused:

That said it's very sensitive so it may work.

If it's not in the trap in the morning I'l try something more solid.
 
dinners said:
If it's not in the trap in the morning I'l try something more solid.
Click to expand...
Ratty tends to be rather partial to a bit of meat,
I've caught loads with a little bit of cooked sausage or bacon.
Even fried egg, but that was behind a cafe where that was their usual food.

Pea size bits of Mars bar, one on the trap and a 3 or 4 around the trap.
They need enticing usually, and are prone to neophobia,
ie they are suspicious of anything new in their environment.
You may get lucky and have a stupid one, but if its being living there awhile
it will be "streetwise"
Oh and use gloves to prepare the "bait" too.
 
When we were shooting them we tried alsorts including cat meat but none worked because the barn was where the pheasant feed was kept and they just ate that.
 
Smells bad enough to put even me off tasting it! Having said that, when Mum and Dad first got what's now our cat, she had a busted leg and to spoil her, Mum was poaching chicken and fish for her - THAT was quite nice. Used to give her scallop roe as a special treat but now eat that myself. I suppose that was a cat eating human food though. (She likes spaghetti too...)
 
Last edited:
Cobra said:
Ratty tends to be rather partial to a bit of meat,
Click to expand...

A bit of meat was my plan before I was over ruled :)

The instructions on the trap say fish, meat or bacon.

I was going to shut my best hunting cat in the greenhouse over night but thought better of it. Although he does leave them on the back step.

 
Last edited:
Cobra said:
Don't do it, they will fight back ;)
Click to expand...

I know. I've seen them fight back at dogs ;)

The cats do fetch the odd rat back home though and they seem none the worse for wear. I would never set them up though.

Sadly it's not all they bring.

Squirrels on the kitchen table.



Rabbits in the tumble drier

IMG_3078 by dinners85, on Flickr
 
Rabbits in the drier I shouldn't laugh really.
But its obviously having a bad hare day. :D

Shame about the Red though :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top