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I agree, but is death by CO2 much different?
Sorry, as usual, a little off topic, but I take these things seriously.
Sorry, as usual, a little off topic, but I take these things seriously.
Probably not but I have no experience of that. I have killed a rat by drowning and it took longer than expected. I could see no other way to deal with it at the time but I wouldn't do it again!!
I know that CO2 is allowed for insect elimination if in furniture etc. as well as newly hatched male chicks, as demonstrated by Jamie Oliver on TV a few years ago.
I was just in mind of that lake in Africa that released a vast gout of CO2 and killed 1750ish people. I recall that CO2 is heavier than air and sink, that it is odourless and at high concentrations causes rapid loss of consciousness.
My understanding from chatting to farmers is that CO2 is far from perfect, it takes around half a minute for pigs stunned this way to lose consciousness, and that's half a minute of panic and gasping. It's not a case of gently going to sleep sadly, but still faster than drowning.
There is work going on to find better ways- low atmospheric pressure stunning is used for poultry in some countries and it is being researched/developed as a more humane method for stunning pigs.
There is work going on to find better ways- low atmospheric pressure stunning is used for poultry in some countries and it is being researched/developed as a more humane method for stunning pigs.
I want to share a clever trick my husband figured out when they were getting into our house.
Use spray insulating foam in the hole. While the foam is wet, push in some wire wool. Spray more foam through the holes and continueaadding wool until the hole is filled. Fixed our problem overnight.
If you put in wire wool they can push it out, and if you put in spray foam they chew through it, but they can neither chew nor push the combination.
(we have owls in our back garden so had a frightful time trying to figure out a way not to poison anything)
Use spray insulating foam in the hole. While the foam is wet, push in some wire wool. Spray more foam through the holes and continueaadding wool until the hole is filled. Fixed our problem overnight.
If you put in wire wool they can push it out, and if you put in spray foam they chew through it, but they can neither chew nor push the combination.
(we have owls in our back garden so had a frightful time trying to figure out a way not to poison anything)
Morning.There's a rat trap version of the squirrel trap I'm currently trying out. The great thing about it is it's self reloading - it can kill 24 rats with one CO2 canister. It means that it can potentially kill a number of rats in the same evening.
Of course, one could argue, you can buy quite a few spring traps for the money
Humane Rat Traps | The A24 Rat Trap | Goodnature Traps UK
A24 Rat Traps are humane and automatically reset 24 times, reducing the number of visits required to keep them working indoors or outsidegoodnaturetraps.co.uk
I don't use poisons.
You may have posted an update on your trial but can I check how you found it please?
Hi Stew, I haven't come to a conclusion yet but I have not had a great deal of success with the GoodNature A18 trap. In the same time as it killed 3 grey squirrel I shot 26 with my air rifle from a hide. On top of that GoodNature now say not to use their traps if there is any chance of red squirrel, dormice, or pine marten. But, as far as I can see, it will kill any wildlife that can get its head into a 45mm hole so, for the moment, I've stopped using it. I'll set it up again but with a camera trap to monitor any by-catch and I'll abandon it if there is.
Well I've got a couple of A24s on the way. To be honest, I doubt they'll work as rats are just too clever / suspicious but I have a need to up the pressure for a while...
Will be interested to hear how you get on. Was going to buy one for my folks to deal with a few rats. Have read some disappointing reviews.
I've had one fire once!
I have another boxed, waiting to see if I need to put it out.
It's a good design and handy to just fit and forget. The bait is occasionally dropping out though.
However!
The reason I had wanted to add the traps is because I had a more public presence of rats than usual. I'm aware that there are rats all the time and have baiting visits monthly. A change had meant that they were trotting around, very visible and being filmed.
As well as adding the A24s, I took some quite severe pruning action in the area they were being seen. I took one large dense bush out and lifted the canopy of some others. I also gave a drenching around the area in dilute pine disinfectant. The traps are in a set back area and where they would have been coming out. I thought it might have picked some up but the other actions seem to have encouraged them to move on.
So in conclusion, not really a fair judgement!
Michael Portillo did a documentary once in which there was an experiment conducted with pigs on the topic of humane methods of killing, where they’d repeatedly enter a chamber full of enough CO (note carbon monoxide) to knock them out in order to get to an apple, seemingly without any feeling of danger or discomfort at all. They’d pass out, the flap of the chamber closed and they’d come back around and immediately try again.
